--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Stephen Skeep: Wildfires in Southern California reduced entire neighborhoods to ashes.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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?
--:-- Stephen Skeep: I'm Stephen Skeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Michelle Martin: President Biden delivers the eulogy today at funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter here in Washington, where even remembrances can carry political messages.
--:-- Stephen Skeep: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: How will the former president be remembered?
--:-- Stephen Skeep: And President-elect Trump met with Senate Republicans to help chart a course for his second term.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Stay with us. We've got news you need to start your day.
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--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Stephen Skeep: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Several people are dead that we know of so far, and new fires appear as desert winds blow embers around the region.
--:-- Stephen Skeep: We're joined now by NPR's Adrian Florito in Los Angeles.
--:-- Adrian Florito: Good morning, Michelle.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Could you just give us an overview of the kind of destruction that these fires are causing?
--:-- Adrian Florito: Well, a lot of the destruction so far is from the Pacific Palisades fire, which is where one of the two biggest fires is burning.
--:-- Michelle Martin: News choppers were able to fly over that affluent coastal community yesterday and filmed block after block of homes reduced to ash.
--:-- Adrian Florito: Homes in nearby Malibu also burned. The Hollywood Hills caught fire last night, and that blaze has quickly spread, forcing chaotic evacuations there.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Adrian Florito: I walked past more than 20 homes burning or already burned to the ground, and that was over just a couple of blocks.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I mean, it just sounds just like a horrific sort of scene there.
--:-- Adrian Florito: You know, 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 doorframe would finish collapsing, and it would shoot up this puff of embers.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And it was windy so neighbors were rushing to make sure that those embers didn't set their houses on fire.
--:-- Adrian Florito: I met Brittany Mann as she and her brother were hosing down their roof and their lawns before evacuating.
--:-- Brittany Mann: 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.
--:-- Adrian Florito: And across the street, Michelle, I met Sarah Rudd.
--:-- 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.
--:-- Adrian Florito: Some of our neighbors who stayed back when they shouldn't have, they actually saved a lot of homes.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Like our house right here, you can see where it's charred on the side, and he saved our house.
--:-- Sarah Rudd: When we spoke, she had just come back to check on her 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.
--:-- Adrian Florito: Adrian, 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 Florito: Well, fire officials have said L.A. just doesn't have enough firefighters to tackle so many large fires at once.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The ones who have been out there since Tuesday are exhausted.
--:-- Adrian Florito: L.A.'s mayor, Karen Bass, says that more crews are coming in from other counties and cities.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Officials also said that some of the fire hydrants that firefighters were tapping into in the Pacific Palisades went dry on Tuesday.
--:-- Adrian Florito: Winds that day had prevented aircraft from doing water drops, so hydrants were the only option and they couldn't take the strain.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Janice Quiñones is LA's top water official. You're fighting a wildfire with a fire hydrant system.
--:-- Janice Quiñones: Fire hydrants are not made to fight multiple houses, hundreds of houses at a time.
--:-- Adrian Florito: She said the officials are still working to fill the tanks and the reservoirs where water is needed.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Adrian, do you have any sense of when these fires may be under control?
--:-- Adrian Florito: No, not really, Michelle. There are several major fires burning across the region.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Conditions are extremely dry, and it's the winds spreading these flames and making this also unpredictable.
--:-- Adrian Florito: High winds are expected at least through tonight, so this emergency is not over.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That is NPR's Adrian Florido in Los Angeles.
--:-- Adrian Florito: Adrian, thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thanks, Adrian.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Carter lived to be 100, leaving a mark on this country and the world extending beyond his four years in the White House.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith will be in the cathedral for the funeral, and she is with us now for a preview.
--:-- Tamara Keith: Good morning.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So just start with telling us how history will remember Jimmy Carter.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: You know he came into office in 1977 on a wave of post backlash and demand for reform.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: After leaving office, Carter wrote a whole new chapter of his legacy, 40 years of work fighting disease and homelessness and working for peace.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: As we said, all the living presidents will be there, which is not something that often happens.
--:-- Michelle Martin: What will you be watching for?
--:-- Tamara Keith: Well, you know, those dynamics of all the presidents sitting with their spouses in a single pew are always fascinating.
--:-- Michelle Martin: President-elect Donald Trump will be there, as will President Biden, who he will replace in the Oval Office in less than two weeks.
--:-- Tamara Keith: And the last presidential funeral was in 2018 for George H.W. Bush.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Jimmy Carter was there for that one, along with the Obamas and Clintons.
--:-- Tamara Keith: President Biden is set to speak at this service, and he and Carter go way back.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Biden, then a young U.S. senator, was the first national political figure to endorse Carter back in 1976.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: But he also said there's a risk in reading too much into these speeches.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Not every glowing statement about Carter's character will be meant as an implicit criticism of some other president who's in the room.
--:-- Tamara Keith: OK, so potential for some subtext there.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But what else stands out to you from the list of speakers?
--:-- Tamara Keith: You know, Carter was a political outsider, but he's getting the ultimate Washington insider send off.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Tamara Keith: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Both former President Gerald Ford and former Vice President Walter Mondale wrote eulogies for Carter, but Carter outlived them both.
--:-- Tamara Keith: One other fun thing, country stars Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood are set to sing Imagine by John Lennon.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That was Tamara Keith.
--:-- Tamara Keith: Tam, thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You're welcome.
--:-- Michelle Martin: President-elect Donald Trump also visited Capitol Hill last night to pay his respects to former President Jimmy Carter.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And he also met with Republicans to talk about strategizing for legislation.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But this was a really unified meeting.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So here to tell us all about this is NPR congressional correspondent Barbara.
--:-- Barbara: So Barbara, good morning to you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So Barbara, he met with the senators Republican senators.
--:-- Barbara: What were the senators hoping for in that meeting?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well the goal was to decide on a strategy to advance Trump agenda on border security and tax cuts.
--:-- Barbara: There been a lot of questions about how Republicans who will have unified government in two weeks, are going to accomplish those things.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Trump said earlier that he wants, in his words, one big, beautiful bill for everything.
--:-- Barbara: And that's in line with what House Speaker Mike Johnson wants.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But on the Senate side, there's interest in a two-bill approach, one that would tackle the border, the other on taxes.
--:-- Barbara: Now, both strategies would use a tool in the budget process to avoid a filibuster from Democrats in the Senate.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 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.
--:-- Barbara: Interesting. So that's what they wanted.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Did they get it?
--:-- Barbara: No, not quite.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It was a fairly long meeting, almost two hours.
--:-- Barbara: And those of us waiting outside the meeting heard lots of applause throughout.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So a sign of good progress.
--:-- Barbara: And I'm told that people asked a good number of questions in the meeting.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But bottom line, Trump came out and said he just isn't too concerned with process.
--:-- Barbara: We had a great meeting. There's great unity.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Whether it's one bill or two bill, it's going to get done one way or the other.
--:-- Barbara: I think there's a lot of talk about two and a lot I talk about one, but it doesn't matter.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The end result is the same.
--:-- Barbara: Senate Majority Leader John Thune spoke to reporters once Trump left and didn't commit to one particular path.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We're all in line with getting the result.
--:-- Barbara: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He called it an ongoing conversation.
--:-- Barbara: So what about that? Why does it matter if Trump signs off on a strategy?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, I think there's a desire for Trump to have a strong preference early on to be a kind of organizing force.
--:-- Barbara: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He made demands at the last minute and members at the time told me like, gee, I wish he had told us this earlier.
--:-- Barbara: So it's not out of character for Trump to make demands at inconvenient moments for members.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And that can really upend negotiations when lawmakers think that they're on the same page and forging ahead.
--:-- Barbara: 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.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That is NPR congressional correspondent Barbara.
--:-- Barbara: Barbara, thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And that's up first for Thursday, January 9th.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm Michelle Martin.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You can listen to this podcast sponsor-free while also financially supporting public media with Up First Plus.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Learn more at plus.npr.org.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Why don't they just let you press the plus sign?
--:-- Michelle Martin: That doesn't matter.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Anyway, go.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Gigi Dupin, Roberta Ramson, Kelsey Snell, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It was produced by Zia Budge, Nia Dumas, and Lily Quiroz.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez and David Greenberg.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And our technical director is Zach Coleman.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And we hope you'll join us again tomorrow.
