doing what he's doing and it's important for the congress of the united states to do what they're supposed to do. >> one giant question for bob mueller now. did the president of the united states improperly try to shut down the investigation and did he then fire the fbi director when he refused to comply? >> the way the system works sometimes, particularly in the mainstream media, they want to prove you guilty before you've actually had anything. that's what the mainstream media has tried to do to this president is accuse him of things that there's been so evidence whatsoever. >> republican leaders are exhausted and annoyed by the daily if not hourly white house dramas and missteps. they now are embracing both the new special counsel and more aggressive oversight by congressional investigators. >> they're going to do their jobs independently and thoroughly which is what we've called for all along. so i think it was perfectly appropriate to do that. in the meantime, we're going to keep doing our jobs.

>> here's an understatement for you. the white house is edge. the president blames anyone but himself. his advisers the subject of constant shakeup talk most of that fueled by the president himself with friends and campaign aids. jackie, perry, olivia and margaret. former fbi director robert mueller begins his work today and is building a team of seasoned visitors and prosecutors. president trump finds that unfair. well, with all of the illegal acts that took place in the clinton campaign and obama administration, there was never a special counsel appointed he tweeted this morning. this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. what the president calls a witch hunt almost all of the rest of washington calls a welcome development. >> this won't be a witch hunt. he's going to follow the facts and evidence wherever they lead and i trust that he'll come to

the right conclusion. this president has no one to blame but himself for the things that he has done. things he continues to release has made his life much more complicated. >> what do we make of this new day and the new world we are in and especially the president's reaction this morning? a very muted statement last night but this morning lashing out at the special counsel investigation, he's been treated unfairly. nowhere has he said in the statement last night or in these tweets i'm prepared to cooperate, i willfully cooperate. where are we? >> we rarely see bipartisan in washington. pretty much everybody prays. him lashing out, i was not surprised by it. i was surprised the white house wrote the press statement last night where he has control over

twitter himself. if he had not -- the firing of comey is going to turnout to be one of the biggest things he did wrong and the way he handled it. he ended up firing an fbi director and then having another fbi director with a broader management of trump. this is a self-inflicted mistake. he continues to do things like this. >> you have to wonder who he spoke to between last night when he had this very measured statement and this morning. or he got up and started watching tv. >> it was right after a segment on fox and friends. how dare they now, they didn't do this to clinton or obama. >> it's not like one of his advisers can barge into the r residence and say give me your phone. >> that's a critical point. does the president get this. a got a lot of these gray hairs covering the clinton white house. an investigation that started into a real estate transaction

in western arkansas then became about paula jones and ended up at monica lieu w-- he's going t about everything. about the president's conduct as president. not just what happened in last year's campaign. but what do those comey memos say? >> look at the mueller order. look at the order creating this position and look at there's a mall phrase tucked in there about how he's looking into the russian meddling in the election. he's looking into -- we know he's looking into michael flynn, former national security adviser. there's a phrase in there that says basically any other matters that arise. i think that's the biggest danger point for this white house where it increasingly looks like day ten after the rations ran out on the life boat. that little phrase there, that's what happened in the clinton era. you remember when ken star got more and more authority. they've got to be watching that. >> this week what seems to be

the real turning point which is the turning point in the space between the rest of the republican party and donald trump. we're seeing in congress now what began as a subtle shift in rhetoric has become a more deliberate shift in rhetoric. senators, even house members and house leadership either making jokes about this or using critical language like downward spiral or drama to describe it. the decision to go to the special counsel has given congressional republicans the space to do this because they no longer feel like they need to defend president trump and jeff session's ability to conduct for this -- for a criminal investigation to be ongoing. the criminal investigation is now going to happen through the special counsel and it gives the republicans the space to not even have to play in that air space anymore. >> and as has happened, began from experience, what it does to a white house, what it does to a white house, even if bob mueller issues a report, whether it's six months or two years saying i found no misconduct, so he look

at a comey memo. the president pulled comey aside at the end of the meeting whoch. who knew about that. you have to interview jeff sessions and mike pence. is it true the president asked you to leave the room? was the security guard in the hallway? what about the president's secretary? talk to the nobodies and i don't mean tt wit the way it sounds. the clinton administration had to start paying thousands dollars of legal fees. this can drain you. >> this is now totally out of their control. is what you're laying out. i think jennifer worked for clinton and was hillary communication director, once the special counsel is there, they can ask for everything. everyone at the white house talks to them. everyone has to get a lawyer. before when richard burr and nunes were running committees, they're republicans. they had in mine the party was in mind with them. now you have mueller is very

unpredictable in the same way on the level comey was. he's not going to be looking to please donald trump or anybody else. so you get something completely out of their control and you don't know where it's going to lead and it could lead to potentially the end of the presidency. >> i think the republicans i spoke to today, they're between do you mean and optimism. like republicans on both sides. while this does give them breathing room, this does lift the cloud a little bit and let them talk about tax reform like paul ryan was trying to do. they know this impending do you mean -- doom could be pending. they know anything could be around the corner. >> and it's a republican president and no matter how much separation they try to get, you're dead right about. this week has been about okay, we're not getting hung out to dry here. no matter how much separation you try to get, he's a republican president and you're the republican party. >> we have a really early test of what's going to happen which is that michael flynn's lawyer

has now told the senate intelligence committee he's not going to comply with the support. how does mueller react? how does the september react? if the senate goes ahead with to force the issue, how does jeff sessions respond? is he still recused? because he would have to enforce -- he'd be the enforcer on anything with flynn. we have an early test in the first hours of this special counselship. >> and even if today we're having a test over the next several days. his personal attorney is in town. people have been unwilling to say y. i'm told there's an effort around the president to get him to hire an outside private counsel torq, to get soy start. hillary clinton had david kendall to deal with the whole e-mail investigation. that doesn't say you did anything wrong. it just says there's a serious investigation under way and you need to be careful about everything you say, everything you put in writing and everything you tweet in this case and whether you decide to cooperate or not cooperate. here's the issue. t"the wall street journal" puts

it this way. while they -- finally decided i can't, i'm boxed into a corner. it also opens up years of political risk. years of political risk to the trump administration with no guarantee that the public will end up with any better understanding of what really happened. this is a snowball and it's very top of a very long hill. >> i think we'll know more about what happened after mulleller investigates. he has a whole team. i think potentially -- it's hard to imagine this ends before the 2018 elections, so you get this whole cloud with the whole party while they're trying to keep senate seats, what does it mean? we don't know. can health care reform pass this environment? maybe. can tax reform pass? maybe. the members now have a lot of incentive to not really follow white house edicts. >> they're hoping we pass stuff and he'll sign it.

maybe the white house will be less involved with the details. i just mean they'd rather just do the work themselves. but we're in an environment, look at the cover of time magazine, whether it's fair or unfair, this is the political environment we live n. a picture of the kremlin essentially consuming the white house. the story inside is about russian use of social media to meddle in u.s. political discussions. the happiest partner in the world this week has to be vladimir putin who is in the middle of watching this play out here in the united states. we're going to talk more about the politics and the tick tock of this as we go forward. let's talk about bob mueller. former fbi director was considered so credible they allowed him to stay past the ten year term. they passed a law so he could stay a couple of extra years. he took a job right after 9/11. he was on the job for one week before 9/11. he had just taken the job. former u.s. attorney in frsan francisco and boston. has been an assistant attorney general. i don't know anybody in this

town who thinks if donald trump tweets that bob mueller is going to quake. >> his back grouground is interesting. his tenure with the justice department dates back to the reagan era. he's got an alliance with james commey. >> standing up to the bush white house. >> that's exactly right. on the interrogations policy. and also the firm with which he was affiliated and has now stepped down. also has ties to paul ma n mana and jared kushner. to the extent you can be above reproach in this town, he's in that category of people. and he's like a pro and a grown up and he's in his 70s. he's not trying to build a career. >> but will be an exclamation point, probably the last big act of his career.

he's a dead serious guy. but he's not going to be cowed by the political pressure. >> you throw every jim comey and it's almost like a boomerang. you get back his mentor. he was the one documenting what happened during the bush administration, during that whole thing with alberto gonzales. this is someone who's very no nonsense. and as you said, unimpeachable. >> and someone who knows if the issue becomes the jim comey memo, do you find them credible, knows the fbi protocols, knows how to share them. talk in the moment. the bottom line is this is not a good day. we not know where it ends, but it does not begin in a good way for the white house. the president call its a witch hunt, but if he's mad, there's suddenly a special prosecutor, you might say he has only one person to blame. [team member] so, how can i help you?

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will i have pain and bloating today? my doctor recommended ibgard to manage my ibs. take control. ask your doctor about nonprescription ibgard. welcome back. we have some breaking news for you. car vehicle apparently crashing. several people hurt in times square. a car apparently hitting pedestrians as it sped through times square. we're showing you pictures from our affiliates in new york. trying to get a sense of the scene here. witnesses say a car plowed into what is always, if you've ever been to times square, crowded with pedestrians. also think about the time of day. lunchtime in times square and you would have new yorkers out on the street.

witnesses say the car plowed into a crowd of pedestrians there. different reports say there are injuries. we're going to keep an eye on this. we'll try to get some information from the nypd. witnesses saying a car plowed in and you see the crowd on the street there. we'll try to get information about the injuries and bring you the latest as soon as we can. terrible scene there in the middle of the day in times square. back to politics until we get more information. when word broke yesterday the special prosecutor was being named the special allies at breitbart voiced its displeasure. knives out, yes, rosenstein had reason to be mad at the white house. initially tried to pin the decision to fire james comey just on him but the president painted rosenstein into the corner with a number of steps that raised question.

one was admitting that the russian investigation was on his mind when he fired james comey. another was allowing attorney general jeff sessions to play a lead role in the firing and interviewing new fbi candidates. sessions promised to recuse himself from anything relating to the russia investigation. the last straw, word the president pushed comey to pledge his loyalty. rosenstein says he was left with little choice. trump allies see this as payback and that is the political dynamic as this goes forward. the president was watching fox and friends this morning and tweet the out why not a special counsel for obama, why not a special counsel for hillary clinton. bright b breitbart calling this rosen si -- rosenstein's revenge. he told russia holt i was thinking about doing it before the inauguration. certainly it was on my mind. what about rosenstein now, who

is number two at the justice department and not held in high regard by the president at the moment. >> speaking of people who have legacies to protect. he had just been confirmed by the senate almost unanimously. only six democrats held back. for him this is also about getting it right. one question that i'm really curious about and i don't know the answer to, i don't have a clear picture about it yet is when the new nominee for fbi director is named and president trump had hoped to do this before leaving tomorrow for saudi arabia. i don't know if that's still going to be possible. what is that person's jurisdiction and breath now going to be and how will they function and sort of interplay? >> and does this take a little of the pressure off of them is the other question. counterperson, considering it would be someone who would be a pointed by trump, there was that overarching question of how

independent could this person be. does the fact that there is a special counsel now help that person get through a little easier? but you do also have rod rosenstein speaking to senators today on the hill. so perhaps this will give him a little bit more to talk about than just trying to justify that letter that was sent that was the initial impetus, not that the president said wasn't for firing comey. >> and it's going to be fascinating to hear what comes out of that. a closed meeting. supposedly a private meeting. but senators on capitol hill. word general leaks from those things. i just want to -- maybe this isn't fair. consider the irony of in the campaign one of the reasons trump supporters and then the president himself said you cannot elect hillary clinton is because if you do, the e-mail investigation will be ongoing. she will constantly be under investigation. she will. listen to candidate trump here be unable to get anything done. >> if hillary is elected, she

would be under protracted criminal investigation and probably a criminal trial i will say so we'd have a criminal trial for a sitting president. the investigation will last for years. the trial would probably start. nothing will get done. our country will continue to suffer. she's unfit and unqualified to be the president of the united states. and her election would mire our government and our country in a constitutional crisis that we cannot afford. >> and so i can -- it's just the surreal nature. this was one of his big themes in the campaign and here we r with people asking the same questions. and z and. >> and this is back when he didn't think he was going to win. they thought they had at most a

20% chance of winning. back to the breitbart thing, aside from the fact that the knives need to come out and let the knives be out be a trophy in journalism, there's a deep whispering of grievance among trump voters who actually do see the media and democrats and established republicans all out for this president. they read everything as an attack on legitimacy certainly of the white house. they view mild criticisms as an attack on his legitimacy. there's an undercurrent -- i've been seeing this on trump supporting fans on facebook. this is a soft coup on this president. that's not going anywhere. they're going to be tapping that. >> and the president keeps tapping it because he understands the political position he's in and he needs to keep the base. i want to halt the conversation. i want to go back to the developing situation in times square. cnn allison has some of the details. we know that a vehicle has struck some pedestrians in times

square. what do we know about the scope of the injuries? >> john, we are just learning that 13 people have been hit by this car that suddenly just drove into pedestrians right in the heart of times square. it's an interesting part of the day because the call came in around 11:50 to the fdny about this red honda plowing into people. it's right in the middle of lunchtime. right in a prime part of new york city in times square. it's a beautiful day in new york city today. it's going to be 90 degrees. we haven't seen warm weather it a long time. we see a lot of people outside. you see crowds gathering there. streets are blocked off. once again, 13 people injured according to new york city officials. from this red honda. >> allison, stand by for us. i want to bring you into the conversation. patsy is a witness to this accident. she also happens to be the sister of jim sciutto. patsy, tell me where you are and where you were when this happened and what you saw. >> sure. happy to.

so i'm standing on 45th and 8th avenue. i was in my building. i work at 3 times square where the incident took place. i was on my way out to meet someone for lunch. an announcement came over the intercom saying the building is in lockdown because there has been an incident outside. i was able to exit through the side door after some discussion with our security officers and i was told that there had been some fatalities and others injured due to an unknown speeding car that drove away. so i did not see anything other than all of the commotion in times square. several policemen. several pedestrians. and all of the ambulance removing the individuals that were impacted by the incident. >> as we watch the pictures coming in now, we see a large number of police vehicles and first responders to the scene. you see some fire personnel there. emergency medical personnel. can you tell us just from what you saw, was there any way that, a, the scope of the response and

b, any way to characterize how many people, whether down in the street or receiving medical attention? >> it would be difficult for me to answer that entirely accurately because i had -- i exited the side door and wasn't able to get close to the incident other than when i was in the elevator bank towards the side door i saw several people outside. several people sitting in our lobby clearly, clearly disturbed by the incident. there may have been people that were related to the folks involved. not entirely sure. the response was very rapid. from the announcement to hundreds of policemen and ambulance on the scene was literally moments. >> and patsy, for viewers who might not be familiar with this, i know there's a small police substation right there in the center of times square. they sit right in the middle of the street where you often see some of the performers and the demonstrators if you're walking through. help someone that may be familiar. it's the lunch hour. you mentioned it a a beautiful morning and beautiful day and

more people than normal. always a crowded scene in times square at lunchtime. help people put that into context. >> absolutely. happy to. our office is right there in times square right in the heart of it. as it is a beautiful day, it was packed with tourists, packed with people like myself and people who work in the area. performers as well. the streets were cleared very, very quickly but there were still hundreds of people looking at the scene where the cops were basically shoeing everybody away. you could not get near the scene. within two to three minutes they had pushed everybody aside. you could not crossover 7th avenue which is normally the hub of the times square area. does that help? >> patsy, stan by for us if you can. allison i believe is still on the scene. allison, just obviously i'm watching these pictures on a monitor that shows an overwhelming response . it looks like a little bit of confusion. tell us what you're seeing and if you're hearing new

information. patsy said she had heard there was a fatality. we have not confirmed that yet, right? >> right. we have not confirmed that. the 13 patients that were injured, we're not confirms if those were actually hit by the car, but we are confirming that there are 13 patients injured in the times square accident. we don't know yet where the driver is, if the driver has been pulled out of the car or not. we are not sure about that. as you can see, we are seeing a huge reaction from police blocking off streets trying to assess what happened here. once again, as patsy said, this is happening right in the middle of lunch hour. right in the middle of a beautiful day. new york city is one of those cities where people walk everywhere. pedestrians, even when we cross the street we think someone is going to stop if you're crossing the street. obviously in this situation, that may not have happened. we don't know what the driver's intentions were here. and what happened behind the wheel. >> allison, as the police

respond, i assume it's impossible to get somebody to try to get more information, but in terms of the scope of this, is it more police cars than ambulances? is it a mix? >> it's hard to tell right now. we do have obviously ambulances arriving on the scene, taking those injured to hospitals. we do have a crew heading to the scene of course. when you have a scene like this, a lot of streets are blocked off. that crew as well-being blocked as well but making its way to the scene to assess what really happened here. >> just to recap for anyone joining us, the best information we have is that a car going through times square, do we know anything about its speed of travel or its rate of travel? struck a number of pedestrians? is that the best we have right now? >> yeah. our number right now is 13 and we do not know how fast this vehicle was going. what the scene really was at the time. as you see there, an aerial of the fire trucks there on the scene.

kind of -- the car there is in the lower left -- you see it's a red honda. it looks like it's mangled. you see the crowd to the right being kept away. you see the street empty which is really an unusual thing to see in times square, the heart of broadway, the heart of restaurants and shops and where tourists go, especially on a beautiful new york city day. >> and blocking off that part of the city as they respond will cause a domino effect. allison, please stand by and keep gathering information. i want to bring in brent who is at the scene. brent, as we bring you to the conversation, governor cuomo we are told is on his way to the scene. tell us where you are and what you're seeing. >> very chaotic scene. we are just approaching the area where this car is in a widely roped off area by the nypd and the fdny at this point. where these two avenues meet, we

always say the cross roads of america. that's exactly where this point is. you have two avenues crossing each other at this point in times square. it's a big pedestrian walkway which has been changed by the city over a number of years. there's really only one avenue of traffic going through. the rest is all pedestrian. i just heard you guys talking about how this is an area where people walk around. this is the time of lunch. it's a beautiful day out. certainly a lot of people out here. we can say -- sorry, i'm a little out of breath from rushing to the scene. we can see that red car perched up against that lamp post right at fl 45th street. right now we're looking at it. trying to get a closer visual. this is fairly roped up and a street away is as close as it gets to the scene. but certainly active with police and fdny and emergency personnel trying to get people out of that area and keep crews away.

>> bryn, if you need to drop to move through the crowd let me know. i'll ask you a question of what you see. one way to judge the severity of the injuries. can you get a sense are people being treated on the sidewalks? if people were running and tripping and falling as opposed to ambulances leaving the scene to head off to hospitals? >> we're still hearing a number of sirens going to that area. i'm about a block away from where the car is perched up against that lamp post and there are a number of emergency personnel working on that area right around the car. where that car is perched up, i have to highlight again it's not perched up where the avenue is. it's actually perched up against a lamp post where it is a huge pedestrian walkway. right now it's dead obviously because people have been told to vacate this area, but this at the time that it would have happened would have been packed with tourists, packed with

people that were having lunch in this area because this was specifically made to be an area that people can walk around and sit and eat t.. it's unclear the details of the accident. where that car is perched up is perched up in an area where a lot of people would have been. we have reports from the fdny that 13 people injured. we're still getting a lot of information from officials at this point. but preliminarily just by the looks of it, it is in an area where a lot of people would have been. >> and because a lot of people are there, i assume you also have a large crowd now just gawking. i don't mean that in a bad way. is that true? are there police clearing people away to try to get some space? >> police have cleared out about a two-block radius of this area. i can see a tent up about two blocks from where i'm standing. i'm not sure if that's related to. this certainly police have taken over two blocks of this area and clear today out.

a lot of people still coming by taking pictures, trying to figure out exactly what happened. we're on the north side of where this accident, so we have a good clear shot of the car so was involved. but past that is where all the emergency personnel south of us, that's where they are right now. that's where there's a lot of chaos going on. i can't quite tell if they're still being treated on the sidewalks, because we're sort of being blocked at this point. but certainly it's a little bit of a hectic scene over there and in back of us is a lot of gawkers. >> bryn, stand by one second and make your way and continue the reporting. i want to recap. just before noon from the fire department of new york word that a vehicle struck pedestrians in times square. you see the pictures coming in. the car as bryn told us is up against a lamp post tilted on its side a bit. first responders are on the scene. initial reports from the fire department, 13 people struck or

injured in this incident. we don't have the exact details yet. there are some reports of fatalities. we do not have that confirmed. governor andrew cuomo is on his way to the scene. this is one of the busiest most visited scenes in times square. sean spicer just tweeting out the president has been made aware of the situation in times square and will continue to receive updates. cnn allison is on the scene and has new information. >> we are learning that once again 13 injuries. one person according to new york police department is dead as a result of this accident. and the picture is really amazing when you see that car up on its side like that. keep in mind, in the middle of times square, there really isn't much of an ability to pick up speed in times square because it is such a condensed area where you've got so many people walking and so many cars sort of all together. i mean, you're really moving at a normal speed, you're barely

going 20 miles an hour. when you try to drive-thru that prime area of times square. to that get car up on its side, it really makes you wonder how fast it was going. then you think about the time of day that this happened. in the middle of the day when it's lunchtime, everybody out walking to go get a bite to eat. it's a beautiful day here in new york city. 90 degrees. then you see these pictures. surreal to see on the right there how empty the street is because authorities have blocked off the area so they can investigate. they can help anybody who was injured. then to see that picture on the left of that red honda up on its side like that. once again, john, we don't know about the driver, about where the driver is at this point and what condition the driver could be in. once again, there are 13 victims. one confirmed dead. and as you said, governor andrew cuomo, the governor of new york is heading to the scene. >> allison, just describe for people who maybe can't see further back in some of these

pictures, you see on the left the honda nearly perched on its side on an angle. on the right the broader scene from our affiliates of people in the street. emergency response vehicles as well. most of the people you can see in those shots are first responders. what are you seeing in the mix of if they're fire trucks, other emergency response operations and equipment? >> i think all of the above is what you see. this was called in at 11:50. that's when we learned. about 11:50 this morning. you're seeing ambulances and police cars. you're seeing the yellow tape blocking off the areas so they can get to the scene and help anybody who was injured. a lot of tourists block to this area to see broadway shows, to go shop and to eat. it really is a surreal scene to see the streets empty like this and to see all of these emergency vehicles flooding in to help anybody who may have been injured. >> allison, as you make your way through the scene, as you get any sense, normally the new york city police department and fire department are quick to set up a

crime scene. do you get any sense of where they near that process? when you're looking at the uniforms, is it all city presence, or do you see any state or federal response on the scene as yet? >> i am actually not at the scene so i am not there on the ground. bryn s. i'm here at the studios reporting the pictures that i see so i can't answer that. it looks like considering this happened less than an hour ago and the police have cordoned off this area the way they have. victims are on their way to hospitals. from what we can tell preliminarily the action was quite swift. what we are learning now, some sources are telling us that the car involved, john, was speeding before the collision. this according to a source familiar with the police response. an office of emergency management official is describing the vehicle as, quote, out of control before it struck multiple people. that is really disturbing because once again, it is really hard to pick up speed in the

middle of times square when you've got so many people walking. people really don't drive. those who do drive, you don't drive fast. so it's disconcerting to hear that the car involved in this was speeding before the collision. keep in mind, speed limits in new york city are 20 miles per hour. just because it's a pedestrian city. so imagine that a car picked up speed right in the middle of possibly hundreds if not thousands of people walking in a very condensed space. that is disturbing. >> allison, stand by. my apologies for the unfair question. i wasn't aware of your location. joining us on phone, somebody who understands the response and understand this is area, harry, senior enforcement analyst and retired detective for the new york city place. harry, i'm hoping you can see these pictures frchlt wh.

from what you have heard, a vehicle picking up speed to cause this damage. take us through where we are here in the city and if you were on the beat today what would be happening? >> well, one of the first things i'd like for when i got to the scene is are there any marks on the ground where he attempted to brake before he hit the civilians on the street. that would be one of my most important things to take a look at. if i saw that he was attempting to brake, there's a good chance this is probably an accident. also the fact that if this was a typical accident and he was not injured and taken to the hospital, i would say the driver would probably still be on the scene. unless the driver of the vehicle is drunk and then he would have been taken into custody right away. so we don't know for sure. there's also a chance here that the person driving this vehicle attempted to brake but hit the gas instead and then just took off. this is consistent of the type of accident like this where the accelerator was pressed instead

of the brake. until we find out more about their investigation and the fact that this driver is no longer on the scene, you know, we really can't point a finger at exactly what happened here. we know that there was a lot of people injured and we know the fact that the terrorist organizations out there, especially in europe, have been doing this type of thing. we can't say this is terrorism right now. i would basically say by looking at it is that maybe somebody hit the accelerator instead of the brake, but the police investigation will come to a conclusion on that based on checking at the crime scene, checking out marks on the ground and injuries to the people that were involved. >> and you brought into the conversation there's something that we're always reluctant to strike the balance in the sense that times square has been a target of attempted terrorism before. we have seen in recent month around the world the use of vehicles, usually trucks n. france and elsewhere we have seen these incidents. it would pop into mind when people hear iconic times square, vehicle hitting people it's

logical to worry about the risk of terrorism. from a detective standpoint, those officers on the scene right now and the other people responding, and i assume there's a federal response as well, what is their checklist essentially to take us through how you decide what is this? is it a dwi? >> it's very important to talk to witnesses on the scene. i know cnn has talked to some witnesses on the scene. did this vehicle pick up acceleration really quickly or was he -- driving through times square is really tough. it's only -- if you can go more than ten miles an hour going through times square, that's a lot. so that's why i'm sitting here thinking that maybe an accelerator was hit by mistake and the investigation being conducted, i'm sure detectives and accident investigators are talking to the driver right now trying to find out what happened. i'm sure right now also, terrorism is in the mind of everybody when something like

this occurs. they're conducting background investigations on that person already. they ran that vehicle. they know who the driver is. they're checking the driver's background. this is something they're going to have to do anyway in the face of terrorism that we're facing every day now. so the background investigation has got to be conducted. this is a crime scene here. it's probably going to be -- times square is probably going to be backed up for quite a few hours unless they make a determination quickly that this was some type of an accident. if it was, they'll be able to get that vehicle out of there. open times square up again. also a lot of the victims that were injured, if they're able to speak, detectives are at the hospital speaking to those people. did they hear the car rev from 15 miles an hour to speeding through a crowd of people. many pedestrian areas there that have been blocked off. this is a target rich environment in the event somebody wanted to do something

like this purposely because of the amount of people out there in times square every day and all night. so they're going to be very careful conducting this investigation to make sure that they've covered all bases here and the fact that this is not a terrorist attack and maybe if that was just purely an accident or some other mistake that the driver had made. if it was a regular car accident, he would probably still be on the scene. so that's a very interesting point for me. >> to that point, harry, i want you to stand by. brynn now has new information. she's made her way closer to the accident scene. tell us the new information you're getting on this key question. can we answer it yet? does the new york city police department think it was an accident or some kind of deliberate attack? >> at this point we're learning from sources that they do believe, a law enforcement official, that this was some sort of accident that happened. i want to zoom past me. now you have a good shot of that car that's perched up against

the pole. according to law enforcement sources, we're also learning that the driver of this car is in custody and also my colleague said that that driver does have a history of drunk driving. so some of this information now trickling out about the driver of that car. we also know that that 13 people were injured in this crash. that's at minimum. we're still getting numbers about that. as of now the fdny reporting 13 people injured and also have confirmed that one person was killed. so a lot of new information coming out. some of that preliminarily. this is a chaotic scene and medical personnel trying to piece everything together. certainly those are the main points. i do see someone from the nypd coming toward us so it's possible we'll get more information here at the scene. i do want to point out to you the layout of this area because i was explaining it to you last

time i talked to you. this is 7th avenue. as you see, it is an open road. so the car would have had to be traveling down 67th avenue and then somehow got into this accident. the car perched up against that light post. as you can see to my right, this is a whole area that has recently been transformed into -- sorry, taking a moment there. you can tr the police telling us we need to pushback because they need to get the bomb squad into this area. i'm not sure if that's precautionary. we're bog toeing told we need t pushback. >> on the scene. you hear, if harry is still with us. you heard the information that they believe very much this is an accident. our justice correspondent reporting the driver has a history of dwi.

the first instinct is this is horrible but it is not terrorism and yet they bring in the bomb squad. that's a routine procedure i would assume or does that raise alarms? >> i think probably they still don't know what they have yet, so maybe they want to check out that video. you see nobody around the video. i did see two what looked like might have been police officers at the crime scene. officers that were checking out the vehicle and be safe to bring in the bomb squad and to make sure they're going to cover all their bases to make sure there's no bomb inside that vehicle or maybe they have information that maybe from the driver that there is a bottom inside the vehicle. i don't know. with the environment we're living in today, as police officers, you've got to make sure, even something like this that just might be an accident, and because of the history of these things occurred all over the world, that you bring the bomb squad in just to check it out to make sure that that vehicle is safe before they move that vehicle.

and the possibility that a bottom -- that there's no bomb. i don't see people being moved away from that vehicle. from the video i'm seeing and watching on the television, there are some people standing around watching and we tend to think that if they have a real tip there was a bottom in that vehicle, they will clear that entire area. >> that's an excellent point t. looks like a more routine caution just to be sure. but it does not seem at all to be any sense of panic or overconcern at the scene as you see several individuals standing at the car. thank you for your time and expertise. we're going to take a quick break whch break. when we come back we'll bring you updates. vehicle accident in the heart of times square. also big new here in washington. the fallout from the decision to name a special prosecutor to take over the russia meddling investigation. stay with us. to anticipate is lexus.

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we will continue to monitor times square. we'll bring you the latest when we get new developments. back to politics, on capitol

hill there is one immediate republican benefit to having a special counsel. the gop lawmakers will not be asked if we need a special prosecutor. but the sense of relief -- they were growing tired and nervous about white house actions. even those who don't think a special prosecutor is necessary think appointing robert mueller was a beautiful choice. >> he's as good as it gets. his credentials are impeccable. he served in the bush administration, the obama administration. i think your point is well taken. he's in the latter part of his career. he has nothing to prove. he's been silent politically. it doesn't get any better than robert mueller if you're going to do it. >> one of the big questions is does this mean robert mueller has this investigation and the other investigation go forward

at full speed or does this perhaps end up overshadowing or stalling some of the congressional investigations because people say the special prosecutor is doing this, special prosecutor is doing that, we should keep our hands out of that. >> i don't think anyone, especially if you're on the intel committee, i don't think they're going to stop doing what they're doing. it would look like they were a -- >> we'll have to see. >> the fbi investigation is at least three parts of a criminal probe as far as we know has always been more important. it's also been more important for the sanctity of that investigation to go forward. this takes some of the pressure off of congress. congress can go as far as it wants, as far as it can. people will show up or they won't show up to testify. as long as the fbi investigation goes forward, it gives both republican lawmakers and also the american public some sense that the main job is diagnosbei.

>> republicans seeing potentially political damage to themselves and having frustration with i'm told chairman burr and the intelligence committee. he's been mad the white house is not cooperating with his committee. this was already happening. they wanted to call up james comey who apparently took notes of these meetings in which he said the president according to the memos put pressure on him to shut down the flynn investigation, did other things comey found inappropriate, but he said as long as he didn't mess with the people doing the investigation. mitch mcconnell said i think we need to hear from him as soon as possible in public to respond to the issues that have been raised in recent days. do we get that testimony or does congress say we've got to let bob mueller get up to speed. does that get pushed back or do we know. >> it depends. his input, they're going to take their cues from him. i do think it's difficult for the congress to back off because there are so many parts of this

story. my colleague is reporting that president trump sent a private message to michael flynn as recently as late april telling him to stay strong. >> late april for those watching at home, fired in mid february. in late april the president of the united states sending a message to michael flynn stay strong. >> so there's so many threads to this, i don't know that actually congress can stop. if there's any sort of political remedy down the line that they need to take up, then they're going to have a basis for. that they're going to need to know what's going on. i don't know that this takes a ton of pressure influence congress. >> the members seem like they want to discuss what russia's role was. it may be the case that they can focus more of their probe on russian interference and things that everyone agrees we don't want russian interference and mueller can focus more on trump. mueller can probably do everything, but maybe his investigation will focus on trump. the they're a little we ary ary taking on the president from their own party. >> do they decide they need to, that he is a tainted brand and

they need to get separation. that will be a big question to go forward. for the republicans going online every day, the last week or ten days has been tough. thanks for dealing with "inside politics." thank for watching. jim sciutto is in the chair after a very quick break. hi hey buddy hey dad i think we can do this. adam baily. adam baily. i ...prilosec otc 7 years ago,my doctor recommended... 5 years ago, last week. just 1 pill each morning, 24 hours and zero heartburn. it's been the number 1 doctor recommended brand for 10... ...straight years, and it's still recommended today. use as directed.

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the choice is yours. ♪ lower your blood sugar with invokana®. imagine loving your numbers. there's only one invokana®. ask your doctor about it by name. hello, i'm jim sciutto. wolf blitzer is on assignment today. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you are v very much for joining us. we begin with a president defiant into an investigation between possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia. we'll hear from trump but as often happens we already have his thoughts via twitter. this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. and this. with all of the illegal acts that took place in the clinton campaign and