A morning newscast featuring breaking news and weather reports. And we now understand its burned 83,000 acres. Something at play for firefighters, you can almost not get your head around what its like to battle a blaze like this burning so hot here. You can see that firefighters, some of them working 24hour shifts have been grabbing sleep any way they can. Thats what they are up against. Not only are they fighting it in terms of fatigue, but in these conditions, there is a problem with equipment as well. We are used to hot but, you know, 116, 117 degrees on the fire line, humidity is hovering around 10 or less during the day, which is critical Fuel Moisture for us, which means that we have 100 probability of ignition. So we are just battling those two things right there, just the fatigue on the firefighters putting out fires is horrendous, let alone the Equipment Fatigue because the fire is causing the
equipment to overheat and helicopters are put down to cool off and a dramatic step back as far as fighting the fire. Reporter they also say some of the bulldozers are breaking down and that is critical to cutting fire breaks or fire lines. The smoke. Its something. Go ahead, that is the mood. It is not supposed to look like that right now. So much smoke throughout this area that now that orange color and makes it very difficult, as you can imagine, for these firefighters on a daily base to reckon with all of this. Fires throughout Northern California and this having burned more than 83,000 acres. Its killed five people. You have a matter of 536 homes completely destroyed. Back to you, martin and christi. Paul, thank you very much. Its incredible. But its also scary. I want to point out it also teaches us something about how fire can spread. Here is what you have. You have your fire that is in place. We all know heat rises so as that air goes up, new air is actually going to come in and replace it but its coming from multiple different directions. So youre starting to get that swirling rotating motion as that column of air is going up. When it does, it ends up looking like a tornado, except being made out of fire. Well, very similar to what a traditional tornado would do, it has debris in it. The problem is we are not talking cars or pieces of homes. Youre talking embers and fire, basically. That fire can potentially spread to places where it did not exist before. Now that is a concern that firefighters are dealing with but there is also other concerns at play here and that is the topography of california. Its very mountainous. So when you have, say, a 20degree slope of a hill, fire will travel up that hill at
about 20 miles per hour. If you make even a 10degree slope of difference, youre now talking that fire speeds up to double its speed. Now 40 miles per hour. And we know california is very mountainous. Its very hilly. That makes it much harder for those firefighters to fight those fires than it would, say, if that ground was flat like in kansas or even florida. The other thing you have to note with all of that smoke, people are breathing that in. As they are trying to evacuate their homes and get whatever lastminute supplies they can out of those homes, they are breathing in that smoke. You have very poor air quality, not just in california, but some of the surrounding states as well. We have also talked about the forecast and the fact that its just not going to be good for days on end. Guys, take a look at this. Tripledigit temperature expected the next three to five days and absolutely zero percent chance of rain in the forecast. My goodness. Allison, thank you so much. We will keep you posted on the fires. President trump is returning to washington after meeting with the Prime Minister of italy tomorrow. The president has been pretty much quiet throughout this weekend. Surprisingly so. But not necessarily stopped his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani from firing back at trumps former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Giuliani says that cohen tampered with his tape of present Candidate Trump talking about a payment to a playboy model. I used to hear rumors about Michael Cohens character and what he did. Now i find he does things like records his client, doesnt even tell them. President trump is staying at his golf resort in bedminister, new jersey. Cnn white house report er, Sarah Westwood is standing
nearby. Is the president saying anything about what Rudy Giuliani is talking about . Reporter well, President Trump is staying quiet on this weekend here in bedminister, new jersey, as his lawyer is out defending him against these bombshell new allegations about the trump campaigns contacts with russia. Rudy giuliani had already accused Michael Cohen, trumps former attorney, of being a liar after cohen signaled his willingness to tell investigators that that trump had advanced knowledge of that Trump Tower Meeting involving his son donald trump jr. And a russian offering dirt on hillary clinton. But last night, Giuliani Accused Cohen of tampering with a recording of a 2016 conversation with then Candidate Trump. Now we should note there is no evidence that the tape was actually altered but this is what giuliani had to say about it. We have to hope it exists. This could be a recording of a recording. We are not sure yet. That, they can probably determine. And then youre right, we may never be able to determine that, but we have determined the fact that he tampered with the tape in the sense that he abruptly, mid conversation, turned it off. Reporter now the cohen camp is responding by mocking giuliani. A source close to Michael Cohen said this to our colleague jake tapper. You mean rudy is floating wild speculation as if he were unhinged . Obviously, its a lie. Shocking. Trump has largely invoicing speaking out on the cohen controversy and instead he is touting academic Growth Figures and unveiling his plans to campaign extensively for republicans in the fall. Then he have to answer the questions about his lawyer when he meets facetoface with the italian Prime Minister tomorrow at the white house and perhaps see him address this controversy
tweeting out a response to the cohen tapes this week, saying he was about to Say Something positive. You know, he could have gone with the excuse that was not him, concerning the fact that in previous times, hes used different aliases to say a recording that sounding like him was someone like john barren who is an alleged alias of donald trump when he was back before he was president. With respect to confronting it headon, i do expect President Trump to be tweeting about it probably pretty actively. This weekend might be an outlieer and may not see something from him because his attorneys probably advised him not to tweet about it. Trump will do what he wants to do and a time hell have his phone and no advisers around him. Daniel, why not ignore it . He had good academic news to deliver on friday and looking and meeting with the italian Prime Minister and then on the Campaign Trail. Why not ignore it . Once in a blue moon, i think trump listens to his advisers and his lawyers. I think that he thinks it would just add fuel to the fire. But its really hard to hold trump back from defending himself. For the last three years, we always hear, owner trump is going to be be more president ial or turn a corner and that never happens. I guarantee you by next weekend you will have a number of other tweets slamming Michael Cohen and you kind of see this public breakup in realtime which is just quite amazing to watch because cohen was just praised by Rudy Giuliani a few weeks ago as an honorable lawyer who might cooperate and now Rudy Giuliani is claiming he doctored tapes, which sarah pointed out, there is no evidence and that is also a crime if he is going to present that as evidence. Right. When you look at those sound bites backtoback of Rudy Giuliani, when he is praising Michael Cohen, then, all of a sudden, you know, he is doing
exactly the opposite. As much as it criticizes cohen, it really seems toy giuliani wh any person. Has his credibility as representing the president now really been tarnished in all of this . That is the thing. You know . In the Trump White House, his attorneys, their credibility is constantly questioned and i think they dont really care so much about their credibility. What they are really trying to do right now is question the authenticity of the tapes because they are now being presented to Basically IncriminatePresident Trump. But the allegations that cohen later made about, you know, trump knowing about his sons meetings with the russian attorney, you know, is a pretty huge indictment to make against donald trump as a Candidate Running for president saying he knew about this alleged collusion. The only problem this is the one
thing that he doesnt have a tape for. There is no way corroborate it unless he presents some sort of evidence and, right now, we simply dont have that. Daniel, the president is going out on the Campaign Trail this week. Im wondering, is there a strategy to this . He is going out there to simply get away from all of what we are talking about . I think as the midterms approach, its not a surprise that the sitting president wants to rally support for his party and try to save the house. Although you have David Notable political strategist who looked at the map and its gone, the house, in terms of republican control. So it might be a fools err rand. Trump says he wants to campaign six or seven days a week, but a lot of republicans in moderate or blue states that just dont want the president s help. It would only hurt them to be seen with trump. So i think the white house political shop has to figure out how to make sure how to leverage the president s, you know, good campaigning style without just shooting yourself in the foot. Right. I think also the president apologize getting in front of a crowd that is supportive of him. Siran and daniel, thank you both for joining us this morning. Thank you. Dont miss State Of The Union with jake tapper today at 9 00 a. M. He is be joined by trumps economic adviser larry kudlow and then Mitch Landrieu and anthony scaramucci. Could there be life on mars . People will ask that question forever. The possibility of it just might have gotten a little clearer since scientists discovered a large body of liquid on the red planet. We have more on that. Plus, Civil Rights Icon and georgia congressman john lewis is in the hospital. We will have an update on how he is doing next. A manhunt underway in new orleans after gunfire near the french quarter. Three people are set and semple othe several others are injured. Teacher lets turn in your science papers. Tech vo this teacher always puts her students first. Student i did mine on volcanoes. Teacher you did . oh, i cant wait to read it. Tech vo so when she had auto glass damage. She chose safelite. With safelite, she could see exactly when wed be there. Teacher you must be pascal. Tech yes maam. Tech vo saving her time. [honk, honk] kids bye tech vo . So she can save the science project. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace wells fargo has supported Community Organizations from the beginning, like united way, nonprofits like the american red cross, and our nations veterans. We knew helping our communities was important then. And we know its even more important today. So were stepping up to volunteer more and donate over a Million Dollars every day. So our communities can be even stronger. Its a new day at wells fargo. But its a lot like our first day. Three Innovative Technologies for our ultimate in vision, clarity, and protection. Together in a single lens. Essilor ultimate lens package. Purchase the Essilor Ultimate Lens Package and get a second pair of qualifying lenses free. Essilor. Better sight. Better life. I love you, Basement Bathroom of solitude, but sometimes you stink. Febreze air effects doesnt just mask, it cleans away odors. Because the things you love can stink. Wmust have cost a lot. A fancy hotel. Actually, i got a great deal. Priceline saves you up to 60 on hotels, but thats something the hotels dont really want other guests to know. I saved about 120 dollars a night
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flight to atlanta and his spokeswoman says lewis is under routine observation. The 78yearold lewis has represented georgia since 1986 and in 2011 he was presented the president ial medal of freedom. There is supposed to be Development Experts with technical expertise, but, instead, according to the Washington Post, the report is that the Trump White House is giving jobs to political allies and loyalists instead. This is happening at the millennial Channel Organization that is promoting Economic Growth in poor countries. Walter schaub is with us now. When we look at the background of someone who is typically hired, how do you compare that to what we are seeing in terms of the people who are now in those positions . Yeah, well, this is quite an incredibly story. When you think youve seen the layers of the swamp in this administration, it just gets
deeper. This agency has an 800 Million Dollar budget, so it may be small, but its, you know, using a lot of tax dollars. In 2003, george w. Bush had emphasize as that agency was set up it was going to be more technical and accountable than a lot of other Foreign Relations and other type agencies. So they have always filled those positions with highly technical experts. Now they are filling them with College Graduates and the grandson of one of the members of the president ial Personnel Office. They have got an Acting Leader who sort of politicized things by telling his career staff that they should be reading breitbart and put campaign parafer nail office. You would characterize it as unprecedented . Yeah. This is an agency that we dealt with when i was at the office of Government Ethics and its always highly technical and focuses on development in Foreign Countries that are in dire need. The this is part of a trend. The office of president ial personnel has always been headed by somebody who is very senior and very experienced and respected in washington and any administration, republican or democratic, they have put a 28yearold in charge of this agency and there was an article in the Washington Post recently about how he has been using that office to throw Drinking Parties and people sit around there, the youngest Staff Members in the white house vaping and smoking electronic cigarettes. Its apparently become the social hub of the white house. He is now using this office to fill jobs for people like he filled the Millennium Challenge Corporation with an individual who is a friend of his who he
had worked with at a prior federal contractor job that he had filled. He went on a vacation with one of his senior officials and a bunch of other people and when he came back, a few months late, he filled the job with her grandson who had just graduated from college about a year before. That individual who also works in the president ial Personnel Office has become something of a onewoman Employment Agency for her family and counting her, there are five members of her family working for the Trump Administration and, after all, if our president is going to engage in nepotism, why wouldnt his Personnel Office follow suit . All right. Walter schwab, we appreciate your insight on this. Thank you so much. I do want to make a note here. The white house and mcc did Decline Comment when contacted by the Washington Post. Russian president Vladimir Putin showing off russias new war ims in its annual navy day
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