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CNN This Morning
Officials: Israel Nears Hostage And Ceasefire Deal With Hamas; Attorney General Releases Special Counsel's Final Report On Trump; New Fire Erupts Overnight In "Extremely Critical" Threat Area. Aired 5- 5:30a ET
Aired January 14, 2025 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:33]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, January 14th.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Never, never, never, ever give up.
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HUNT: The verge of an agreement. Israel and Hamas may be making progress in hostage and ceasefire talks. Officials say a deal could be imminent.
Plus, breaking overnight, special counsel Jack Smith's election subversion report detailing what it says is Donald Trump's, quote, criminal efforts to retain power.
And --
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KRISTIN CROWLEY, LOS ANGELES FIRE CHIEF: The danger has absolutely not passed.
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HUNT: Bracing for explosive fire growth. Dangerous winds picking up overnight in southern California as a new fire sparks.
Then later --
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SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): This is a uniquely unqualified, dangerous nominee.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: In the hot seat, Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, will sit before senators today. Does he have enough support to win confirmation?
All right. It is 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Capitol Hill on this Tuesday morning. Good morning everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
We are learning more about a potential cease fire and hostage deal emerging between Israel and Hamas. The first positive signal in months that the war in Gaza could soon be over.
Israeli officials tell CNN that Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages under the final phase of a framework deal that's being negotiated right now. This would happen during a 42 day cease fire. Israel says Hamas still has 94 of the more than 250 hostages taken in October of 2023.
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BIDEN: We're pressing hard to close this. The deal we have a structure would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who have suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started.
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HUNT: Also pressing hard to close this is President-elect Donald Trump, who wants a deal finalized before he takes office less than a week from now.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are very close to getting it done and they have to get it done. If they don't get it done, there's going to be a lot of trouble out there, a lot of trouble like they have never seen before.
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HUNT: A diplomat close to the negotiations tells CNN that mediators are meeting today with the goal of finalizing critical details.
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JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: It's really down to the brass tacks, but as we've seen in the past, when you get down to that level of detail, you know you're close and you know the gaps can be closed, but that's when it gets really, really hard. That's when the negotiations become a little tougher.
So there's optimism, but it's cautious optimism, Kasie. Again, we've been here before and we know that it's not done until its all done.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: That was about 12 hours ago here on this network John Kirby told me that.
And joining us now to talk about all of this is Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state during the Obama administration.
Joel, good morning. Good to see you.
JOEL RUBIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE DURING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Good morning, Kasie.
HUNT: So how close are we?
RUBIN: I think we're very close. I think that the signals now coming out from the region are sincere. The Qataris now, the Egyptians today as well, engaged. And of course, our diplomats saying that this is -- this is the deal that looks like its going to be accepted. Of course, we're still waiting for Hamas to decide officially. The Israeli leadership looks like they're willing to take the negativity from the far right. That means Netanyahu is willing to push it through and maintain his government.
That's at least what I'm hearing. I was at the State Department yesterday for the presidents speech, and that's sort of the chatter that Netanyahu may be able to get this through, lose some of his coalition allies in the vote, but not fall, not collapse his government.
HUNT: So I'm tempted to use a word that's probably too impolite for 5:00 a.m., but let's -- let's put it this way. What is giving Netanyahu the guts to go against his right wing at this moment when he hasn't been so far?
RUBIN: You know, there's a confluence of pressures happening right now. Certainly what were talking about with the region and, of course, with President-elect Trump also mirroring President Biden. Actually, I want to mention this, I think is very important.
This might be the only part of the Trump transition where there's legitimate coordination between the Trump team and the Biden team on a core policy issue, and there's no daylight between them.
And so I think for the prime minister, he sees that.
[05:05:01]
He understands that its going to have to be the deal is going to have to be closed. But the big X factor in this is the efficacy of the hostage families, that we have to remember that those individuals, those families have been advocating for well over a year, not just to the Biden team, but of course, across Capitol Hill and been meeting with the Trump transition team. And I think that's really why we see now the pressure coming to a head.
HUNT: Let's take a look. Actually, since you mentioned the Trump team, this was Secretary of State Blinken who was talking. He did an interview talking about how they were working with Trump. Watch.
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ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: Steve Witkoff has been a terrific partner in this, and also President-elect Trump, in making clear that he wants to see this deal go forward and go forward before January 20th.
And, of course, everyone wants to know. And it's very useful as well to have Steve a part of this. They want to make sure that the deal that the presidents put on the table and that we've negotiated, the Trump administration will continue to back.
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HUNT: It's kind of unusual or interesting, anyway, that this Trump envoy, Steve Witkoff, has been a part of these conversations here at the very end.
RUBIN: Yeah, it really is unusual. You know, as discussed, it also, of course, is unique in this transition, but I think its a positive sign because it means that there's going to be continuity, not just of the people, but also of the policy, and that the information is being shared directly in real time.
Transitions are very hard, and I've been through them. And what you want to make sure is that information continues from one team to another. Its not clear that's happening across the government, but in this case it is.
And I think we have to give hats off credit to President Biden and his team as well. They've been working this time and again with our allies in the region. We have seen Hamas sponsors like Hezbollah and Iran in particular push back. And so they have been relentless in pursuing a diplomatic endgame that all the sides can agree to.
Hopefully, Hamas signs up to this one that we see some relief for the Palestinians in Gaza, that we get these hostages out. And then with the Trump leadership, that they continue on this policy, on this path.
HUNT: Briefly, this is, of course, a temporary cease fire. At least that's how we understand it right now. How likely is it do you think that can become a permanent one?
RUBIN: Hopefully, they build -- it builds the confidence. These -- look, ceasefires are never fully permanent in the Middle East. I hate to sound so cynical about it, but we're seeing the one in Lebanon, for example. There's temporary, but now its growing into a more longer term solidified one because we've seen steps taken during this temporary period that build the confidence. Hopefully the same dynamic can occur in Gaza.
HUNT: All right. Joel Rubin, great to start off with you today. Thanks so much for being here.
All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, final report released. Why special counsel Jack Smith believes he would have gotten a conviction if his election subversion case against Donald Trump had gone to trial.
Plus, a political battle brewing. Why House Speaker Mike Johnson says disaster aid to California should come with conditions.
And a rare, rare warning in southern California, wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour expected today, as a new fire erupts overnight.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the only neighborhood I've ever known my whole life. I've been here for 56 years, a mile apart from my sisters and my parents. It's surreal for sure.
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BURNETT: All right. Breaking overnight, the Justice Department publicly releasing special counsel Jack Smith's final report on Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election. It's 130 pages long, and it does contain a lot of what we already know. But it outlines what special counsel Jack Smith calls Trump's criminal efforts to retain power.
That included putting pressure on state officials. The fraudulent electors plan, and his pressure on the vice president, leading up to January 6th, 2021, when Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol.
Smiths conclusion of the report if Donald Trump hadn't been reelected, he believes that he had sufficient evidence against him to get a conviction at trial.
Trump, responding to the report overnight, blasting Smith, writing in part, quote, Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the election, which I won in a landslide. The voters have spoken.
This is, of course, the latest in a long line of attacks that the president elect has lobbed against Smith.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Deranged Jack Smith. He's a deranged individual. They brought this moron out of The Hague. His picture was perfect because you look at his picture, you say that's a bad guy with his robe, his purple robe.
We had a brilliant judge in Florida that saw right through it. Why should he be allowed to write a fake report? It'll only be a fake report.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: All right. Joining us now to discuss, Kevin Frey, Washington correspondent for Spectrum News New York 1.
Kevin, good morning. Nice to see you.
KEVIN KREY, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, SPECTRUM NEWS NY1: Good morning, Kasie.
HUNT: So my read of this is yes. This report contains a lot of information that we have learned through other places, whether it was what they released as they were, you know, trying the case in October, whether it was from the January 6th report. But what this does amount to is a pretty sweeping defense of Jack Smith's decisions to charge the former president and to lay out to people what he believed he had that ultimately would have absent Trump winning the election resulted in a conviction.
FREY: Yeah, his belief spelled out in this document that he believes he could have actually secured a win in court. Notably, he is very blunt about the allegation that Trump has lobbed repeatedly, which is that this was all part of the Biden White House syndicate, that this was the White House was dictating this from day one, calling it outright laughable was his words, that was what had happened here.
At the end of the day, though, as you mentioned, a lot of this information was already out there.
[05:15:02]
It was in the bloodstream.
And so, to some extent, what Trump said in his post overnight that the voters have spoken is pretty darn true. I mean, this is what the voters elected. And these facts are not necessarily clearly changing the minds of many Americans.
HUNT: Kevin, one of the things that was included with this report, there was a letter that Jack Smith wrote to the attorney general to kind of to go along with the report. It's dated January 7th. And of course, we know then, Jack Smith separated from the Justice Department.
One of the things he says in the letter is that Trump claims, quote, dismissal of his criminal cases signifies Mr. Trump's complete exoneration. And then Jack Smith says that is false. He wants to be very clear that this does not mean that Trump has been exonerated.
Why do you think he felt the need to put that in there?
FREY: I mean, that has been kind of the central theme of Trump's response to the fact that this has not gone to trial and has not gone through the processes of whether or not he would be convicted, that this is ultimately a win for him. It's the same that we've seen in some of the other cases, including up in New York, where he suggested he was more or less exonerated because he didn't -- end up getting any sort of real penalty in that New York City case because of the fact that, again, he is about to be president elect of the United States.
So trying to essentially rebut, one can imagine Jack Smith to kind of one frame his legacy in doing this investigation to show that there was substance there, and also to prebuttal anything that Trump is going to say over the next four years to suggest that he is above, above bar and has done nothing wrong.
HUNT: Kevin, let me talk to you briefly about the other big political story we're following today. And that is, of course, the confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary. And I want to show you the person that I'm watching today most closely is Senator Joni Ernst, who sits on this committee. She was really under a lot of pressure earlier.
I guess it was late last year, as there were some questions about whether the nomination would go forward. Let's look at how she talked about -- she had a meeting with Hegseth. We have some comments that she made before the meeting and then after. Let's watch that.
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SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): I am a survivor of sexual assault, so I've worked very heavily on sexual assault measures within the military. So I'd like to hear a little more about that.
I'm excited to have the opportunity to sit down with him again, but there will be a very thorough vetting before he moves forward.
He is very supportive of women in the military. It is one thing that we've discussed.
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HUNT: What's your sense of what might play out today and what are you watching?
FREY: Well, I mean, I completely agree with you. She's the one to keep an eye on because, quite frankly, she can make his nomination sink or swim because of the makeup of this panel to begin with. There's basically a one seat majority for the Republicans. So if she decides because she's left wiggle room there, if she decides that, you know what, he doesn't meet the moment, then she could sink it right out the gate before we even get to the full Senate for confirmation.
I am curious to see how she navigates a lot of her questioning, and exactly what -- how he plays this. He's obviously a person who knows how to do television, having been on Fox News for so long. So does he do the -- play to the audience at Mar-a-Lago and try to be very, you know, bombastic and very forthright and trying to take on some of these Democrats who are seemingly very much prepared to ask him a slew of questions.
Or does he try to be a little more recalcitrant and maybe apologetic about some of his past, to show that he's a changed individual, which maybe would appeal to more to the -- to Senator Ernst or some of the other. Republican moderates, for example, Murkowski that need to get on board with this nomination if he wants to succeed on the floor.
HUNT: Fair enough.
All right. Kevin Frey for us today, a busy day in Washington. Thanks for starting it off with us. We appreciate it.
FREY: You're welcome.
HUNT: All right. Do join CNN as the candidates for President-elect Trump's cabinet face the Senate in public hearings. Who will get the votes to be confirmed? We're going to have special live coverage of the Trump confirmation hearings.
It begins today. I'll be joining Dana Bash starting at noon. Don't miss it.
Straight ahead here on CNN this morning, dangerous fire conditions in southern California as a new fire breaks out in an area under the highest fire threat.
Plus, with less than a week left in office, how Americans view President Biden's time in the White House. New polling just released.
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[05:23:52]
HUNT: All right. Welcome back.
A new fire erupting overnight in southern California as a rare type of red flag warning, expanded this morning because of just how strong the winds are expected to be today. This new fire is in Ventura County, and that is under the highest fire threat. The next 48 hours absolutely critical. Up to 70 mile-an-hour wind gusts, those are hurricane force winds expected across the area today.
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CROWLEY: We urge the public to stay diligent, to stay ready as the danger has absolutely not passed. Please adhere to any evacuation warnings and orders immediately.
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HUNT: The danger remains. A possible new fire outbreak, and it could also undo any progress firefighters have made against the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire. Parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties are what's under that -- what's called a particularly dangerous situation. Red flag warning until late Wednesday.
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BRENT PASCUA, BATTALION CHIEF, CAL FIRE: There is a concern if we see winds like we saw at the beginning of this fire, there could be problems. So we're going to not let our guard down. We're going to keep mopping up this fire, keep surging crews into problem areas, and make sure that doesn't happen.
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[05:25:04]
HUNT: All right. Joining us now from Los Angeles, meteorologist Ariel Cohen from the National Weather Service.
Sir, very grateful to have you on the show this morning. What have you seen so far overnight? There is, of course, this new fire that's erupted. And what do you expect today?
ARIEL COHEN, METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, LOS ANGELES/OXNARD: Our team is closely monitoring a corridor of strong Santa Ana winds gusting over 60 miles per hour, extending from the San Gabriel mountains of central Los Angeles County westward into Ventura County, central southern parts of Ventura County, and into western and central Los Angeles county, and into the western Santa Monica are all under that particularly dangerous situation, red flag warning or PDS red flag warning.
This area is going to experience, on and off, damaging winds upwards of 70 miles per hour. That will be bringing about the potential for explosive fire growth overnight. Last night, we've seen the development of the fire in the Ventura area. While forward motion of this particular fire has been limited, other fires that are ongoing or could break out have the potential to grow rapidly and explosively, given the very strong winds we're expecting.
These particularly dangerous situation conditions continue all the way through tomorrow, midday, potentially into the afternoon hours. So everyone has to remain at a very high state of readiness, be ready to evacuate immediately if evacuation orders are issued for your location.
HUNT: Ariel, can you talk a little bit about the -- the direction of the winds? Because I know that was of some concern, kind of the way they were going to blow, potentially made this risk higher.
COHEN: What's happened here is that the winds have shifted more from the northeasterly to more of an east northeasterly direction. What that's done is it's also expanded this particularly dangerous situation threat area westward into central and southern Ventura County.
So while it's maintained across portions of Central and Western Los Angeles County, the area has expanded into Ventura County.
What that means is that more areas are going to be susceptible to these very volatile conditions, favoring the development of very large fires and explosive fire growth, and everyone across the affected areas, not only in the PDS area, but all across the red flag warning areas. They need to be ready. You need to be prepared, have multiple ways to receive emergency alert information from emergency management, law enforcement and when those evacuation orders are issued, seconds mean the difference between life and death. You must follow those evacuation orders. Take them seriously.
HUNT: All right. Ariel Cohen, very grateful for your time this morning, sir. Hopefully people will be heeding those warnings. Thanks very much.
COHEN: Thank you for having me.
HUNT: All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, the Biden administration and Trump transition team working in tandem. Their goal, a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. And this morning, an agreement reportedly closer than ever.
Plus, playing politics. Will the blame game get in the way of helping people in southern California?
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SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): These imbeciles in office and they continue to do it. They don't deserve anything, to be honest with you, unless they show us they're going to make some changes.
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