Up First from NPR - LA Wildfires, Carter's State Funeral, Trump's Agenda

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Devastating wildfires in the LA area have leveled entire neighborhoods as firefighting resources are stretched thin, a state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter will be held at Washington's National Cathedral, and President-elect Trump met with Senate Republicans to help chart a course for his top legislative priorities. Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Gigi Douban, Roberta Rampton, Kelsey Snell, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Lilly Quiroz. We get engineering support from David Greenberg. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Wildfires in Southern California reduced entire neighborhoods to ashes. The street behind us are what caught fire, so our backyard caught fire. Does the region have the resources to bring the ongoing disaster under control? I'm Stephen Skeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Biden delivers the eulogy today at funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter here in Washington, where even remembrances can carry political messages. They often reveal as much about the speaker as they do the person being honored and eulogized, their worldview, what they believe in, their values, their vision.

How will the former president be remembered? And President-elect Trump met with Senate Republicans to help chart a course for his second term. Stay with us. We've got news you need to start your day. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial. In life, you plan for many important things like weddings, retirement, and your children's education. A celebration of life is really no different. Planning and paying for your celebration of life in advance protects your loved ones and gives you the peace of mind you deserve. It's truly one of the best gifts you can give your family. Dignity Memorial will help you take

care of every detail with professionalism and compassion. For additional information visit DignityMemorial.com. Tis the season for rich meals, twinkly lights, and New Year's resolutions. At LifeKit, NPR's self-help podcast, we're here to help you make those resolutions less of a December and January thing, and more like a year-long affair. We've got shows that'll help you draw up plans to meet your goals, whatever they are. Get the tools you need all year round with the LifeKIT podcast from NPR. Today, every school in Los Angeles is closed. It's one sign of the way that wildfires have affected the nation's second largest city. The fires have sometimes destroyed whole neighborhoods. They wrecked the homes of celebrities. Billy

Crystal says he lost the house where he's lived with his wife since 1979. Several people are dead that we know of so far, and new fires appear as desert winds blow embers around the region. We're joined now by NPR's Adrian Florido in Los Angeles. Good morning, Adrian. Good morning, Michelle. Could you just give us an overview of the kind of destruction that these fires are causing? Well, a lot of the destruction so far is from the Pacific Palisades Fire, which is one of the two biggest fires is burning. News choppers were able to fly

over that affluent coastal community yesterday and filmed block after block of homes reduced to ash. Homes in nearby Malibu also burned. The Hollywood Hills caught fire last night and that blaze has quickly spread, forcing chaotic evacuations there. I was able yesterday to get into a neighborhood ravaged by the other big fire, the Eaton Fire in Altadena on the east side of Los Angeles. I walked past more than 20 homes burning or already burned to the ground and that was over just a couple of blocks. I mean it just sounds just like a horrific sort of scene there. Could you just, would you just describe more about what you saw?

You know, well the ruins of many of the houses in the neighborhood where I was were still burning and every so often something under the rubble would explode or a wooden door frame would finish collapsing and it would shoot up this puff of embers and it was windy so neighbors were rushing to make sure that those embers didn't set their houses on fire. I met a Brittany man as she and her brother were hosing down their roof and their lawns before evacuating. The street behind us are what caught fire so our backyard caught fire so we're still trying to get those fires out before we leave. And across the street, Michelle, I met Sarah Rudd. She evacuated on Tuesday night, but while she was gone, her neighbor, who had not evacuated,

noticed that her house had caught fire, and she said that he grabbed his hose. Some of our neighbors who stayed back when they shouldn't have, they actually saved a lot of homes. Like our house right here, you can see where it's charred on the side, and he saved our house. When we spoke, she had just come back to check on our house. She was leaving again. But as we spoke, other houses were burning on her block.

So hers was still at risk, and there were no firefighters around. Adrienne, to that point, we've been hearing about how there just don't seem to be enough resources to fight all these fires. What can you tell us about that? Adrian Levy Well, fire officials have said LA just doesn't have enough firefighters to tackle so many large fires at once. The ones who have been out there since Tuesday are exhausted.

LA's Mayor, Karen Bass, says that more crews are coming in from other counties and cities. Officials also said that some of the fire hydrants that firefighters were tapping into in the Pacific Palisades went dry on Tuesday. Winds that day had prevented aircraft from doing water drops, so hydrants were the only option and they couldn't take the strain. Janice Quinonez is an LA's top water official. You're fighting a wildfire with a fire hydrant system.

Fire hydrants are not made to fight multiple houses, hundreds of houses at a time. She said the officials are still working to fill the tanks and the reservoirs where water is needed. Adrian, do you have any sense of when these fires may be under control? No, not really Michelle. There are several major fires burning across the region. Conditions are extremely dry and it's the wind spreading these flames and making this also unpredictable. High winds are expected at least through tonight,

so this emergency is not over. That is NPR's Adrienne Florido in Los Angeles. Adrienne, thank you. Thanks, Michelle. ["The Daily Show"] Today, all the living U.S. presidents will gather with hundreds of other dignitaries at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. for former President Jimmy Carter's state funeral. Carter lived to be 100, leaving a mark on this country and the world extending beyond

his four years in the White House. Even as he traveled the world over the decades, he kept living in Plains, Georgia, a comparatively simple life, but presidential funerals are grandiose and Carter's will be no different. NPR Senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith will be in the cathedral for the funeral,

and she is with us now for a preview. Good morning, Tam. Good morning. So just start with telling us how history will remember Jimmy Carter. He was a one-term president and his time in Washington was marked by high energy prices, inflation, and discontent, which really dragged down his presidency. There were foreign policy triumphs like the Camp David Accord, but also challenges like

the Iran hostage crisis that only ended on Carter's last day in office. He came into office in 1977 on a wave of post-Nixon backlash and demand for reform. He promised to never lie to the American people, but was punished for what became known as his malaise speech, where he perhaps shared a bit too much of what was on his mind. After leaving office, Carter wrote a whole new chapter of his legacy, 40 years of work fighting disease and homelessness and working for peace. And I'm certain this will get more than one mention at the service today, but Carter continued teaching Sunday school at the Baptist Church he attended in Plains, Georgia, well into his 90s.

As we said, all the living presence will be there, which is not something that often happens. What will you be watching for? Well, you know, those dynamics of all the presidents sitting with their spouses in a single pew are always fascinating. President-elect Donald Trump will be there, as will President Biden, who he will replace in the Oval Office in less than two weeks. And the last presidential funeral was in 2018 for George H.W. Bush. Jimmy Carter was there for that one, along

with the Obamas and Clintons. President Biden is set to speak at this service and he and Carter go way back. Biden, then a young U.S. Senator, was the first national political figure to endorse Carter back in 1976. I spoke to former Obama speechwriter Terry Zuplatt about what he's watching for. And he said in Washington, even a eulogy is a political act. They often reveal as much about the speaker as they do the person being honored and eulogized, their worldview, what they believe in, their values, their vision.

But he also said there's a risk in reading too much into these speeches. Not every glowing statement about Carter's character will be meant as an implicit criticism of some other president who's in the room. Okay, so potential for some subtext there. But what else stands out to you from the list of speakers? You know, Carter was a political outsider, but he's getting the ultimate Washington insider send off. In addition to the eulogy from President Biden, there will be tributes from Carter's grandson, Jason Carter, and Stu Eisenstadt, who served in the Carter administration.

One thing that is quite unique, thanks to Carter's incredible longevity, two eulogies will be read by the sons of the men who wrote them. Both former president Gerald Ford and former vice president Walter Mondale wrote eulogies for Carter, but Carter outlived them both. One other fun thing, country stars Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood are set to sing Imagine by John Lennon. It was Carter's favorite song and the lyrics are quite resonant with Carter's life's work. That is and here's Tamara Keith. Tam, thank you.

You're welcome. President-elect Donald Trump also visited Capitol Hill last night to pay his respects to former president Jimmy Carter. And he also met with Republicans to talk about strategizing for legislation. We're going to get something done that's going to be reducing taxes and creating a lot of jobs and all of the other things that you know about. But this was a really unified meeting. So he says, but is there a path ahead?

So here to tell us all about this is NPR Congressional correspondent, Barbara. Barbara, good morning to you. Good morning. So Barbara, he met with the senators, Republican senators. What were the senators hoping for in that meeting? Well, the goal was to decide on a strategy to advance Trump's agenda on border security and tax cuts. There's been a lot of questions about how Republicans who will have unified government in two weeks are going to accomplish those things. Trump said earlier that he wants, in his words, one big, beautiful bill for everything, and that's in line with what House Speaker Mike Johnson wants.

But on the Senate side, there's interest in a two-bill approach, one that would tackle the border, the other on taxes. Now, both strategies would use a tool in the budget process to avoid a filibuster from Democrats in the Senate. But there was hope from many GOP lawmakers that Trump would put his thumb on the scale as to which option he wants to see implemented. Interesting. So that's what they wanted, that they get it. No, not quite. It was a fairly long meeting, almost two hours, and those of us waiting outside the meeting heard lots of applause throughout, so a sign of good progress. And I'm told that people asked a good number of questions in the meeting. But bottom line, Trump came out and said he just isn't too concerned with process. We had a great meeting.

There's great unity. Whether it's one bill or two bills, it's going to get done one way or the other. I think there's a lot of talk about two, and there's a lot of talk about one, but it doesn't matter. The end result is the same. Senate Majority Leader John Thune spoke to reporters once Trump left and didn't commit to one particular path. We're all in line with getting the result. And the process arguments that we have around here, I think, are a lot less important,

certainly to the people across the country, than accomplishing the things I just mentioned. He called it an ongoing conversation. So what about that? Why does it matter if Trump signs off on a strategy? Well, I think there's a desire for Trump to have a strong preference early on to be a kind of organizing force.

It wasn't that long ago that he sort of threw a wrench in House Republicans' efforts to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government. He made demands at the last minute, members at the time told me like, gee, I wish he had told us this earlier. So it's not out of character for Trump to make demands at inconvenient moments for members. And that can really upend negotiations when lawmakers think that they're on the same page and forging ahead. And how they all act, the House, the Senate, and the White House,

in the very early stages of the administration is going to be important. And it can set a tone for how they work together going forward. That is NPR congressional correspondent, Barbara Spratt. Barbara, thank you. Thank you. And that's up first for Thursday, January 9th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Steve Inskeep. You can listen to this podcast sponsor free while also financially supporting public media with Up First Plus. Learn more at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org. Why don't they just let you press the plus sign? That doesn't matter. Anyway, go.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Gigi Dupin, Roberta Rampton, Kelsey Snell, Janaya Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Budge, Nia Dumas, and Lily Quiroz. We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez and David Greenberg, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. And we hope you'll join us again tomorrow. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon Prime members can listen to Up First sponsor free through Amazon Music, or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get Up First Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org. Lately on the NPR politics podcast, we're talking about a big question.

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