Meet the Press NOW — January 9

Last summer, the coolest place in the house was in your freezer. This year, it's time to level up. Reliance HomeComfort has over 155,000 five-star reviews for delivering the type of outstanding customer experience Canadians have counted on for over 60 years. Right now, don't pay for 12 months on a featured air conditioner or heat pump.

Call on the experts that know how to beat the heat. Oh, Lord, my yes. Conditions apply. See website for details.

Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I am Kristen Welker. We begin with the wildfire still raging out of control in the Los Angeles area. These are live pictures from Mount Wilson in Los Angeles County, which is home to a number of vital radio, TV and communications antennas for the entire county.

Now, the flames from the Eaton Fire have reached these facilities. The KNBC engineer in the building told our affiliate that there is a plan by local authorities to protect this infrastructure, which includes letting the vegetation around the facility hopefully burn itself out. Now, it all comes as new images today are revealing the horrific scope of these fires. These are Getty images of the Hollywood Hills, which were devastated by the Palisades Fire.

Entire communities and neighborhoods have been completely obliterated and in all at least five people are reported dead so far in wildfires all across Southern California. 180,000 people have been forced to evacuate. The two largest fires, which includes the Palisades Fire, remain 0% contained and forecasters warned that winds could intensify over the next 24 hours, which would only add to this immense crisis. Right now, at least five wildfires continue to burn in the greater Los Angeles area.

17 million Californians from Ventura to San Diego are under what's called red flag warnings, meaning they are in areas at high risk of wildfire. The Palisades Fire so far has burned more than 17,000 acres and is 0% contained. The Eaton Fire has burned more than 10,000 acres. It's also 0% contained.

At an emergency briefing earlier today, LA officials described just how historic these fires are. Damage assessments are ongoing at the Palisades Fire. However, preliminary reports estimate the damage or destroyed structures to be in the thousands. It is safe to say that the Palisades Fire is one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles.

Looked apocalyptic. Not since the 1990s, when Los Angeles was hit with the fires, the flood, the earthquake, and the riots. Have I seen such disaster occur here in our city? And this was the reaction from the air.

As the reporter flying with our Los Angeles stations can't be seen chopper, described what she'd seen. Listen, this is jaw dropping. I cannot believe what I've seen from above. We've seen the images from the ground, but the scope of devastation from up here, everywhere you move your camera, as this smoke parts, we're seeing that everything is gone.

This is unrecognizable. That type of emotion playing out over and over again. As authorities scramble to contain these fires, local officials are facing growing scrutiny, including LA Mayor Karen Bass, who was pressed by reporters today about her handling of the disaster and for being abroad when the crisis struck. Let me just say, first and foremost, my number one focus, and I think the focus of all of us here with one voice, is that we have to protect lives, we have to save lives, and we have to save homes.

Rest assured, let me finish, rest assured. When that is done, when we are safe, when lives have been saved, and homes have been saved, we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, what didn't work, and to correct or to hold accountable any body, department, individual, et cetera. But my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes. Now here in Washington, President Biden has canceled a trip to Italy, which was supposed to include a meeting with the Pope to focus on the federal response to the disaster.

He's scheduled to hold a briefing with administration officials at the White House later, potentially moments from now. We will bring you those remarks when they begin. But for now, NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff, who grew up in the Palisades joins me now from there, also with me, as NBC News meteorologist Bill Karens Jacob, let me start with you. And I have to just say how sorry we are.

I've been watching, you're reporting. The fact that you witnessed the fact that your childhood home was among the houses that was destroyed. We're so sorry, what is happening right now, where you are, what's the latest? Kristen, thank you so much.

And I just want to say, I can tell everyone that the people here in the Palisades are so deeply grateful for all the support that's coming in, actually from all over the world. And Kristen, it's not just that the Palisades has been under the pressure of these relentless wildfires. It's also that all around Los Angeles County, there are blazes burning from the far west where I am now, even further to Malibu, all the way, as you said, to the Eaton Fire and Malibu Canyon, excuse me, and the top of Mount Wilson where some of those key repeaters are that do the communications equipment all over Los Angeles County. They're key to fires just like this.

It's been an extraordinary effort here. Mutual aid from all up and down California, the 23,000 people that live here, and the tens of thousands of people who have evacuated this area, got out largely unscathed when it comes to loss of life. And that is what is truly amazing. But the Pacific Palisades, the Pacific Palisades, excuse me, as we know it has been wiped off the face of the map of Los Angeles.

And I want to put that perspective for everybody. Los Angeles, as you know Kristen from your time here, as a correspondent at NBC News, is a city of different communities. It's a patchwork, a quilt of extraordinary communities all over the city, 400 or so square miles. And the Palisades, as we know it is gone.

The Palisades, as we know it is gone, it's gonna take years to rebuild this place. It is a very special place. This was a grocery store, a Ralph's. It's gone, the other grocery store, Gelsons.

It's gone, the churches gone, the local public library across the street. It's gone, the park that I brought my kids to when they visited their nephews, literally, at the end of last week, it's no longer there. The inside the gym has burned out. And so this is a scene that we've seen play out time and time again across the country at these fires.

But I would be lying to you if I didn't hit close to home to see it, of course, and personal myself. It's been an extraordinary effort by these first responders. And they should be in all of our thoughts and prayers tonight. Oh, and they are, Jacob, because you grew up there, because you are a part of that community, what do you think it's going to take to rebuild?

And I know where there's a little bit of a delay, Kristin, so I'm starting a little bit. I think, I hope I'm not interrupting you, what it'll take to rebuild is each other. It's gonna take all of the people of Los Angeles coming together to start this process today, even if some of the flames are still there and they're still going. You can also take, I know I'm on Meet the Press now, I know I'm talking to you, I know who your audience is, a massive response, not just on the municipal level of the state level, but the federal level.

I saw Governor Newsom here yesterday, and we had a brief interaction, he was actually on the phone with the White House and President Biden, and it has not lost on me that we are in a changeover in administrations. There are senior level Trump officials who have family members that I have spoken to that live in this community. The Trump administration is going to have an extraordinarily important role, because this will be a multi-billion dollar project to rebuild a community from the ground up from scratch. Everyone here has dispersed into other parts of Southern California, and it's gonna take a Herculean effort to bring everyone back, not just to put the fires out, but from the ground up to rebuild thousands of homes and structures that have been lost here.

And it'll be a policy conversation as well, homeowners insurance, fires insurance, a lot of these providers either canceled insurance or no longer offering fire insurance to people in communities like this. What's gonna happen to people like that when thousands of people are displaced without their homes on a policy level, too? Rebuilding is gonna be an important part of the conversation. Well, Jacob, we know it's so close to home.

We appreciate your braving. All of it, and I've seen you outstanding, so close to these fires. Please continue to stay safe, Jacob, and please know that our thoughts are with you and the entire community there in Los Angeles who is hurting so much right now. We really appreciate it.

I am gonna turn. Thank you, my friend. Absolutely. Thank you for your incredible reporting.

Bill Carrens, let me turn to you now. Yesterday, you and I were talking about the same time, and we were talking about the fact that the winds were just starting to die down, but there are some real concerns that they might pick up again. Bring us up to date. What are you watching at this point?

Yeah, besides Jacob's excellent reporting, if you notice behind him, everything was really still. The winds have considerably died down almost completely in some areas, and that's helped firefighters get a handle on all the spot fires. I've been watching KNBC coverage all day today in the helicopter coverage. There's been no active flames that I've seen in any structures during the daylight hours today.

All the active flames have been up in the mountains and up in the hills, which is fine. That's not where all the homes are. Obviously they can still spread from there, but at least they're contained. They're not in neighborhoods anymore.

So the red flag warnings continue through Friday. So we have a severe drought, hasn't rained, and it's going to be breezy. So for those reasons, those ingredients mean, if any fires do form new ones, they could spread rapidly, and the ones that we have out there have a chance of spreading rapidly. So Jacob's located right here.

This is the Palace AIDS Fire, and we're actually looking at the radar here. We're still burning on the hillside, and it's sending the ash and some smoke particles in the air, and our radar actually picks it up to make it look like a rain shower, but that's that one. And then people watching the pictures have been showing you from the top of Mount Wilson, which is located right here. So the fire was in Altadena, and now it has moved up the mountain, away from the town, and now it's heading up into the National Forest.

And so that smoke plume, though, as long as there's a north wind for probably the next week or two, because the eaten fire is going to be in a really difficult terrain, at least for the next week or two. And then anytime there's a north wind, that smoke's going to be blown right in through downtown LA. So even right now, all of LA, unhealthy air mass, air quality is horrible, and that's why they canceled schools again for tomorrow. So they need a wind shift to give a little break there and clean the air out.

So in the mountains, it's still kind of gusty, 35, 36, 30, 45, but notice down in LA and stuff, and where Jacob is located, the winds are much lighter at UCLA campus right now, only at eight mile for our winds. That's why firefighters have done a good job. Now, later tonight, the winds do pick up again, about 36 in Malibu, 36 in the Valley, 22 in LA. So there is a slight chance we could get a new flare up where any active flames are, hopefully not going towards any structure.

So for the rest of today, critical risk for all those areas we just mentioned tomorrow, the threat is a little bit lower. We're expecting the winds after sunrise to die off once again. We may get some marine influence, which is like more humid air, so that's great. But the rainfall forecast is the problem, Kristin.

Anytime we have any of these wind events throughout the rest of winter until it rains, and this is the rain forecast over the next week, zero everywhere, we're going to have critical fire risk for new blazes in any ones that exist out there now. It's just a recipe for disaster. Anytime we get these high wind events, and by the way, the next one looks like it could be Tuesday night into Wednesday. They're already thinking winds could be 50 to 70 miles per hour in Southern California.

We don't know if a fire will form again, but we saw what happens if one does. Let's hope it does not, Bill Cairns. I know you have been tracking this nonstop, and we'll continue to thank you so much for bringing us up to speed. We really appreciate it.

I want to turn now to Captain Eric Scott, Public Information Officer for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Captain Scott, thank you so much for joining us, we really appreciate it. It's our pleasure. Well, I want to just reiterate what I've been saying, which is that I'm so sorry for what you and the entire community are going through.

Our thoughts are with all of you. Talk about why it has been so challenging to fight these fires. Wind is king. It's that simple.

The Southern California region has unprecedented fire weather event these last few days. So that's why we've had multiple major brush fires throughout the Los Angeles region. Good news is the winds subsided somewhat that allowed us firefighters to make some progress. It also allowed our air assets to start making additional strategic water drops to kind of save those target hazards and homes.

However, we are still under some red flag warnings in these areas, and that means that there could still be extreme fire behavior potential. Plus, we expect the next few days to be sunny. That's going to preheat the fuels, and we don't have any rain inside. So we're just adding to the challenges.

Well, I want to ask you about one of the other issues that we have been tracking, that we have some reporting on, some fire hydrants that are not having water or not having enough water pressure needed, specifically in the palisades. Can you explain what it is that's actually happening and why you think it's happening? Sure, and simply put, it's been a real challenge. We are seeing some water pressure challenges when we were battling the Pacific Palisades Fire.

I spoke to LADWP. They handle all the infrastructure underneath, right? That's firefighters. We want to pull up to a fire hydrant.

We want to connect to it. We want to pump and augment that pressure, put it through hose and extinguish fires. But there's tanks underneath. And so they did fill three, one, actually I should say, three, one million gallon tanks that are located in the palisades area to store water.

But the water availability was certainly impacted at higher elevations when you have gravity and a lack of pressure coming up there. And that will affect some of those fire hydrants we're trying to tap into. And maybe more simply, just think of a cup of water. You put one straw in, that's just normal.

When you put 10 straws in, it's going to just deplete that tank of water very quickly. And that's because we are using large GPM hose lines to extinguish multiple house fires compared to the usual draw on the domestic water supply. You just turn a faucet and you wash them dishes or take a shower. The water supply simply was not made to handle a configuration and massive draw on the water.

So that is a challenge to us. We are overcoming challenges. That's what we do. We will draft from a swimming pool.

We will bring up water tenders. We'll do anything we can to try to save those properties. But yes, that does make it more difficult. But it's just extraordinary and underscores the fact that this is a simply unprecedented event.

Let me ask you finally, how are your crews holding up? Because I know that they are being stretched to the limit. You're getting some help from your neighbors. Is it enough?

This has been a very arduous third day. Going 48, 72 hours into this. That's what we call IA. Initial action is always the toughest work.

You're around the clock without a break. And that's what we signed up for. We're okay. We train for that.

Heads are held high at the command post and online. But the faces are full of ash and the hearts are a lot heavier because we're talking with the community members face to face. We're seeing their homes burn and the catastrophic aftermath of what's taking place. So it's been difficult, but we're leaning forward and we're going to give it everything we got.

Well, thank you so much. I know it is an extraordinarily busy time for you as you deal with this crisis. Again, our thoughts are with you. We really appreciate it.

Captain Eric Scott, thank you for joining us. Yes, ma'am. And I'm joined now by Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. Supervisor Horvath, thank you for being with us.

Supervisor Horvath, hopefully you can hear me. Let me delve into my question and hopefully you'll be able to hear me as I start this. I think we may have lost Supervisor Horvath. We will try to get her back.

But again, we are tracking this crisis, these fires that are still burning out of control in Southern California. It is a wildfire emergency and we continue to get updates and we will bring you those updates. We're also waiting for that briefing from the White House, from President Biden. We'll bring that to you live as well.

Coming up though, honoring the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, an emotional state funeral attended by all the living presidents on this national day of mourning. Plus, President-elect Trump meets behind closed doors with Senate Republicans as he looks to kickstart his agenda with less than two weeks before his inauguration. You're watching Meet the President. Welcome back, President-elect Trump is in Washington today.

He was attending former President Jimmy Carter's funeral. It's one of the really rare occasions where the exclusive Presidents Club are all gathered together. You can see Mr. Trump chatting with former President Obama.

He also greeted his former Vice President Mike Pence. It's the first time they've seen each other since leaving the White House four years ago. Mr. Trump also notably sitting alongside the two Democratic candidates he defeated to win the White House, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Kamala Harris.

It follows his lengthy meeting yesterday with Senate Republicans as the GOP remains divided on the best path forward to pass many of his key agenda items. Joining me now to discuss all of this is Juan Hillier, who's covering the Trump transition. Juan, thanks so much for being here. I wanna start with Mr.

Trump's visit to the Hill yesterday. He said he would be open to a two-track process, basically to get his agenda items passed. If they wanna break up the border bill, the tax bill as well. But he's also said that if it's easier to get it done with one big bill, they should do that.

What were your key takeaways from what happened yesterday? Right, I know from your interview over the weekend with Senator Thune, the majority leader indicated that he hoped that the President would take up a two-bill option. But the President-elect is consistently said he would be seeking at the urging of Speaker Johnson a one-bill that essentially can get everybody on board to pass that one singular bill understanding that the narrow majorities that hold in both chambers would make it very difficult. Yesterday, though, you're looking at that meeting here in which for 90 minutes, you feel the questions from Senate Republicans.

And upon walking out of that meeting, he still had the same posture. One bill, but maybe two bills, whatever gets the process through here. So we have heard a lack of specifics or details from the President-elect about exactly the way that he thinks that Congress could best shepherd the legislative priorities that they have coming into here in 2025, his first year in office. You know, Vaughn, it's so interesting because, of course, we're tracking these horrific wildfires out west in Los Angeles.

And we know that President Biden actually happened to be there when these fires broke out. He was holding a briefing with Governor Gavin Newsom. And it does come as President-elect Trump has been lashing out, blaming the Biden administration, the Newsom administration in California, the mayor there, Karen Bass. What has the response been to what we've seen from President-elect Trump?

President-elect Trump, over the course of the last 48 hours, has repeatedly placed blame on Governor Newsom and called for his resignation for policies that he says has impacted their ability to get enough water to put out these fires. Now, there's a lot of layers and a lot of conversations that should understandably be had about the tragedy that has taken place in Los Angeles County at this moment. Governor Newsom for his part has pushed back against the President-elect saying that he is trying to politicize here this moment. This goes back years between the two men, Donald Trump, when he was president, threatened to withhold federal aid if they did not comply with the water management rules that he intended to put in place in 2020.

Then President Trump, with Speaker McCarthy, they sought to divert a greater amount of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta down to Southern California for farming, as well as for potential fire usage. A lawsuit was filed by the Attorney General of California at that time, but I think it's important, as we in the weeks ahead have this conversation, that this is a debate over water rights that extends well beyond Newsom and Trump, that this goes back to, not just went back a decade ago to an article I wrote about, then President Obama and then Speaker Boehner debating over the water rights between the state of California and federal rights in the extension, which water should be diverged down to Southern California, but this goes back to 1994, Pete Wilson, and before that, Jerry Brown. So this is a decades-long battle that now, unfortunately, is front and center here at a time in which residents of Los Angeles are going through such difficulty. It certainly is.

And, von, finally, this phone call between President-elect Trump and Supreme Court Justice Alito getting a lot of attention. It happened just days before the President-elect actually asked the High Court to block his New York sentencing, which is scheduled for tomorrow. By the way, what can you tell us about that conversation? Right, this is happening while we are waiting to see whether Justice Alito and the other members of the Supreme Court bench ultimately step in, in issue a stay, to delay the sentencing of President-elect Trump that is slated to begin at 9.30 a.m.

Eastern in lower Manhattan tomorrow. It's our understanding the President-Trump will be appearing virtually. But that call between Justice Alito and President-elect Trump took place on Tuesday in a statement. Alito confirmed that the two men had a phone call, said that they did not discuss the stay that was requested by Trump's legal team just a mere hours later on Tuesday, or I should say, yesterday on Wednesday, and said that it purely took place at the request of an former law clerk to Justice Alito, who has been currently working for the transition of Donald Trump, that former law clerk, according to Alito, requested that he jump on the phone with the incoming president to vouch for his credentials to serve in this next administration, in the government.

Alito says that he and Trump only spoke about that issue and did not talk about that pending sentencing, slated take place tomorrow morning, of course. We're still waiting to see whether Alito and the Supreme Court will step in to issue that stay, Kristen. We are indeed. I know you will stay on top of all of it.

Von Hill, you're, thank you so much. Great to see you as always. Well, we've noted President Jimmy Carter will be late to rest in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, later this evening. As the nation takes its final moments to reflect on President Carter's remarkable life, we're remembering a moment when he joined us on Meet the Press, making his pitch to the American people for why he should win the presidency back in 1976.

Listen. I would say that, you know, I'm an average person. I'm a little more complicated or enigmatic or mysterious than other people. I have heavy responsibilities on me during the campaign.

I think, in general, the public has gotten to know me very well. And I think there's more and more of a consensus now among the press, at least in the columns that I read, about what kind of person I am. And I think I'm sensitive, I'm tough. I think I'm a good planner.

And I'm still searching for answers to complicated questions. I've always avoided trying to give simplistic answers just for political expediency. And I've had another very unique opportunity, almost unique, in not having to respond to the pressures of special interest groups during the campaign itself. I've gone directly to the people because they've powerful political figures, they didn't have any confidence that I might win.

And these kind of characteristics of the campaign itself, I think have caused some of the doubt about what kind of person I am. Jimmy Carter, in his own words, we'll have much more on the 39th president's life and legacy straight ahead. Stay with us. You're watching The Press Now.

Welcome back. We expect President Biden to hold a briefing this hour on the California wildfires. Those fires have already killed at least five people, forcing nearly 180,000 to evacuate their homes and destroyed entire neighborhoods. This is what's left of part of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood decimated by a fire that's already burned more than 17,000 acres and is still 0% contained.

NBC News correspondent Steve Patterson joins me now from the Palisades. Steve, thank you so much for being here. Talk a little bit about weather conditions. It seems like they have started to improve a bit, but of course, there's a lot of uncertainty there as they continue to battle these wildfires.

You know, we're not out of the woods yet, Kristin's important to say that. We're starting to feel the wind pickup as we speak always during this time of year when the sun starts to drop, the winds will rise. Now, it's not going to be as bad as we've seen the last few days, especially those few days ago that brought in this tremendously awful fire that has destroyed so many people's homes. But the wind is still here.

It's still in place. We're still in red flag warning. So that means you could see gusts up to 40, 50, 60 mile an hour in places, which would, of course, complicate the firefighting effort. They could bring a bundle of embers like we saw last night, the Hollywood hills catching fire and other minor fires that are now put down did cause problems and scared a whole lot of people before evacuations were lifted.

But those people did have to be evacuated. In the meantime, this fire, yes, thankfully, the winds have died significantly enough to where we've seen several times now, air tankers, airplanes, helicopters in the air, making air drops, providing air support. That is the way you take down a fire of the size. But make no mistake, the major firefighting operation is still very much in place as we speak.

And then you start to deal with the people picking up the pieces of their lives. This neighborhood, I mean, it is unbelievable. We've heard from officials say that it's felt like a bomb had gone off. And that's exactly what it feels like.

We've been sort of walking around here. There is nothing that is standing that was built by humans. Nothing. Everything is almost completely gone.

Maybe there's some studs. You might be able to see some homes in the distance outside of this neighborhood that we're in for whatever reason that area wasn't hit. But this one was decimated. We've also seen people return to their homes here, shocked by the fact that nothing is on the ground.

A lot of people had to leave as evident by the cars on the road here. These ones next to houses, but on the way on the Pacific Coast highway, you'll see cars in the middle of the road because they had to leave them there and then skid it off by a plow or something. Just really heartbreaking to see. And this is a site that I think will be unveiled over the next few days as this firefighting effort stops in the pain of coming back and realizing there is nothing left and starts for a lot of people.

It's such a profound way to put it. Steve Patterson and the scenes are devastating and heartbreaking. We really appreciate your reporting. Please continue to stay safe.

We do want to go back now to Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Corvath. She joins me by phone. Supervisor Corvath, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it.

Let's dive right in. The Los Angeles Fire Department Chief called this one of the most devastating national natural disasters ever to hit LA. So for those of us who are not in Southern California, describe the scope of this devastation that you're seeing right now. It is nothing short of tragic.

We see communities that were once vibrant, thriving communities, where people were raising their families, children are going to school, vibrant community centers, places of worship, all decimated at this time. And these are not just structures that get reported as destroyed. These are homes. These are places where people build their lives and raise their families.

And it's incredibly painful for the people who are here on the ground. And we know that we still have much more to go. We're still in red flag weather here. And so those who are on the front lines who have been there since Tuesday morning, it is extraordinary what is happening, how people are really stepping up to this challenge and giving it all they've got.

We're calling in resources from all over the country. And I know we have a team that is second and I am incredibly grateful. Well, I want to ask you about some of the evacuations. I have a dear friend who lives there, who's evacuated with her family, her small children to a hotel.

She said the line to get into the same hotel was about a mile long. I know that shelters have been set up. We all have people who've been touched by this. Do you have what you need?

Are there enough shelters to accommodate all of the evacuees? We have open up shelters to have additional capacity. We also have partners in the hospitality space that are opening their doors to people from all over the region. Airbnb has stepped up as a partner as well to work with getting people into homes that are available for people to stay a little bit longer.

The outreach that has come from Unity be as a result to step up and support people in their brokenness and in their time of need have been truly moving. And while we have seen the worst of what a fire can do to a community, we've also seen the best of what a community can do in response to caring for one another. And I know that the winds have died down for now. They could potentially pick back up.

What is your biggest concern over the next 24 to 48 hours? Yes, the winds are a little bit calmer. We've been seeing that they might pick up again tonight. If they get over that 30 to 40 mile per hour range, that grounds are aerial craft, which were critical in the sunset fire last night.

Those tools that we could not use on Tuesday night, which was so devastating, we need those in the air. So we're trying to make sure we keep people safe, but we can't have them up in the air when the winds are that strong. So we're concerned about that. And once we got out of this red flag weather, so the winds are down, that's important.

But it's also important that people key to the evacuation orders. When people stay in areas that are ordered to be evacuated, it not only endangers them, it endangers the people who are on the front lines fighting to protect the communities and the very buildings that people want preserved. So we really need people to keep those evacuation orders. A lot of people have stayed in it, put themselves in danger and slowed down the progress that people can make on the front line.

Well, it's a critically important message. I hope people are listening to what you are saying, Supervisor Horvath, because it is so important that your community comes together in this moment of crisis. Please know our thoughts are with all of you. Thank you so much for joining us.

We really appreciate it. We're incredibly grateful that you stay safe. We're incredibly grateful. Thank you.

We are grateful for your joining us. And if you are looking for ways to help those impacted by these fires, take a look at your screen. We have a list of organizations taking donations. You can also find this full list and more information online at NBCNews.com.

Just click the Live Wildfires tab. We'll be right back with much more of the press now. Welcome back. After an emotional funeral service at Washington National Cathedral, former President Jimmy Carter made his final journey to his beloved hometown of Plains, Georgia.

Right now, the family is holding a private service after which he will be buried beside Rosalyn, his wife of 77 years in a private service this evening. Earlier today, President Carter was remembered for his commitment to the service of others, his devotion to his faith, and his dedication to his family and his wife. We heard tributes to the 39th president from his grandsons, from President Biden, and from President Gerald Ford and Vice President Walter Mondale, whose eulogies for the former president were read by their sons. Both of us had experienced the harsh reality that defeat at the polls can be painful.

But we also came to know a more important consequence. Political defeat and writing can also be liberating. If it frees you to discuss topics that aren't necessarily consistent with short-term political popularity. Carter was far-sighted.

He put aside his short-term political interests to tackle challenges that demanded sacrifice to protect our kids and grandkids from future harm. Jimmy Carter's friendship taught me and through his life taught me a strength of character is more than title from the power we hold. It's a strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. Joining me now is President Carter's former speech writer, the great Chris Matthews.

Chris, thank you for being here. Thank you, Chris. It's so wonderful to have you. You know, something that stood out from President Biden's speech to me.

He talked about President Carter's character. And I thought that was really woven into almost every speech that we heard today. What stood out? Well, that was a shot.

It's a direct shot in Donald Trump. And I think that's what, in a careful way, he was trying to demonstrate it. And I think it's, Carter actually made some decisions which were not political. I mean, he told me in an interview I did years ago about, he said, it's got the Iranians coming, he's got the, I told us saying no, I'm not letting the hostages back to the election until you've lost.

Then I'll take the hostages back. I'll give them back to you. And, and he, and all the people around Carter, Carter told me wanted him to go to war. And I think most presidents, in fact, he'd think of Dick Cheney, I think of, uh, W, President W.

Bush, you think of, a lot of them were hair trigger people. They went to war over Iraq and they went to war over, you know, they went to war with Afghanistan. They're ready to go, ready to fight. And we go to war and we lose, we kill two out of thousand people.

And that wasn't. And a lot of guys come back maimed and lives changed, but forever and, and he said, I'm not going to do that. But that hurt politically. I can tell at the time I was fired up.

I go, Oh my God, it's Sunday before the election. You're not going to do anything. You're not going to yell at them. You're not going to say anything.

And Carter wouldn't do this. If I do that, they'll start killing hostages. So you said that to him. That was.

Yeah. And I, I didn't, at the time I wasn't in any position. The challenge of my place was a speech writer. I wasn't anything else.

I wasn't a defense secretary. But he, uh, he, uh, he obviously had people around who had the same American urge that we all had. We were angry about those hostages. Really?

And that flag being burned in front of us and, and that tripping them around blindfolded every night, you know, and, and even Cronkite the night before the election were on the plane. And, and we had to tell the president when he just missed the evening news, and the old days, it was all evening news. Everything was evening news. And Cronkite came on and said, this is the one year anniversary of the hostage taking number two issue.

We're having an election tomorrow. It didn't even make the top issue, the campaign and the election. One of the extraordinary moments you talk about, uh, the word character being a bit of a shot across the bow. That extraordinary moment between Trump and Obama, and I think we have about 30 seconds before President Biden speaks.

What did you make of that moment? Well, let's, I'll be, I, I am going to be obvious. I'm going to be obvious. I'm going to be optimistic.

I'm going to be optimistic. Trump came today. Yep. He wanted to be numbered among the presidents.

He wanted to be one of them. He wanted to be fit. Okay. Chris Matthews.

Stay with us for a moment. We're going to go to President Biden in a special report. This is an NBC News special report. Here's Lester Holt.

Good afternoon. We're coming on the air with breaking news about those deadly Southern California wildfires raging out of control across Los Angeles County. President Biden is being briefed right now and the very latest so far at least five people have died and the fires with officials saying that number is likely to go higher. Thousands of homes and structures have been destroyed, tens of thousands of residents displaced, stretches of coastal communities charred beyond recognition.

It is likely to be one of the costliest disasters in our nation's history. President Biden is up a White House now. Let's listen. Good afternoon.

I returned to Los Angeles last night and to the devastation out there is catastrophic in California. Thousands of houses, schools, businesses, burned to the ground. Communities wiped out, lives lost, families forever changed. The worst fires never hit Los Angeles, ever, and as soon as these fires broke out, I approved the fire management assistance grants at the term of art and how we get help through local officials.

These grants cover California's firefighting costs for things like firefighting equipment, firefighting salaries, and special capabilities like aircraft. Next, yesterday I approved, immediately approved Governor Newsom's request for what they call, and I know this is, oh, sounds like a government talk, but it's called a major disaster declaration. This declaration allows folks at the request of the governor. This allows, the declaration allows folks to impact it to get immediate cash assistance to cover things like everything from groceries, the baby formula to prescriptions because as you've seen and you report it, a lot of these places are burned to the ground.

There's not a single thing left in their homes. And so that by, if they contact disasterassistance.gov, anybody's lost everything, or anything of consequence, disasterassistance.gov or 1-800-2, or excuse me, 1-800-2, I beg your pardon, 1-800-621-3362. That's where they, disasterassistance.gov, 1-800-621-3362 to get the kind of help they need for everything from the basics that they don't have access to right now. And this morning, during the magnitude of the disaster, I was talking with the governor and he requested that if I could increase the federal funding that was authorized under this legislation for 75% to 90%, we're increasing it to 100% of all the costs to be covered by the federal government.

So both the fire management system grants and the elements of what they call disaster declaration. So today, I'm announcing that the federal government will cover 100% of the costs for 180 days. This is going to pay for things like the debris and hazard material removal, temporary shelters, first responders' salaries, and all of the necessary measures to protect life and property. And folks, I want to underscore, I told the governor and local officials, it's fair at no expense, to do what they need to do and contain these fires and in their communities that have really been devastated.

And we're doing literally everything we can at a federal level. That's also why I call this group of folks around this table of all relevant federal departments and agencies together to discuss what more we can do, and some of the folks around the screen as well. Before we begin things, here's an update on where things stand right now. First, first, we're focused on helping contain these fires.

Over the last 24 hours, the United States Forest Service, working with state and local responders, has suppressed over 50 fires' starts, and the fire in the Hollywood Hills has been contained by brave firefighters risking their lives. Right now, three major fires are still burning in the Pacific Palisades, in Pasadena, and in Sylmar. I want to be clear, what I know from talking to the governor, that there are concerns out there that there's also been a water shortage. The fact is, the utilities understandably shut off power, because they're worried the lines that they carried energy, we're going to be blown down and spark additional fires.

But the Cal Fire, and when they did that, it cut off the ability to generate pumping the water. That's what caused the lack of water in these hundreds. And so, Cal Fire is bringing in generators to get these pumps up and working again so that they're no longer a shortage of water coming out of these hydrants. I'm also surging all federal resources possible to southern California, including 400 additional firefighters, over 30 firefighting helicopters and planes, federally supplied firefighting planes and helicopters, and eight Department of Defense C-130s that are equipped to suppress wildfires.

Today, the Secretary of Defense also authorized 500 wildfire-ground clearing personnel from the Defense Department, and I'm directly the Department to continue working with Governor Newsom to identify additional resources that can be provided for public safety and security. And we've secured additional firefighters and firefighting aircraft from our ally in Canada as well. I also want everyone in Southern California to know we're going to keep at it. We're going to stick in with this.

We expect there may be a temporary break in the winds, but in some areas the winds are likely to continue well in the next week. And so we're going to continue to spend sending everything literally, every resource we can find. That's appropriate. It's helpful to Governor and the first responders.

Second, we're focused on helping people who have been displaced, or in many cases, lost everything. You've reported on, you've seen the homes burned to the ground, whole areas burned to the ground, large areas. They've been displaced and they've lost everything. As I said, since the fire started, FEMA had been working with the state to help residents get sheltered, groceries, prescriptions, and other critical goods, like maybe for me.

We're also sent FEMA Director, Chris, to Los Angeles to manage our response on the ground. She was supposed to be on this call, but we have a deputy here because she is out in the field with the Governor right now, surveying what's going on. Let me close with the message of the people of Southern California. We are with you.

We're not going anywhere. To the firefighters and first responders, you are heroes. Many of these firefighters are out there risking their lives, and I won't go beyond that. They're out there risking their lives, and while their homes are in danger, their families are in danger.

To the firefighters and first responders, you really are, it's not like probably six-year heroes. You're genuinely heroes. This is the most widespread devastating fire in California's history. It's amazing.

And there's nobody who understands the better than the President covering this on a minute to minute basis. And they literally have to run into the flames these firefighters, that old expression, God made men that he made a few firefighters who went and runs into flames. In doing so, you leave your own families and who may be in harm's way as well. So we owe you, and we're going to make sure to get every resource you need, every possible resource you need, you know, to the families who have been impacted by this disaster, you're living through a nightmare.

I know, and I promise you, we're going to help you get through this and eventually recover and rebuild. I'm going to turn it over now to the Vice President before we go on to the folks in the various cabinet positions, as well as agencies that control these issues. Madam Vice President, I know you're directly affected. All right.

We are going to break away from them just to run down essentially with the President, and to us offering their President Biden at a briefing on the LA fires promising a substantial amount of federal aid from helicopters and planes to U.S. forestry of firefighters. He updated us on the Hollywood Hills fire that that fire has been contained while the three major ones, however, continue to rage out of control. The President also explaining exactly what's been going on with a water shortage at some of the hydrants in the fire zone.

He says it's due to power being cut off by the power company depriving the water system of the needed pumps and promises the delivery of generators to take on that issue. I want to go straight to Jacob Soberoff in Palisades, California. Jacob, the winds have led up somewhat today. I've seen pictures where you see fire and you see just smoke.

What's the situation there? Lester, it's remarkably calm. And when I say calm, I mean, the wind compared to those gusts of around 100 miles an hour, though reported yesterday in the overnight hours that led to the sheer devastation here in Pacific Palisades. We're talking about a community of 23,000 people that, for all intents and purposes, has ceased to exist as we know it.

And I speak in the position of a native son of this community was born and raised here. But the concern, of course, is that those winds do pick up, and actually, Lester, if I can ask Chris Jackson to take a look up, I think this is the biggest American flag in Pacific Palisades. This is our local gas station in car wash. And for most of the day, that flag stood pretty still and was not blowing.

But the winds are starting to pick up again. The good news is, over the course of the last morning and into this afternoon, those super, scooper tankers have been able to fly out just about a mile's distance to the Pacific Ocean and pick up that water and come back and put out some of the hotspots here in Pacific Palisades. That's no solace to the people whose community has destroyed and gone forever. But it is a big help to that mutual aid response of the firefighters who are here all through the state of California.

And I do want to say, it is definitely a welcome message where we have heard from President Biden for residents in this community that happened to run in to Governor Gavin Newsom yesterday at the intersection for those familiar in the area of Via de la Paz and Sunset Boulevard outside of gas station. I noticed his motorcade was pulled over at the side of the road, so I approached and asked if I could just catch up with him for a moment and what he told me was, wasn't able to speak at that time because he was on the phone with the White House lobbying the Biden administration for the relief that you obviously heard just come through here in this briefing by President Biden. This is not a disaster that a local municipality, even Los Angeles, with a very big general fund for the state of California as big as some nations around the world can shoulder on its own. He was very clear will require a federal response and it does appear that they'll be getting that for the federal government.

Thank you. Let me bring in Steve Patterson. He's also in Pacific Palisades, California. Stephen, can you tell me have people been able to get into these neighborhoods, now the smoldering neighborhoods to survey their property?

We have seen some of that certainly Lester. We've seen it gentleman just a few minutes ago, trying to come back to his home, see just a plot of land. These neighborhoods are burned out. We've heard officials describe it as seeing almost as if a bomb has gone off.

That is certainly true. But we have heard also from the sheriff's department from the LAPD, they're doing much more to try to protect these neighborhoods because we have also unfortunately heard about instances of looting, bad people with bad intentions trying to come into the neighborhoods. There is much more of a perimeter here. And also we should say, you know, all too often we report on these fires, the wind event that has driven the fire has suddenly stopped and people think that the main firefighting operation is over.

That is not the case. These winds will pick up later on tonight as the night progresses and it may not be the same event that we had before. But the main firefighting operation is not over. These fires are zero percent contained.

Firefighters need all the support they can get. We saw what happened in the last few days. Firefighters almost performing triage on homes because they have to bounce from fire to fire to fire. So hearing President Biden presenting 400 more federal firefighters, 30 more aircraft, 8C-130 a lot to build more of a perimeter around these fires, so obviously people can start the process of rebuilding their lives, dealing with insurance, coming back to find the pieces of their homes left in the rubble.

All right, Steve. And the President also assuring folks who are affected by this. There is immediate help available when he gave the website disaster assistance.gov for those affected by this firestorm. That concludes this NBC News special report.

We'll have much more ahead in our streaming network, NBC News. Now, online at NBCNews.com at a full wrap up and I see you a bit later on for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. Good day.

We'll get the scoop on what's been happening with Here's the Scoop, a new podcast from NBC News with Meteor host, Gazzam D'Souguin. We'll take a deep dive into the day's top stories with NBC News' trusted journalist. It's a fresh take that's sharp, thoughtful, and it's informative bringing you closer to the headlines and conversations that are shaping our world on the front page of the Zeitgeist. Here's the scoop from NBC News.

Listen daily on Spotify.