GEOFF BENNETT: President Biden has just one week left in office, and the raging wildfires in California have become fodder for political debate.

For the political stakes of the moment, we are joined tonight by Tamara Keith of NPR and Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News.

Amy Walter is away.

With a welcome to you both, Tam, as we continue covering these destructive wildfires out West, the state's governor, L.A.'s mayor, they are really fending off attacks from Donald Trump and his allies, namely Elon Musk, who are blaming them for the destruction.

Help us understand how this is unfolding, and what's at stake if Donald Trump, who this time next week will be president, if he cuts off or withholds federal disaster relief.

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Yes.

And, to be fair, they are also fending off criticism from residents of their own states... GEOFF BENNETT: That's right.

TAMARA KEITH: ... who are frustrated with the response.

And there are also the reality -- the reality is that these fires moved so fast and so furious, it was like hundreds of simultaneous house fires that they were trying to fight.

So there's only so much that can or could be done in that moment.

But yet the politics broke out immediately.

I mean, the fires were zero percent contained when the politicization of the fires was well under way.

The question is, what does that mean for California?

And it probably does not help California that there is a Republican trifecta in Washington, and California is a blue state, and where this happened in California is a blue part of a blue state.

And Trump in the past has openly speculated about not helping states that he didn't agree with or withheld a major disaster declaration in Washington state for an extended period of time back when he was president.

It's not -- he isn't projecting exactly what he would do this time.

President Biden has in some ways tried to lock it in.

We will see if he succeeds.

But he has offered the state of California 100 percent coverage of recovery efforts from the federal government.

Normally, it's a split, like 75/25.

And President Biden has come out and said it's 100 percent for 180 days.

He's not going to be president for 180 days.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, here's how Governor Newsom responded to the political attacks from Donald Trump while speaking to "Meet the Press" yesterday.

GOV.

GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I called for him to come out, take a look for himself.

We want to do it in the spirit of an open hand, not a closed fist.

He's the president-elect.

I respect the office.

We have a president of the United States that within 36 hours provided a major disaster declaration over a text.

We had support from the president of the United States, Joe Biden, with 100 percent reimbursement, all the resources you could hope for, imagine, constant communication.

I'd like to extend that to the president-elect.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we learned today that Mr. Trump reportedly plans to visit California soon.

Andrew, from your perch on the Hill, it appears congressional Republicans are trying to or at least they say they want to condition some of this aid.

Tell me about that.

ANDREW DESIDERIO, Punchbowl News: Yes, look, Speaker Mike Johnson has said that that's a possibility.

He also floated the idea, for what it's worth, of attaching it to a raising of the debt ceiling, which I will just plant the marker right now, is highly unlikely.

That will not work.

It will not happen.

That is not the vehicle for it, in other words.

I do think that Russ Vought, who is Trump's nominee for OMB director -- this is the office that controls all of this aid that goes out, both domestic and foreign, by the way.

He's going to get questions about this at his confirmation hearing on the Hill this week.

And I will say too that Senate Republicans, who we just talked to earlier this evening on the Hill, made very clear that they're not really comfortable with this idea either, including, and especially, I should say, people like Senator Rick Scott from the state of Florida, for example, who deals with these natural disasters on a yearly basis, Senator Thom Tillis, who just successfully pushed for a major disaster relief package for his home state of North Carolina, due to, of course, the hurricanes that ravaged the western part of his state as well.

So we're seeing these Republicans who have traditionally supported disaster aid without conditions when and where it's needed come out and say, hey, that's not a good idea.

And I will note too, the filibuster still exists in the Senate, and Democrats will not vote for disaster aid that has conditions on it, especially in the manner in which some congressional Republicans and President Trump might be suggesting.

GEOFF BENNETT: At the very least, that would be precedent-setting.

ANDREW DESIDERIO: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk about President Biden's farewell this week.

He has two speeches planned, one he delivered today about his foreign policy achievements, as he sees them, another Wednesday night from the Oval Office.

Help us understand how he's trying to craft the public perception of his presidency as he exits.

TAMARA KEITH: He is trying to write the first draft of his legacy.

Obviously, a lot of other people are writing first drafts of his legacy as well, and they aren't exactly as rosy as he describes it.

But he today said that America has more friends now than it did when he left.

He talked about what he wants Donald Trump to continue of his policies.

There's probably likely going to be a very strong break from many of Biden's policies, like on climate, for instance, and A.I., things that Biden name -checked today.

The speech Wednesday in the Oval Office, it really is sort of this formal, traditional farewell address.

However, Biden also, just a couple of days ago, was asked if he's going to go quietly into the night or whether he's going to speak out against Trump or speak out in his post-presidency, and he's like, I'm not going to be quiet.

We will see.

We will see what the appetite is for commentary from President Biden once he's no longer in the Oval Office, but he is trying to cement his legacy to say that America is already great, that it doesn't need to be made great again.

GEOFF BENNETT: I know you're paying close attention to the dozen or so confirmation hearings that are set to happen starting this week for Mr. Trump's Cabinet nominees.

Senator John Cornyn jokingly referred to this as a train wreck of confirmation hearings, given that they're just coming back to back.

We were reporting earlier, our Laura Barron-Lopez did, on the Hegseth confirmation hearing in particular.

ANDREW DESIDERIO: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: What will you be watching for?

ANDREW DESIDERIO: Look, this is a nomination that Republicans think is safe at this point, but that Democrats are using tomorrow's confirmation hearing for to advance a narrative about him, so that they can say, this person is unqualified, he's unfit.

They're going to bring up the allegations of sexual and financial misconduct.

They have got a lot of women on that committee in particular who have been outspoken about this, for example, Senator Mazie Hirono from Hawaii, Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, Senator Tammy Duckworth from Illinois, who herself was injured in combat.

They have got -- Democrats feel like they have the right message on this and the right people to deliver that message.

Whether it's going to make a difference at this point is unclear, but they think that tomorrow is one of those rare confirmation hearings that could actually matter, where the responses from Pete Hegseth and in turn from Republicans both on and off the committee could actually make a difference in terms of his confirmation prospects.

I will note that Republicans on the Armed Services Committee have already noticed a vote for his -- a committee vote on his nomination for next Monday, which is Inauguration Day, at around 5:00 p.m.

It'll be members only, limited staff allowed in the room.

That is going to be presumably when and where they vote on Pete Hegseth's nomination to advance it to the Senate floor.

Based on the composition of the Armed Services Committee on the GOP side, I don't see any potential no-votes there, so he will probably be fine advancing out of committee.

The real problem is on the floor.

Republicans at that point will have 53 seats, of course, a 53-seat majority.

They can lose no more than three votes.

And so there's a number of people we're going to be watching for.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Tam, the idea here is to get as many people qualified as humanly possible -- confirmed as humanly possible on day one.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

And Trump had two confirmed on Inauguration Day last time.

I think his team wants a higher number than that, though it's not -- really not clear that's possible.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tamara Keith and Andrew Desiderio, thanks to you both.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

ANDREW DESIDERIO: Thank you.