'This Week' Transcript 1-12-25: FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, Sen. Adam Schiff, Rep. Tom Emmer & Rep. Mike Waltz

A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday, January 12, 2025 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form, may be updated and may contain minor transcription errors. For previous show transcripts, visit the "This Week" transcript archive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS starts right now.

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JONATHAN KARL, ABC "THIS WEEK" ANCHOR: Devastating blazes. Los Angeles continues to battle catastrophic wildfires. At least 16 dead, thousands of homes destroyed, tens of thousands forced to flee.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's apocalyptic. It's like someone's dropped a bomb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of the landmarks are gone. It's just done.

KARL: Already the most destructive fires in southern California history, and still not under control.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the preparation just wasn't right. It wasn't enough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In spite of the grief, in spite of the anger, we have got to stay focused until the fires are out.

KARL: This morning, our team is live on the scene. The very latest from FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell. And California Senator Adam Schiff on the challenges ahead.

Plus, Republican House Majority Whip Tom Emmer on how the new Congress will respond.

Tricky territory.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: We need it for national security. That's for the free world.

KARL: One week to his inauguration, President-elect Trump says he wants to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal, and maybe even Canada. Is me serious? We'll be speaking with his incoming White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz.

Plus, all five living presidents gather in Washington as America bids farewell to Jimmy Carter. So, what did Trump and Obama discuss? We'll ask the round table.

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ANNOUNCER: From ABC News it’s THIS WEEK. Here now, Jonathan Karl.

KARL: Good morning. Welcome to THIS WEEK.

The scope of the wildfires that are still raging in Los Angeles and the destruction they have brought to America's second largest city is almost impossible to comprehend. The images evoking one-word descriptors used to describe the worst disasters, catastrophic, hellscape, apocalyptic.

There are so many frightening images, but one in particular caught our attention this morning. You can see here, Ariel Hart (ph) in a hospital bed with her newborn son, George. Shortly after George was born on Tuesday, Ariel noticed smoke in the distance. The beginning of the Palisades Fire. Over the next 36 hours, she watched it grow. She was supposed to stay in the hospital for at least another day. But as the fire closed in, she chose to leave.

Ariel and George are safe at home for now, but her husband just lost his childhood home. Just one story among so many.

As we come on the air this morning, some 40,000 acres have burned across six fires in the Los Angeles area. That's roughly the size of all of Washington, D.C., and twice the size of Manhattan. The most devastating blazes are still burning. The Pacific Palisades fire is just 11 percent contained. And the Eaton Fire is 15 percent contained.

The Palisades Fire threatening the neighborhood of Brentwood over the weekend. At least 16 people have been killed in Los Angeles County. That toll could rise as the fires continue to rage.

And the economic damage is just starting to be calculated. With thousands of structures damaged or destroyed, experts say the toll could reach more than $150 billion, making these fires among the costliest natural disasters in American history.

In a moment, I'll speak with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and California Senator Adam Schiff, but we begin with ABC's Matt Rivers on the grounds in the Pacific Palisades.

Good morning, Matt.

MATT RIVERS, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jon.

Dramatic scenes across Los Angeles that we saw firsthand. We saw flames come right up to some homes in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. But firefighters, thankfully, were able to push those flames back, taking advantage in a lull of some of the high winds that we've seen throughout the last week. But we know those high winds are set to return.

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RIVERS (voice over): This morning, devastating fires continuing to ravage Los Angeles, now threatening more neighborhoods with residence in Brentwood and Encino the latest to face evacuations. ABC News on the ground, watching as firefighters were able to save a Brentwood neighborhood, spreading out, then dousing the canyon hillside with water.

RIVERS: So, you can see with these wind gusts, those flames trying to force their way up from the bottom of the canyon. And as they do so, they're getting closer and closer to this house here. This is somebody's patio that we're on. And you can see the firefighters doing their best to make sure the flames don't get this high. Without these firefighters here rightnow, the house here, other houses in this neighborhood, almost certainly gone.

RIVERS (voice over): A temporary lull in high winds helped the fight Friday into Saturday, but those winds have since picked back up, with severe gusts prompting red flag warning until Wednesday this week. Some evacuated residents across the city now returning to find their homes and their lives ruined.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything burned.

MARCELA BANUELOS, ALTADENA RESIDENT: Everything burned. I honestly thought I was going to return. I didn't think the fires were going to come down. No one thought they were going to come down.

RIVERS (voice over): There is some good news as firefighters keep battling these flames. Air resources are now able to fly near constantly, dropping water and fire retardant. And the winds, while still high, are not nearly as bad as when the fires first broke out on Tuesday.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): By no stretch of the imagination are we outside of the woods.

RIVERS (voice over): Several obstacles initially prevented firefighters from containing them, including powerful wind gusts that whipped across the city at nearly 100 miles an hour and grounded all firefighting aircraft. Additionally, low water pressure and depleted hydrants hampered their efforts, prompting Governor Gavin Newsom, on Friday, to call for an independent investigation, saying, “we need answers to ensure this does not happen again, and we have every resource available to fight these catastrophic fires.”

Meanwhile, tension among some city and state officials, boiling over.

KRISTIN CROWLEY, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT CHIEF: My message is, the fire department needs to be properly funded. The growth of this city since 1960 has doubled, and we have less fire stations.

RIVERS (voice over): Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley pleading for additional resources.

CROWLEY: Since the three years that I've been in this seat, I've sounded the alarm to say, we need more. This is no longer sustainable.

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RIVERS (on camera): And, Jon, Mayor Bass responding to all of that at a press conference, saying now that she and the fire chief are in lockstep and they are focusing on fighting these fires.

Meanwhile, everyone across this area very much focused on what will happen in the next few days. We know that these high winds are set to return. Red flag warnings are in place through at least Wednesday of this week. There's an unsays calm in Los Angeles right now, Jon.

JONATHAN KARL, ABC "THIS WEEK" ANCHOR: Uneasy to be sure.

Thank you, Matt.

I'm joined now by FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

What is your top concern right now?

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: So, I think the biggest concern that I have right now is the fact that we are still in such a dangerous situation. The red flag warnings have been reissued. The winds are coming back. And we still want to make sure that people are in a safe place.

And I know that that's hard for so many because they want to get back in, they want to see their home, they want to see if there is anything left. But this life safety piece, not just for them, but making sure that our firefighters don't get hurt as well, that is the most important piece as they continue to try to contain this fire.

KARL: The first responders, do the people of Los Angeles have everything they need from the federal government right now?

CRISWELL: We are in there supporting them. The – you know, the support for the firefighters themselves, that is coordinated through the NIFC, the National Interagency Fire Center. There are active duty military personnel that are on a prepare to deploy order, that are ready to go in and continue to support the firefighting effort. Those incident commanders at each of those command posts, they are going to know exactly what they need. And if they need anything else, we're able to come in and support them.

While we at FEMA now are starting to help support this recovery piece, starting to – to work with the local jurisdictions and understand what their long-term recovery needs are going to be, starting to plan for how we're going to be able to bring in temporary structures for schools or other critical facilities that were lost. We need to really start to put – take this time to put that plan in place, to help them with what they're going to need to do to remove debris and get this community on that long journey of recovery.

KARL: But let me ask you about those active duty military that you say stand ready to be deployed. Secretary Austin, the Pentagon authorized ten helicopters, 500 Marines back on Thursday. How is it – my understanding is, as of now, correct me if I'm wrong, California hasn't made the request to use them yet. Why is that?

CRISWELL: You know, I’d have to defer to the incident commanders, right? The incident commanders on the ground know what the needs are, where they need to put people. And often, in these situations, it's very strategic. It's not necessarily about always putting more people on that. We have to make sure that it's safe. And, you know, you can only have so much aircraft in the space. And so, they would have the specifics about the strategies that they're using, but we want to make sure that we're not late to need, and if they have that need, they can move them in.

KARL: And then we’ve seen the images of the C-130 aircraft, military aircraft, that drops that fire retardant on the fires. Two of those are in action as far as I understand. But there were more -- several more aircraft that had been positioned out of the state because fire season was considered over, obviously not over.

How much has that hindered the efforts having those aircraft out of state?

CRISWELL: Well, I think, you know, what you said is that the fire season is not over. I mean, we now have a year round fire season. We do have a peak of fire season and again the folks at the NIFSC, they work all year long to make sure that we have resources that are prepositioned and they're also making sure they're ready for the next big fire.

Again, remember, the biggest challenge in the first few days from what I was briefed was the fact that there -- the winds were so intense that they couldn't bring them in. When I was there on Thursday and Friday, I saw numerous aircraft that were flying around, but we're also talking about a very small space from the air and we got to make sure that those aircraft are safe. They can only put so much in the -- in the air at that one time.

And so, again, those incident commanders, they're making the right choices based on what they think is needed at that moment to protect the people but protect their first responders as well.

KARL: Did you have everything you need from Congress right now? Does Congress need to act to provide additional resources?

CRISWELL: So we're very grateful for the bipartisan support of the supplemental. FEMA got an additional $27 billion for our disaster relief fund. So we have the funding to support this response, to support this recovery, but also to continue to support the recoveries from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and the other 179 declarations that we had last year alone across the United States.

I think what we're going to have to look at in the future is support for things like our community development block grant program through HUD. Those are the types of things that might be needed to help continue to support the recovery. But to take care of what we have right now, we're good.

KARL: And quickly before you go, your job expires I think 12:01 on January 20th as the new administration has sworn in. How is that transition working? Are you confident that that will be a smooth transition?

CRISWELL: Yeah, I mean, we've obviously been through many transitions before. We have established lines of succession and I have a regional -- six region -- six regional administrator that's coming into act. He's got years of experience with FEMA, and he's going to be able to take the realm at 12:01.

And the women and the men of FEMA, they are committed to continuing to support all of the recovery efforts across the nation.

KARL: All right. Dean Criswell, thank you very much for your time this morning and good luck.

CRISWELL: Thank you.

KARL: Senator Adam Schiff of California represented the Los Angeles area for years in the House. He shared these images on X as he witnessed the devastation on the ground firsthand.

And, Senator Schiff now joins us from California.

Senator, thank you for being here.

As I said, you represented L.A. for years in the House. You've lived there for decades. What was going through your mind as you toured that devastation of the last couple of days?

SEN. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): That -- frankly, reminded me of visiting war zones, seeing that kind of devastation, just house after house, block after block.

We've had no shortage of fires in Southern California over the years that I’ve been in Congress. It has often been very idiosyncratic. You'll see one house lost here, then the others fine around it. There is some of that here, but there are whole neighborhoods that are gone.

In talking to residents, so many who lost everything, they've told me how their house is gone, their neighbors' are gone. Their church is gone. Their store is gone. It's all gone.

We haven't seen that before, not -- not in Southern California, not like this. And so, the heartbreak is just overwhelming.

I want to also say, I’ve gotten to see what these firefighters are doing with these hurricane force winds and just working hour after hour -- one described to me how there were flames in front of him and flames behind him, how the water was running low, communications, equipment going out, and he didn't know if he was going to make it. He said it was the closest thing to hell that he could imagine.

So hats off to these firefighters and the extraordinary job they're doing.

KARL: Well, let me ask you the question that the FEMA administrator could not answer, and that is why is it that officials in Los Angeles, that officials in the state of California, have not requested military -- active duty military assistance that has been offered by the Pentagon? Why are -- why are those resources still just on standby?

SCHIFF: Jonathan, the only thing I’ve heard on that specific subject is -- and the -- and the FEMA administrator alluded to this -- that we have gotten a great deal of mutual aid from all over the state, all over the country, indeed other countries. And the air is pretty crowded with aircraft. And it may be -- it's simply not safe to have more aircraft in the air. It may also do with – have to do with the logistics of making sure those aircraft have the water they need.

So, I don't know the complete answer. I will say this, Jonathan, the governor's called for an independent review of why we didn't have enough water in places like the Palisades. There were also water pressure issues in Altadena. I support that independent review. I think we should go further and, frankly, do an independent commission review of all of this. What went right in our response? What went wrong in it? I'm deeply concerned about these erroneous alerts, these erroneous evacuation alerts that have gone out. If people can't trust when they're told you need to get out, that they do need to get out, then it not only severely impacts the whole effort, but people ignore the alerts, endangering themselves and endangering the firefighters that have to step between the fires and these civilians.

So, there's a lot to get through. I think we need an independent commission to look at all of it. And beyond that, Jonathan, we're going to need to rebuild and with a sense of urgency. We need cleanup operations when the flames are out. We need the rebuilding to go forward. We can't have, you know, local bureaucratic delay. We need to bring a sense of urgency to this.

But – but the most urgency right now has to be reserved to putting down these flames. We have more high winds coming up in the next couple days. So, for now, let's focus on putting out these fires, saving lives, saving property, and then let's – let’s do the full analysis of what went wrong.

KARL: The governor has ordered that investigation into the water. Clearly that was a factor here.

What – in your talk with local – with first responders, with local officials, what's your understanding? Why did some of those – or so many of those fire hydrants simply run dry? Was there something to do with that 117 million-gallon reservoir in the Palisades that was out of operation? What's your understanding? What's your initial read on this?

SCHIFF: Well, my initial take, and I certainly want a full review of this so that I can form a more complete understanding of the matter, but my initial understanding is, the reservoirs that the Palisades were drawing on, these 3 million-gallon reservoirs, were full at the initiation of these fires. But they're intended – frankly, they have the capacity to put out homes that may house multiple houses, not if the whole town is up in flames. And more particularly, not if the winds are so strong that aircraft can't fly.

And this was the problem in the very beginning. The winds were hurricane force, up to 100 miles an hour winds. You can't fly in that. And you depend on being able to do water drops to put down those kind of flames. I have to think there are probably hundreds of towns in California, thousands and thousands across the country that are in equally the same position that if they had 100-mile-an-hour winds and a lot of dry fuel, they wouldn't have any more water than this community did.

We also had the problem that pipes were melting. And so you had houses burning down, the pipes in those houses melting, water coming out of those pipes, reducing pressure. I think this was an issue in the Altadena fire. And so, we're going to have to get to the bottom of this.

KARL: And let me ask you –

SCHIFF: And, frankly, a lot of other things.

KARL: We're really out of time. We have to let you go.

SCHIFF: Yes.

KARL: But very quickly, how important is it for incoming President Donald Trump and Governor Gavin Newsom to be able to work on this? There's been a lot of really heated rhetoric between those two. Of course, especially coming from President-elect Trump. How important is it for them to work together on this?

SCHIFF: Look, it's going to be really important for the incoming president to work with all of us in California to make sure that we get the resources we need to put out these flames, if there are any still burning when he takes office, to get the relief to get back on our feet.

And I'll tell you this, Jonathan, I’ve been in Congress a long time, approving aid after disasters. I never once even considered, is this hurricane hitting a red state or a blue state? What about this flood? What about this fire? It has never mattered to me.

KARL: For sure.

SCHIFF: We're all in this together. It’s the United States of America. We need the incoming president to view it that way. We're ready to work with the president to make sure that we have no – no gap, no air between us when it comes to making sure that we help victims get back on their feet and help California rebuild.

KARL: All right. All right, Senator Schiff, thank you very much for spending some time with us this morning.

Up next, how will the Republican-controlled Congress respond to the devastation in California. I'll ask the man who counts the votes. House majority whip Tom Emmer joins me right here in the studio when we come back.

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TRUMP: This is a true tragedy, and it's a mistake of the governor, and you could say the administration. They don't have any water. They didn't have water in the fire hydrants. The governor has not done a good job.

NEWSOM: If people are literally fleeing, people have lost their lives, kids lost their schools. Families completely torn asunder. Churches burned down, and this guy wanted to politicize it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: President-elect Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom this week on the wildfires.

I'm joined now by House majority whip Tom Emmer.

Thank you for being here. So let me start with California. President Biden this week called on Congress to do whatever -- provide California whatever it needs to recover. What's your sense? What's going to be needed?

REP. TOM EMMER (R-MN): Well, right now we don't know what's going to be needed. We know it's significant. What we do know is that Congress in December, before we left the 118th Congress, passed the American Relief Act which provided billions of dollars to FEMA to not only deal with the pre -- the hurricanes, Milton and Helene, but also for situations such as this, although no one could predict what's happening right now in L.A.

KARL: I mean, it's unbelievable, and you, of course, you're the guy that counts the votes. And I saw you counting the votes as you were trying to elect a speaker, and it wasn't particularly easy. Now you have a very ambitious incoming agenda from President Trump.

Realistically what are you going to get accomplished in these first 100 days or so?

EMMER: We're going to get the Trump agenda put in place. Donald Trump got a mandate on November 5th. The public expects us to deal with the excessive spending, the debt, the deficit, that has driven double-digit inflation at the beginning of the Biden term. They've asked Donald Trump to seal the southern border and they want to make sure -- they want peace and stability around the globe. I think that's what Congress will be working with Donald Trump to get done.

KARL: You're going to need Democratic buy-in I think on a bunch of this stuff, aren't you? I mean, one thing you need to do is raise the debt ceiling, for instance, and you've got a number of your colleagues that just won't do that under any circumstance. Trump has even talked about eliminating the debt ceiling.

How -- are you having conversations on this? Are you looping in Hakeem Jeffries and the Democratic leadership on some of this? Or is it political warfare from the start?

EMMER: I'll allow our speaker, Mike Johnson, to have those --

KARL: Yes.

EMMER: -- discussions with Hakeem, the minority leader. My job is to work with our members, which we have been doing for the last two years plus. This is a new group. Weadded some new members last week.

And when you say that we have members that will never do something, be careful with that, really. We have members --

(CROSSTALK)

KARL: I mean, you can acknowledge they've never done it yet.

EMMER: Absolutely, there's only two that I know of --

KARL: Yeah, okay.

EMMER: -- that we have right now. But that doesn't mean that that's not going to change under the right circumstances.

KARL: Yeah.

EMMER: The issue that Republicans have had and I think that Donald Trump has is the debt ceiling is a false number. The bottom line is you got to get your spending under control and you got to have a plan to pay off the debt.

So as long as we're doing that, don't underestimate what the House Republicans can do.

KARL: So the -- there's a lot of talk about one bill, two bill, one big beautiful bill. I don't want to get into all the weeds on this.

But, Kim Strassel of “The Wall Street Journal” editorial board published a piece this week that was headlined: The GOP's irreconcilable differences. Donald Trump's budget strategy could produce one big beautiful mess.

Is there a danger of trying to do too much in one big bill at a time, taxes, the border everything else?

EMMER: That's not a concern to me. I -- once we make the decision, is it going to be one? Is it going to be two? It doesn't matter.

The whip's job is to make sure that we execute once that decision has been made and I love people who tell us that we can't do something.

KARL: Yeah.

EMMER: I mean, when we didn't have the White House and we didn't have the Senate, we did things that Republican majorities had never been able to do -- in the previous 10 to 15 years. I mean, it was the strongest border security bill in 20 years.

It was -- an all of the above energy policy, with all the reforms to permitting that we haven't seen for years. The list goes on and on. It was raising a debt ceiling.

We were told we couldn't do any of those things, and you know what? We did do those things.

Now, we have a partner in the Senate with John Thune and his people, and we have the White House to get the things done that Donald J. Trump said he was to do that the American public elected him to do.

KARL: And you have an even narrower majority and it was -- it was narrow before, but an even narrower majority. Don't -- don't envy your job.

EMMER: Two twenty-two to 219. It --

KARL: I mean, it's unbelievable.

So, let me ask you, your relationship with Trump. I remember when Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker, you were nominated to replace him. And Donald Trump -- you probably remember this, but let me remind you just in case -- posted on Truth Social: I have many wonderful friends wanting to be speaker of the House and some truly great warriors. RINO Tom Emmer who I do not know well is not one of them. He is totally out of touch with the Republican voters.

Now, to be fair, that was more than a year ago. I assume you've gotten to know Trump a little bit better?

EMMER: The president and I are on very good terms. I’m -- yeah, the president is -- has been wonderful to me, been wonderful to my wife, has done everything that he could to campaign in Minnesota. I -- he's been amazing.

And yeah, we're going to do some good work together. But it's Donald J. Trump's agenda. My job is to make sure that we execute.

KARL: And what are those interactions like?

EMMER: He's -- he's a very blunt and honest human being.

(LAUGHTER)

KARL: All right. Well, we look forward to seeing -- and we hope to have you come back soon when we have more time.

Congressman Tom Emmer, the majority whip, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

EMMER: Thanks (ph).

KARL: All right. Up next, in just eight days, he'll step inside the White House as Donald Trump's national security adviser. Congressman Mike Waltz joins -- joins me to discuss the foreign policy challenges ahead as Donald Trump takes office.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand still no call with Putin. Is that a day one or week one call (inaudible)?

TRUMP: He wants to -- he wants to meet. And we're going to -- we're setting it up. President Putin wants to meet. He has said that even publicly, and we have to get that war over with. That's a bloody mess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: That's President-elect Trump there on plans to meet with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. I'm joined now by his incoming National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz of Florida. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

Let's start with that. The president said he is working to set up a meeting with Putin. How soon do you expect that to happen?

REP. MIKE WALTZ, (R-FL) INCOMING WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, the preparations are underway. But just taking a step back for a moment, Jon, it's been striking to me, just since President's election, how many people have gone from just unqualified, blank check, as long as it takes, whether that's months, years, decades in terms of perpetuating this war, which really has bogged down to a World War I style meat grinder of people and resources, with World War III consequences, to now even President Zelenskyy walking in the room in Paris and saying, "Ready to work with you to end this war. Let's end it justly, responsibly, in a way that protects Ukraine's future, but ends this thing and so, the entire world can move on for it -- from it."

So from President Trump's perspective, you can't enter a deal if you don't have some type of relationship and dialog with the other side. And we will absolutely establish that in the coming months.

KARL: Do you anticipate -- will the first meeting with Putin be a -- just Trump and Putin, or will this be bringing -- trying to bring in Ukraine as well as Zelenskyy, Putin and Trump?

WALTZ: Well, we haven't set the exact framework for it yet. We're working on that. But I do expect a call for, at least in the coming days and weeks. So, that would be a step and we'll take it from there. I will say, the other thing that we're going to need to see is really stabilizing things on the battlefield. And one of the things that we'll be asking of the Ukrainians is they have real manpower issues. Their draft age right now is 26 years old, not 18.

I don't think a lot of people realize that they could generate hundreds of thousands of new soldiers. So when we hear about morale problems, when we hear about issues on the frontline, look, if the Ukrainians have asked the entire world to be all in for democracy, we need them to be all in for democracy. And they certainly have fought bravely. They certainly have taken a very noble and tough stand. But we need to see those manpower shortages addressed. This isn't just about munitions, ammunition, or writing more checks. It's about seeing the frontlines stabilized, so that we can enter into some type of deal.

KARL: President-elect Trump, of course, had said that he could have the war ended even before he took office. I assume that's not going to happen. We're just eight days away from him being sworn in. What is the realistic timeframe for at least a ceasefire in Ukraine? What do you think? What is the goal?

WALTZ: Well, we would like to see a ceasefire any minute, any day. I think that would be a positive – incredibly positive first step on both sides. And that would then allow us to enter into the framework of some type of negotiated solution here.

Everybody knows that this has to end somehow diplomatically. I just don't think it's realistic to say we're going to expel every Russian from every inch of Ukrainian soil, even Crimea. President Trump has acknowledged that reality, and I think it's been a huge step forward that the entire world is acknowledging that reality.

Now let's move forward. How do we not – no longer perpetuate this conflict, and how do we no longer allow it to escalate in a way that drags in the entire world? We're already seeing North Korea, we've seen, you know, grumblings from South Korea. This – this thing could expand, and that's what we have to stop.

KARL: And let me ask you about another major conflict on your plate, the efforts to get a hostage deal to – with Hamas. What are the prospects there? Do you think that can get done by the 20th?

WALTZ: You know, those negotiations are literally happening as we speak. Hamas is completely isolated. They always expected that kind of cavalry to come from the north and Hezbollah, which has now been decimated and destroyed. We just had a huge, positive movement with the election of General Aoun in Lebanon. So, Hamas has nowhere else to go. But to enter into some type of agreement, allow, you know, let's have a ceasefire. Let's allow our hostages to be set free. I want to see them walking across the tarmac or at a minimum some type of agreement before inauguration because President Trump is serious.

Everyone, you know, any deal will only get worse for – for Hamas. And there will be all hell to pay in the Middle East if we continue to have this kind of hostage diplomacy.

Jon, it's – I don't think it's fully realized that these hostages will have been in those tunnels being abused, molested, raped, in the most awful conditions, longer now than our hostages were held in 1979 in Iran. It's just unacceptable. And there are going to be consequences to those who think they can take an American. There is going to – no longer be any upside for anyone who harms Americans abroad.

KARL: And, Congressman, of course, President Trump made some serious waves this week when he didn't rule out the possibility of using military force to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland. Is he – is he serious about that? Is that really an option?

WALTZ: Well, look, what he's – what he’s very serious about is the threats that we're facing in the arctic, the threats that we're facing in the western hemisphere. And don't just take that from him or me. The general in charge of our southern command, Laura Richardson, testified last year about Chinese state-owned enterprises’ bidding and buying up portions of the canal, the ports on either side, Huawei, the Chinese technology firm, dominating the free trade zone and their telecommunications with 70 percent of global – of U.S. shipping flowing through the Panama Canal with our oil and gas exports flowing from the Gulf through there with a critical for our military. There are elements for the U.S. to come in and defend its critical assets in the Panama Canal, in the Panama Canal treaty, in the neutrality treaty.

And for Greenland, there's precedent there as well with the 1951 defense agreement that we entered. And look, to our great friends and allies in Denmark, they literally have a couple of dogsled teams, Jonathan, up in Greenland. And when we're seeing Russia with 60 icebreakers, when we're seeing huge critical mineral, oil and gas, new shipping lanes being opened with the retreating of the polar icecap, you know, enough is enough of having our adversaries coming into our western hemisphere, threaten our, you know, our national security. And President Trump is ready to take big, bold steps to ensure the United States is well-defended.

KARL: OK, we're really out of time, but let me just underline, are – so you’re saying that – I understand the goals, that that could not – that's a diplomatic goal or are you talking aboutusing military force to achieve those goals?

WALTZ: Well, look, President Trump is always going to leave all options on the table but there are a number of things we can enter into to amend those existing agreements.

We're hearing from the Greenlanders that they are pushing towards independence, which would allow all types of other avenues, but President Trump's never going to take an option off the table, unlike, frankly, his predecessor.

So when it comes to our national defense, that's, you know, look, that is paramount to the commander-in-chief.

KARL: All right. Mike Waltz, a lot more to talk to. We hope to back -- have you on soon after you take office. Appreciate your time this morning.

Coming up, what exactly were Donald Trump and Barack Obama talking about as they sat next to each other at Jimmy Carter's funeral service in Washington?

The roundtable is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I thought it’s -- even though I thought I could win again, I thought it was better to unify the party and I had -- it was the greatest honor in my life to be president of the United States but I didn't want to be one who caused a party that wasn't unified to lose an election. And that's why I stepped aside but I was confident she could win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: President Biden this week saying he thinks he could have won the 2024 election.

The roundtable on that and much more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KARL: Roundtable is here. We have Former DNC Chair Donna Brazile, Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, ABC News Washington Bureau Chief and Political Director Rick Klein, and ABC News Contributing Political Correspondent and Politico Capital Bureau Chief Rachael Bade.

Thank you all for being here. OK, Donna, I got to put you on the spot, Sorry.

DONNA BRAZILE, FORMER DNC CHAIR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: OK.

(LAUGH)

KARL: We -- we just heard what Biden said. He said that he thought he would've won the election.

BRAZILE: So I --

KARL: He said it twice now. I --

BRAZILE: Well, first of all, let -- let me just set the table right. Joe Biden thought he could win because after his debate performance, he received poll and that showed that he wasn't sliding, that the -- that things had stalled, but that he still had a chance.

Look, it was 24 of the most agonizing days, I think, in Democratic Party history until the president made the decision to step back so that the vice president --

KARL: The 24 days between the debate against Trump and --

BRAZILE: June 27th and July 21st.

KARL: -- him dropping out?

BRAZILE: Agonizing because we had no playbook. We had no playbook. Look, Joe Biden thought because he had beaten Trump before in 2020 that he had the playbook to win. I don't think so. I think before he answered that question in the interview with Susan Page, Susan asked him about a similar situation about the Democrats losing so much. And he said there were global issues.

I mean, across the -- across the world, there was a -- no, it's been a stiff headwind. Look what just happened in Canada. Look what's happening in Germany. Look what's happening in France. I mean, I can go on and on and on. The bottom line is I think Vice President Harris did a damn good job given the odds.

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER RNC CHAIR & FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF & ABC NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, he also said in that statement before that clip, that Kamala Harris could have won. Someone needs to remind him that she did in fact run and she got killed. He was having problems well before that debate. I mean, he crashed debate, no doubt about it. But, it's just, again, illustrating the fact that Joe Biden has been living on fantasy island where Biden's fantasies come true and had been happening -- it's been going on for years. This is nothing new. People have been talking about it. He waited too long. He did in fact crush the Democrat Party, but Donald Trump would've smoked --

KARL: Yeah

PRIEBUS: -- Joe Biden.

RACHAEL BADE, POLITICO CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF & SENIOR WASHINGTON COLUMNIST & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTING POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

BRAZILE: We don't know that. The country is sold (ph) about it.

(CROSSTALK)

PRIEBUS: -- in the most unbelievable fashion.

BRAZILE: We don't know that.

PRIEBUS: Oh, come on.

BRAZILE: He didn't even smoke Kamala Harris.

PRIEBUS: He was bleeding everywhere.

BRAZILE: I mean, he got by.

BADE: Factually, factually.

PRIEBUS: He is at 36 percent approval now. You didn't think he'd have a little bump after nothing.

(CROSSTALK)

BADE: I mean, clearly, we don't have a crystal ball here to see what would've happened in another situation. But I think given everything we know from the reporting and where the country was and what happened during those couple of weeks after the debate, we can say it's very unlikely Joe Biden would've beat Donald Trump. I mean, it would've taken a miracle.

KARL: Yeah, I mean --

BADE: We talked in the break about donors fleeing from him. I remember hearing from leadership, everybody saying he was toast, right after the debate. The reason why he hung on so long is because he couldn't internalize the fact that he was going to lose. And that is clearly still a problem.

KARL: All right. Rick, let's turn to the person who did win, Donald Trump. We have 14 of his cabinet nominees have hearings scheduled in this upcoming week. What are you looking for?

RICK KLEIN, ABC NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, what's striking to me is how many Democrats probably disagree with the statement we said before, and a lot of these cabinet appointees are going to get in without much drama at all. In fact I think the vast majority are going to get in --

KARL: Most of them.

KLEIN: Most of them will. I think the real attention, though, is going to be on a few. Pete Hegseth who's got his hearing on Tuesday. We've seen reporting including from ABC News about some flags that are raised in the FBI background check. Some senators were saying they want more information. That is going to be a real serious hearing.

We're also going to get the first real glimpse into what the Trump plans around immigration and the border will be between Pam Bondi as the attorney general nominee as well as Kristi Noem at the Department of Homeland Security. This is the policy that starts to come into place, and we've talked about the personalities for a long time, but I think these next couple of days are going to begin to flush out what Trump wants to do, what his people want to do, and what kind of team he's going to have around him.

The history of this, as you know, Jon, there's always surprises. We always -- we go in and think they're all going to be smooth. There's going to be someone or something that comes up in the next couple of days that we did not anticipate.

KARL: I mean, it seems like it's turned up even from where it was in 2017 after he won the first time. I mean, the focus on these hearings is going to be off the charts.

BADE: Yes. I mean, I think two dynamics to watch in addition to obviously how the nominees themselves perform is the posture of the parties right now. I mean, I think the Trump administration played a -- took a major risk and did a major gamble when they went after Joni Ernst regarding the Hegseth nomination and tried to make this example of her. That really could have blown back.

Instead what we're seeing is Republicans saw what happened to her and they've all tried to get in line, and there's really no indication that we're going to see, you know, another nominee go down, at least at this point, and then you have to watch the Democratic side as well because they are grappling right now with what is their posture in this new Trump administration? And look. They have an opportunity to bring people in if they want.

Hard how are they going to go after these nominees? And I think that that's something we don't actually know yet. They've actually -- Democrats have backed up a Republican bill on immigration just this recent week. That is moving ahead in the Senate. That was a big change in their posture from just the past four years. Are they going to --

KARL: The Laken Riley bill. Yes.

BADE: The Laken -- yes, exactly.

KARL: I mean, you have the vast majority of Democrats in the Senate vote for it.

BADE: Vote to advance it.

KARL: To advance it. To advance it. Yes.

BADE: We don't know how many will vote for a final passage, but the fact that they're getting on board on that makes me think that their posture against some of these nominees will not be as maybe aggressive as we've seen in the past. I'm curious.

KARL: Can I do a quick flashback to a show a couple of weeks ago? Senator Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, I want to play something he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: Have you talked to Trump since the election?

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I have not. I have not, no.

KARL: So I assume he's going to call you at some point. What is your message to him after he sees this?

FETTERMAN: What would I say to him? I would be, like, well, hey. Well, congratulations. And have an honest conversation of things. I would like to -- we could work together and some things we're going to disagree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: All right. So that was Fetterman. By the way, he did call him, and Fetterman is going to go meet with him down at Mar-a-Lago.

BRAZILE: Absolutely. The mayor of the District of Columbia went down to meet with President-elect Trump. There's nothing wrong with that. I don't think you're -- this is -- this is not going to be a time of resistance like it was in 2017. They're going to look for opportunities to work with the president-elect and his team, and they will be prepared to oppose him when they disagree.

PRIEBUS: One of the things that I think this Fetterman issue is pointing out is something that we talked about right after the election which is the future, I think, of where the Democrats will go, is populist left. The progressive left lost it for the Democrats. You're seeing it with Fetterman. He knows it. He's in Pennsylvania. He's got to make sure he's on the right side of this debate.

KARL: He doesn't like the term progressive, he says. Yes.

PRIEBUS: Well, he --

BADE: All of a sudden.

PRIEBUS: Yes, he's not -- the Democratic Party is going to go populist left, the wildfires, the cultural issues. All these things, they're going to eat them alive.

BRAZILE: And there are 16.6 million jobs. The 20 million small businesses.

PRIEBUS: And he's at 36 percent approval.

BRAZILE: This great economy that the Democrats are once again gifting to Donald Trump.

PRIEBUS: Donna, your party got crushed.

BRAZILE: The Democrats are not going to --

PRIEBUS: Just take the loss and move forward.

BRAZILE: I know what a crushing looked like. I have been around politics.

PRIEBUS: I do, too, and it was amazing.

BRAZILE: You know what, it was a very difficult election, but when you lose by less than 7,000 votes in the House --

PRIEBUS: The greatest political comeback in this modern history that Donald Trump achieved.

BRAZILE: And 1.7 million in the -- look. A loss is a loss. We're not sitting around re-litigating like you all did four years ago. We're going to move forward.

PRIEBUS: As former RNC chairman for six years --

KARL: All right.

BRAZILE: We're going forward.

PRIEBUS: -- I am thrilled that you think that what happened in November wasn't --

BRAZILE: We're going forward.

PRIEBUS: -- wasn't a decisive victory.

KARL: OK. So wait, wait, I want to -- before we go.

BRAZILE: It was not a landslide.

KARL: Before we go, we have to talk about the Jimmy Carter memorial, and can we get some pictures on the screen? The thing I wanted to ask is, we have people who can answer the question. We saw all the presidents. We saw five Presidents gathered together at one time, and then we had this, Barack Obama and Donald Trump sitting there like old friends catching up. So, you guys can tell us. Donna, what was Obama talking to Trump?

BRAZILE: Well, anyone who knows Barack Obama knows that he's a very gracious guy, a funny guy, a very smart guy. So I'm sure they commiserated over a lot of things, but also probably had a good time talking about who knows? Sports. I don't know.

PRIEBUS: I would say a couple of things quickly.

KARL: OK, go ahead.

PRIEBUS: Number one, Donald Trump one-on-one with people, people that even don't like him one-on-one, he's a charming guy. He's great with people.

KARL: I didn't see him (inaudible) around with Kamala Harris.

PRIEBUS: Number two, it's good -- they did beforehand.

KARL: OK.

PRIEBUS: It's good to see. But the third thing, it also shows what a sham some of the Democrat talking points. I mean, he -- Donald Trump was supposed to be Hitler. He was a fascist. He was a threat to democracy. But, what about (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

KARL: We can talk about the things that Trump has said about Obama too. I mean, I mean --

(CROSSTALK)

PRIEBUS: What a (ph) sham.

BRAZILE: He's a -- he's a convicted felon who's about to take care of the law (ph). OK?

PRIEBUS: This entire campaign was the whole thing.

BRAZILE: We -- we're -- this is not about the name calling.

PRIEBUS: It was a lie.

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: -- that Donald Trump has done for the last --

PRIEBUS: It was a lie.

BRAZILE: -- eight years. The bottom line is he's elected president, as Mr. Federman and others have said --

KARL: Yeah.

BRAZILE: He's going to be our president. And that is what we recognize.

KLEIN: There are decades of political rivalries in the first couple rows at that funeral.

KARL: Incredible, right?

KLEIN: In fact (inaudible) all of that is fascinating, fascinating. But look, I do think it tells us that this Trump coming back to Washington is a different person at a different time, different time in our political history, different time in his political history. The fact that so many members of Congress, some two-thirds of House members elected either with him or since he was elected --

PRIEBUS: That's right.

KLEIN: It is a different place in every way. And yes, his interactions with some -- with some other leaders are going to be a lot different this time around. We're seeing signs of that everywhere. Democrats still don't know where their direction is, and a lot of it is going to be different this time. To Donna's point, not less -- less resistance and more, let's see if we can work together.

BRAZILE: Yeah.

KARL: I mean, in the business world.

BADE: Yeah. No, he's not the prior he was four years ago. Absolutely. And his team worked hard to change that image to help in the eyes of voters, in the eyes of these businesses too. But I also think when it comes to Obama and Donald Trump, game clearly recognizes game, right? I mean, both of these presidents.

(LAUGH)

PRIEBUS: Exactly.

BADE: They were both, you know --

KARL: I think, two-term president --

(CROSSTALK)

PRIEBUS: I was with the president Monday night and the difference was, in 2016, everyone was assuming that we were -- we weren't to be dealt with. Now, they're totally unified.

KARL: Out of time. On that note, totally unified, you heard. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KARL: Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us. Check out "World News Tonight" and have a great day.

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