Papadopoulos. The first Trump Campaigner speaks out. Calling him a patriot. What he told the special counsel about his context in the campaign and why hes cooperating with the investigation. How surprised do you think i and everyone watching at home will be when they learn the whole story . Only on gma this morning. Light it up light it up, luke bryan taking over gma bringing country right here to times square. Good morning, america. [ cheers and applause ] good morning, america. Welcome to a big friday here on gma. You just saw luke bryan right there from the opry city stage right here in times square. Just a few blocks away. So im going to head out there in just a little bit and grab a coat but at least its not snowing. A lot of people are there early. A lot of people there early, but like i said at least its not snowing. But it is snowing down south. You know about this all too well. Take a look at the palm trees near houston covered in snow. Wow. Kids are excited doing a little dance in your hometown, michael. I talked to my son yesterday. I said, what are you doing . He said, i just finished a final. Im going to play in the snow. I said, youre not in school in colorado. Youre in texas. He said, no, its snowing. Unbelievable. First, breaking news for our viewers in the west. A new blaze erupting overnight called the lilac fire and rob marciano is there with latest. Reporter it was the san diego areas turn with the lilac fire, burning over 20 homes. Some are still smoldering in the valley below me. This fire burning 4,000 acres in just under 12 hours. This morning, a state of emergency in San Diego County. This blaze erupting overnight, tearing into neighborhoods, forcing residents to run for their lives. Four people injured while trying to flee the flames. The fire was coming right at us. I mean, within matters of minutes it had spread. At this farm, trainers forced to set their horses free with no time to lead them to safety. Thousands evacuated but many others not making it out in time. One resident capturing the moment a plane dropped fire redard ent on his home, surrounded by plumes of smoke. Oh, my god, oh, my god. Holy [bleep]. Reporter the fast moving flames torching over 1,000 acres, burning homes in neighborhood after neighborhood. In everybodys back yard, a wall of flames. Destroying at least 20 homes. Look at this structure completely going up in flames. The embers carried by this wind. You can see how these spot fires can flare up. Winds gusting to 55 Miles Per Hour, fueling the flames. Whats been your biggest struggle with this fire . The wind. Absolutely a wind driven fire. This house has flames like you guys arent doing much. Right now its indefensible. Its a lost cause . Yes. Reporter for the First Time Ever officials had to upgrade from red or high to purple, its color for extreme. This means that the flames will have extreme growth, will burn very intensely and be uncontrollable. That threat level lower today because of a lack of winds but it is still bone dry here. Any flame that touches the ground, it lights it up in a hurry. Firefighters also worried about the potential for more erratic winds because were closer to the ocean. Ocean side about five miles that way so firefighters will be desperate to protect that town from this fire arriving there later. Guys . At this hour more than 190,000 people have evacuated from fire zones. More than 5,000 firefighters doing their best to battle and contain the flames. Our Senior National correspondent matt gutman is in ventura where the largest fire is burning. Good morning, matt. Reporter good morning, robin. That large fire is this multiheaded beast thats continuing to rip through ventura county. Overnight new evacuation orders for the town of this goes on for block after block, nothing left in these houses. Steel washing machines, tvs and of course the chimneys. This morning, six mammoth fires burning through more than 140,000 acres of land in Southern California. Be prepared to leave immediately. Reporter towering columns of smoke blotting out the sun. Weve hiked up here to get a Better Vantage Point of this eastern flank of the thomas fire. You can see how massive that plume of smoke is. This thing towers into the sky thousands of feet up. The biggest concern for the nearly 6,000 firefighters battling that inferno, the blistering winds. These conditions combined with heat makes this a very threatening environment. Reporter nearly 200,000 residents fleeing their home and it was here in santa paula we found anthony scrambling to gather whatever he could, documents, pictures off walls, drawer fulls of clothes. And one very special dress. Why the Wedding Dress of all the things . Just our memories. Weve been through so much so thats like our big milestone because i want to give that to my kids. Reporter some residents resorting to fighting the fire head on. Those staying behind using garden hoses to douse their homes with water to keep the embers away. But for others, it was too late. Its okay. What do i do now . Well figure something out. Reporter their homes already consumed by the blaze. My house on fire. My house is on fire. Reporter you can probably still see that plume of smoke hanging over the county. The wind here has subsided significantly overnight. It is forecast to pick up over the weekend. There are red flag warnings in effect until sunday, and firefighters weve spoken to say that fire has burned so hot and so fiercely that it is likely going to continue to burn here until christmas. Michael . Lets go to ginger for how the winds are going to affect these fires. Michael, just got an update. At least 32 homes have been destroyed in just the creek fire. This is los angeles county, california. You can see some of those images that were getting in. I wanted to also share with you whats happening in the lilac fire. So in the san diego area, you see them fighting with their best. During the day they can fly and pour that redard ent on top of the fires. The good news is today the wind goes down just slightly. The bad news is the relative humidity is so low so we see those flag warnings stay in place, actually extended through sunday. So through the weekend all along the coast, los angeles, those mountains just to the east, high Wind Warnings in place through the rest of today. But watch this, you talk about low humidity. Im talking as low as 5 . 8 santa ana. 9 riverside. Put on the santa ana winds and today youre 5 to 10 Miles Per Hour with gusts to 30. Saturday and sunday could easily see gusts up to 60 Miles Per Hour. Were going to move on now to the growing crises over Sexual Misconduct on capitol hill. Trent franks resigned, the third slater this week, right on the heels of al franken and john conyers. Our senior Congressional Correspondent mary bruce is tracking all the fallout on capitol hill. Good morning, mary. Reporter good morning, george. Three members of congress have now quit in just three days. The latest to go arizona congressman trent franks. One of the most conservative members of the house. In a lengthy statement he admits to discussing surrogacy with two female staffers while he and his wife were trying to have children. Now, franks is adamant he did not have any sexual contact with his staffers, but he does say i clearly became insensiticensseno how the discussion of such an intensely personal topic might affect others. Now the Speakers Office said paul ryan learned last week of quote credible claims of misconduct and asked franks to resign. Franks made that announcement last night after the Ethics Committee said it planned to investigate. George. And there are more ethics investigations to come. Mary bruce, thanks very much. George, Sexual Misconduct allegations also front and center as we know in the Alabama Senate race, just four days until voters go to the polls there and this morning one of republican roy moores accusers is speaking exclusively to abc news. Our chief National Correspondent tom llamas sat down with her in atlanta, this as the democrat in the race is leaning on leaders in his own party for help. Good morning, tom. Reporter robin, good morning to you. In a bid to turn out africanamerican voters, the democrat in this race, doug jones, is going to be hosting rallies in selma, montgomery with senator cory booker and civil rights icon representative john lewis. As for roy moore some polls show him leading in this race but he is still battling accusations. As you mentioned we just sat down with one of his accusers who is speaking out because she says shes sick and tired of moore and his Campaign Painting her and others as liars. It sickens me. It sickens me to wonder what may go on with him if he gets into office, maybe, you know. He could be doing this still. We dont know. And then again i hope that hes changed. Reporter this morning, beverly youngnelson sitting down exclusively with gma. She was 16 when she said moore groped her and tried to force a sex act on her in his car. He was trying to pull me in between his legs. It was terrible and i was bound and determined that i was not going to be raped by him. You know, i was terrified. But the next thing i know im on the concrete. These allegations are completely false, theyre malicious, specifically i do not know any of these women nor have i ever engaged in Sexual Misconduct with any woman. Reporter moores supporters have called nelson a liar and compared her to a criminal since she first spoke out about three weeks ago. That really hurt me, you know. God knows and roy knows and i know what happened. Reporter youngs proof that she knew moore, her yearbook with his inscription. But moore and his supporters have called into question that inscription noting the writing under the signature appears to be different. Lets look at beverly nelson. Everybody knows her yearbook is a forgery. Reporter nelson says she did make notes to the inscription but the message was all roy moore. Beverly, he signed your yearbook . He did sign it. And you made some notes underneath . Yes. Reporter nelson says this is not about politics. She voted for donald trump. But cant understand the decision some republicans are making. What do you think about the republicans who say they believe people like you but theyd rather have a republican in the seat than a democrat. Is the party more important really than what happened . I feel like my incident is just being swept under the rug literally because hes a republican. Reporter nelsons attorney, Gloria Allred will host a News Conference later to show further proof that roy moore indeed knew her client. Roy moore for his part has denied all accusations of Sexual Misconduct. Robin. As you know a quote from moore is getting a lot of attention on social media for the way he responded when asked when was the last time america was great. Reporter robin, the quote comes from an l. A. Times story from a roy Moore Campaign event back in september. According to the report, moore was asked when the last time he thought america was great. Now, in the story, moore is quoted as saying, i think it was great at the time when families were united, even though we had slavery. They cared for one another. Our families were strong. Our country had a direction. Now, i asked the campaign why did roy moore invoke slavery when he was talking about the last time america was great. The campaign explained to me that moore was talking about the time right after the American Revolution when families were united and the country had a direction, but of course, hes absolutely opposed to slavery. Robin. All right, thank you, tom. Thats comforting that he opposes slavery. We want to bring this to jon karl, our chief white house correspondent. More on this and the president heading south today hoping to have some impact on the race. Reporter hes going to pensacola, florida, to do a political rally. This is just 20 miles, george, from the alabama border. The same media market as mobile. Make no mistake this is a political rally designed to boost the roy moore candidacy. Were showing up on the screen the president did meet with the bipartisan leaders of congress yesterday and able to avert a Government Shutdown scheduled for today for at least a couple of weeks. Reporter yeah, for two weeks. This funding will run out on december 22nd and, george, there is absolutely no agreement on the fundamental issues that divide them including immigration, how much to spend on defense, the border wall, no agreement whatsoever. No Even Movement towards an agreement. Finally, the u. N. Ambassador nikki haley raised a lot of eyebrows by suggesting the u. S. Olympic team might not participate in the winter olympics. That has the white house trying to clean that up now. Reporter she said it was an open question whether they be able to participate because of tensions with north korea. The White House Press secretary actually echoed that in a briefing. 20 minutes later she tweeted a clarification saying the u. S. Looks forward to participating in the winter olympics. The protection of americans is our top priority and they say they are working to ensure that. Then the spokesperson for the u. S. Olympic Committee Said that there is no discussion, george, whatsoever about not participating in the winter olympics. No discussion on that whatsoever and, george, by the way this is a decision not for the president but for the u. S. Olympic committee. The committee, they make it. Okay, jon karl, thanks very much. Robin. Okay, now overseas to the middle east on edge over president trumps decision to recognize jerusalem as israels capital. Violent protests have broken out between palestinian demonstrators and israeli troops. Our Foreign CorrespondentJames Longman is in jerusalem with the latest. Good morning, james. Reporter good morning, robin. Prayers here in jerusalem have finished and people have come onto the streets to start small flashes of protests. Just a moment ago some people came out with a picture of donald trump and they were moved by the israeli police. We have seen outbreaks of small pockets of violence around town. Men on horse back pushing back young palestinians. Its a kind of cat and mouse game between the two groups that we often see in this part of the world. The reason i think its different this time is people are angry about Donald Trumps designation of jerusalem as the capital of israel. Weve had leaders across the region speak out against this including the leader of hamas who said hes calling for a third. Things on the ground here dont seem as rowdy as perhaps people expected. Well have to see if people come out on the streets in greater numbers. Robin. Okay, james, thank you. We want to share a remarkable story of forgiveness in South Carolina where former Police OfficerMichael Slager has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the death of walter scott. Slager shot scott in the back killing him in 2015 and the sentence is the longest handed down to an officer in a racially charged shooting. The family of walter scott emotional of course but showing incredible grace and strength telling slager they forgive him for everything. Slager telling them he wishes he could go back and change that. Remarkable moment. It was. A lot of strength and a lot of grace to be able to do that. Now were going to go to ginger with more on the wildfires out west. We star, michael, with the lilac fire. San diego county, some images coming in from there and unfortunately, the forecast does not look good. Red flag warnings have been extended through sunday. All the way up around los angeles, the mountains there, the high Wind Warnings in place. Today is likely one of the easiest days windwise so hopefully theyre able to make some progress in fighting those fires. Some of the winds staying down in Single Digits but rob mentioned it. It is bone dry. So some of the relative humidity numbers are as low as 5 . Not just going through this weekend, all the way through next week. And then look what happens to the winds this weekend. Gusts to 60. Easily 20 to 30mileperhour winds, not just saturday, but sunday too. This is just going to keep on being a story and unfortunately well see more images like this. Hello. Im meteorologist mike nicco from abc7 mornings. Here are your accuweather highlights. Mostly sunny, a spare the air today, wood burning ban all day. Still need a heater at night to stay warm as temperatures in the 30s and 40s, above vrge ak highs through next week and dry. Temperatures today about 62 to 689 degrees. Well have 30s in our valleys, 40s around the bay and the coast tonight. My accuweather sevenday forecast, i hope you like this, warmer than average weathehehehe so, michael, a gift for you. Lets commemorate the day it snowed, the first in eight years for houston. Oh. There it is. Well, too bad its going to melt. Yes. Something else. Coming up we have georges exclusive with the fiancee of the first Trump Campaign official to plead guilty in the russia investigation. What she told the fbi when they asked her about her connections asked her about her connections. Wthis weekend hundreds of deals up to 30 off with cartwheel in the target app. Save big with weekend deals every weekend. Only at target when a achoo alls. Answer it. With zicam cold remedy. It shortens colds, so you get better, faster. Colds are gonna call. Answer them with zicam zicam. Get your better back. Now in delicious fruit drops. The oats feed your body fiber. Fiber helps keep things moving through your system. Which is great. Because when youre good to your system, itll be good to you. I need you baby you can make my heart go round you ohh camera shutter clicks you can make