winning. >> you may get bored of winning. >> reporter: do they look bored to you? cnn, jeanne moos, new york. >> thanks for joining us tonight. john berman is in for anderson cooper tonight and "ac 360" starts right now. president trump calls his tax overhaul in his own words a historic victory for our people. keeping them hon, the question is, which people is that, exactly? john berman here in for president. clearly the bill the president will sign next month is a political victory for him and his party. a simple fact that he got it done at all fulfills a campaign promise. so for him, it's a win and, yes, it is historic, putting him, for better or worse, putting him in with george w. bush and ronald reagan. compared to how he promised the winners would be, namely middle

class americans in a simpler system, certain remarks by the president suggests that he's okay with that. as you know, from the campaign and through the year, in fact, right up until the measure passed, everyone sold the bill first and foremost as the boom for the middle class. >> the focus is on middle class tax relief and giving it to the people in the middle and who are trying to get there and that's why we put our emphasis on that tax relief for those people who are in the middle. >> house speaker paul ryan back in november and here's president trump over the weekend. >> this is going to be one of the great gifts to the middle income people of this country that they've ever gotten for christmas. >> the biggest thing we've learned today from the president himself, that for him the biggest factor -- and those are his words -- wasn't really the middle class after all. >> our plan also lowers the tax on a business from 35% all the way down to 21%.

that's probably the biggest factor in this plan. >> probably the biggest factor in this plan. would you know that from listening to his campaign promises and all the statements he and his surrogates have said since then? you can decide that for yourself. certainly middle income americans get a tax break but not just as big or permanent as the break that wealthy americans or businesses get. the personal cuts expire. the business rates do not. those are, after all, the biggest factor. and it's not just rate cuts. in the second presidential debate and throughout the campaign, candidate trump appealed to middle class voters by promising to end a provision that benefits the very, very rich, such as himself. >> one thing i do is get rid of carried interest. one of the greatest provisions for people like me, to be honest with you, i give up a lot when i run because i knockout the tax code. >> so that never happened. he didn't get rid of it. it wasn't in the bill. so what is in the bill, though,

provisions that not only benefit certain businesses but very, very certain businesses, just like the kind that the trump and kushner family run. and for the record, he made no secret of the fact that he wanted lower corporate taxes and got them but it was only today that we learned what a prime motivation it was, the biggest factor, his words. we also learned this. >> we didn't want to bring it up. i told people specifically, be quiet with the fake news media because i don't want them talking too much about it. now that it's approved, i can say, the individual mandate on health care, where you had to pay not to have insurance, okay, think of that one. you pay not to have insurance. the individual mandate has been repealed. >> he claims this as a victory. the question is, was it achieved, if not under false pretenses, then at least by subtrifudge and is that okay with you? cnn's jim acosta at the white house tonight. he joins us now. jim, it was absolutely unequivocally a banner day for the president. he got what he wanted here.

do we know when the bill will actually arrive on his desk for him to sign? >> reporter: well, there are a couple of factors there, john. one is we do think the president wants to sign it by the end of the week. i just talked to an official here and the hope is that he'll do it bit end of the week but it may have to wait until after the new year. there are some arcane legislative rules that say if the president signs before the end of the year, that may trigger some spending cuts they don't want here at the white house or up on capitol hill. so that's something that they have to sort through. some depends on if they can get a government spending bill through. even though the president and republicans sounded jubilant today, if you listened to the president at times, it sounded as if he was not talking about repealing obamacare but just repealing obama because so many things they had wrapped into this tax bill that they are very, very ecstatic about what happened today at the white house but they have some things to sort out before they put pen to paper. >> i understand one person not at the white house, not at the

celebration ceremony, senator susan collins. >> reporter: right. >> do you have any understanding of why that happened? >> reporter: nothing definitive from her office whether she skipped it because she's upset about what happened up on capitol hill. essentially, she was promised by the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell he would make every effort to get some obamacare bills put in place that would shore up that program and that did not happen. the so-called stabilization bills that are pending up on capitol hill, that did not happen and she made no bones about it, she was not happy with that, although she did put out a statement with lamar alexander saying we understand this is going to be taken up next year and, as a matter of fact, mark short, legislative director over here at the white house, told cnn earlier that the president would sign some of these obamacare stabilization rules, which may become very critical, john. as you know, the president, as part of this tax reform bill, signed a repeal of the obamacare individual mandate. so that program, barack obama's

signature legislative achievement, is going to be flailing somewhat in this new year because of that and it's going to need that kind of assistance. the question is whether or not that's going to happen. you heard this town called a swamp. it was more like a farm this week with all of the horse trading going on. keep in mind, jeff flake expecting a daca bill signed and you may see the president coming under a lot of pressure from republicans to honor these promises that the white house and congressional leaders made to the republicans to get them on board for this tax cut bill. >> jim acosta at the white house, thank you. a perspective from david axelrod and gergen. david axelrod also hosts "the ax files." david gergen, this is a big tax bill, in some ways, delivering on many of the promises they made. the significance tonight?

>> well, first of all, it is the most positive moment that president trump has had since his inauguration. this is a big, big win for him legislatively. it's one of those major league kind of bills that presidents like to pass and their legacy heavily depends on it. so i think we have to say appropriately and legitimately, donald trump is doing what every president would do, and that is proclaim victory and say it's massive and it's historic. that just goes with the territory. having said that, it is extremely odd to have a president with this big of a victory on a bill that is so unpopular. you know, it's like a cnn poll has its 55% disapproval to the 30s on approval. so this is a big win for the president at the very time when his leadership is being questioned. he has a huge amount riding on that and does the economy get better, do we have high growth or do we see us limping along

and you can judge that for yourself about the political implications. >> david axelrod, you wrote earlier about all of this. "you can certainly argue whether the things that the president of the united states has done is good or bad but you can't argue they haven't been consequential." >> yeah. look, the fact is, this is a consequential bill. it's a major rewrite of the tax law. it does greatly reduce corporate taxes. it shifts the tax code a little bit more in favor of wealthy americans. it is advertised, as david suggested, as something that will spur growth. we'll see the fed and most experts suggest only modest growth and modest job gains from this. it's good for shareholders. but we'll see. all of that will reveal itself in the future. but it is a big policy shift, as these things often are.

certain certainly on health care it's going to make a big difference. it's added some preferences, taken some preferences out of the tax code. so this is big, his sort of rapid deregulation of the environment of consumer protection, of finance, huge. pulling out of global agreements, very, very big. i mean, he is doing consequential things. you know, i have doubts as to whether the consequences will be positive, but you cannot deny that this is an impactful piece of legislation and he's had impact with some of his other policies. >> and some of the impact came today, right? at&t announced a $1,000 bone nut to 200,000 workers. comcast did the same. a bank did it as well. david gergen, this is the type of thing that republicans promised, if you give a big corporate tax cut, some of the corporations will put it back. is seems today some of the corporations are doing so. >> that's true. if you see a big stream of these

corporations announcing that, that would be good news for the president and, frankly, good for americans. so we have to say, let's see how it works out. i would point out that "the washington post" has a piece and you can say they are being surly but they've interviewed the biggest corporations in america, top ten, and they find most corporations are planning to give their shareholders more of a break. some will reinvest but not very many are saying they are going to create new jobs, only a couple. >> surveys say just that. today there were examples of the opposite. the point that david gergen made of the unpopularity of this bill, 55% against it, it's curious, is this bill unpopular because the president's unpopular and will those two things ever separate? >> certainly if the president were more popular, his proposal would be more popular. i will say this, that when i look back to the passage of the

affordable care act, it was not a popular piece of legislation and we told our members when they voted for it, by next november, all of the benefits will reveal themselves to people and it will be much more popular and it won't be the al ba traus you thought it was. well, we lost 63 seats. now, it is more popular today because the law has been enacted but this is not -- this is a big gamble for the president and for the republicans and could be a big problem next november. >> ax, let me ask you about obamacare because the president brought this up today. he said obamacare has been repealed in this bill, which isn't actually true. the individual mandate it, though that could have a major consequence. i'm wondering, as someone who was part of passing obamacare, you know, what does this mean to you? >> well, look, any time you're told that 13 million -- fewer people will have health coverage, that's a concern. it's not more about the obama legacy but whether people will get the coverage that they need.

it was odd that he said that, though, because the fact is, the american people made it very clear that they don't want to repeal the affordable care act. and that was one of the reasons why he had such trouble passing that full-scale repeal as it was. so he's claiming more than what this bill actually does, but it does damage the affordable care act. if i were him, i would stay away from the repeal language but he's so desperate to say, see, i said i was going to do it and here it is and it's a very partisan audience and it's not very good with the majority of americans. >> david axelrod, david gergen, thanks so much, guys. >> thank you. just ahead tonight, a member of congress who thinks the fbi has it in for donald trump. we'll talk as well about a whole string of conspiracy theories now making the rounds. plus, the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee draws a red line and warns the president not to cross it.

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accuses the fbi of actively trying to, in his words, stop donald trump from being president of the united states. another lawmaker, democratic senator mark warner, is also speaking up. he took to the senate floor late today in defense of the special counsel with a warning to the president. cnn's jim sciutto joins us now with more on that. jim, what did senator warner have to say to you? >> a remarkably stern warning to the president and to the republican who is have been criticizing the special counsel. i've been hearing it from democratic members on the hill, house and senate, that this is laying the political ground work for the president to fire the special counsel or perhaps pardon some of the people who have been charged by the special counsel so senator mark warner, the ranking democratic on the senate intelligence committee, drawing literally a red line in the sand. have a listen. >> i believe it is up to every member of this institution, republican or democrat, to make a clear and unambiguous

statement that any attempt by this president to remove special counsel mueller from his position or to pardon key witnesses in any effort to shield them from accountability or shut down the investigation would be a gross abuse of power and a flagrant violation of executive branch responsibilities and authorities. these truly are red lines and simply cannot allow them to be crossed. >> note there that he mentioned both the possibility of firing robert mueller and also pardoning some of the people, michael flynn and paul manafort and others who were charged there. they would consider both of those, mark warner and others, an abuse of power by the president. >> do we know why senator warner decided to give this speech today? >> he told reporters, including our colleagues up on the hill, manu raju, jeremy bird, that

it's his concern that they will use the holiday when congress is out of town with their families to issue pardons. that may sound out there but, i'll tell you, john, i speak to a lot of folks on the hill and they are genuinely concerned about this. >> jim sciutto in washington, thanks so much. just a few moments ago, the white house put out a statement from ty cobb. "there's no consideration being given to the termination of the special counsel." now a level charged against the fbi we want to ask him about, appearing on a fox news radio show ohio congressman jim jordan said this. "i'm convinced now the fbi actively seeking now with intent actively trying to stop donald trump from being president of the united states." congressman jordan joins us now. thanks for being with us. i want to ask you first about

something senator warner said. he said there's a coordinated effort to discredit the mueller investigation. are you part of a coordinated effort? >> i think the senator gave his speech today because of all the facts we've learned in the last several weeks, facts like the dnc and clinton campaign for -- facts like text messages that they exchanged today. it has nothing to do that he's worried about the president getting rid of mueller. it's all of these facts coming out that go to the heart of this issue and -- >> i want to talk to you about the facts and issues in a second. i'm asking you right now about this charge that there was a coordinated effort. have you had conversations or has your office had conversations with the white house about the mueller investigation? >> i have not called -- we just had mr. sessions, mr. rosenstein. i did not talk about what kind of questions i was going to ask. how do you get around to -- >> have you had conversations with the white house, not about the questions you asked but

about the mueller investigation in general? >> well, i talk to the white house about all kinds of things. we've had talks at the white house about tax policy, about welfare policy, talks about obamacare. of course we've had talks with the white house. but my questions in those committees was driven by the evidence we've received in the last several weeks like the text message from peter strzok where he says we can't afford to take the risk that the american people are going to elect president trump so we need an insurance policy. >> i want to talk to you about your argument here in a second but i'm trying to get to the issue of coordination. you just said of course you talk to the white house -- of course we talk to the white house about the mueller investigation. do you talk about talking points? are there talking points on the mueller investigation? >> of course not. of course not. but here's the coordination. the clinton campaign and the dnc, now that we know those are one in the same, paid the law firm, who paid fusion gps and christopher steele and russians to get this dossier taken to the

fisa court and a coordination between the clinton campaign and russians to -- >> i'll get to the dossier and the fbi in a second but i want to finish up -- >> those are not charges. those are facts. >> i want to stay on this for one second. >> here's the coordination we know. hang on. >> you've been on fox news when you say that the fbi was acting to keep donald trump from being president of the united states. before you go on fox news, do you talk to them? do you talk to them about these claims that you will make? >> no. i talk to my colleagues, i look at the evidence and i talk with our press people who book us on your show and we talk about the coordination that exists between the clinton campaign and the russians. now, think about this. we know for a fact that the clinton campaign paid russians to do what? influence the election. and yet we've had this month-long investigation with bob mueller that trump had no --

>> but we know that president trump's son donald trump jr. was promised dirt on hillary clinton. that happened. let me ask you what you're saying now about the fbi. you say you believe there was a plot in the fbi to prevent donald trump from becoming president. if that's true, if that's true, was this not the worst plot ever, that the fbi director days before the election reopened the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mails? >> yeah, because you've got to remember the context at that time. mr. comey reopened it after he had done the ex oneration lette and after he made the decision, not loretta lynch, changed it from a noncriminal standard extreme carelessness. after all of that -- remember the context when mr. comey does that. everyone thought clinton was going to win. this was like, oh, no big deal, he can do this with the weiner messages back and forth.

>> strzok was on the team that changed it, we know that much. we don't know if he was the actual one who changed it. so you're suggesting that part of this plot to keep donald trump from becoming president included james comey? >> i'm not suggesting that at all. i'm just saying he reopened it a few weeks before the election. >> wouldn't that be a lousy way to plot defeating donald trump to reopen the investigation into hillary? >> so back in october, before the election, you guys didn't like jim comey and now you like him? i don't get the point. how about focusing on the text messages last week? how do you dismiss the idea that peter strzok said we can't afford to let the american people decide who's going to be the next president, we need an insurance policy. how do you dismiss that? >> i haven't dismissed anything. the only one who -- >> that points to intent. >> excuse me. the only one who has dismissed peter strzok is robert mueller who pushed him off of his investigation because of this. >> remember, he first put him on the team, john.

a >> and then when he found out, he got rid of him. >> interviewed mills, bethe guy who -- he put him on the team and then did he tell anyone? no. when did we find out? only when they were talking about bringing strzok in fronts of the committee. >> are you questioning robert mueller's integrity here? >> the one interaction i had with him prior to him being special counsel was when he was fbi director three weeks after the irs scandal broke he testified in front of the judiciary committee and could not answer one question even though it was the biggest story at the time. my experience with mueller wasn't a real positive one that one time but i have not criticized him. >> you're criticizing him right now. congressman, all right, you're talking about peter strzok. you're talking about an fbi coordinated effort to defeat donald trump. i want to read you something

that came out in the story this week in "vanity fair." it says, "the fbi is anti-clinton, period." he said, "i have a lot of friends that worked the hillary investigation and they freaking hated hillary's guts." so that's a quote from a former fbi agent. i haven't heard you discuss that. >> i mean, that's kind of funny. one quote from "vanity fair" ann n ann anonymous source and we have rudy giuliani and lisa page, both of them at the fbi, we have text messages that show this huge anti-trump bias and some that point to intent to actually try to make sure donald trump wasn't the president and you're quoting some anonymous source from "vanity fair"? i don't think that compares to the text messages we have from peter strzok and lisa page. >> your concern about fbi bias seems partisan. >> no, no, no. the vast majority of the fbi are

great people doing the lord's work out there. i'm talking about the guys at the top, peter strzok, lisa page, the guy over at the justice department, top official, bruce orr who was meeting with the author of the dossier christopher steele who met with fusion gps, the people who paid for the dossier. i'm talking about those individuals. that's where the concern is, not those doing the great job. >> i hear you talking about those individuals and only those individuals. all i'm asking is in the investigation, they are the key people -- oh, my goodness. so if it came out that there were fbi agents in the new york field office, and there's been a lot of stories about agents in the new york field office who didn't particularly like hillary clinton. if it came out that they were sharing anti-clinton messages, would that concern you as much? >> of course it would. of course it would. but it's not the anti-trump messages that bother me about peter strzok. most of mueller's team is

anti-trump. what concerns me is the intebt to carry out a plan to disrupt the election because as mr. strzok said, we can't afford to leave this in we the people's hands. that is a problem. >> congressman -- >> this is as bad as it gets, john. this is scary stuff. >> we don't know that robert mueller's team is anti-trump, first of all. >> oh, come on. >> christopher wray donated to republicans. is he anti-democrat? >> we're not talking about christopher wray. we're talking about the folks on the mueller team. >> we're talking about bias, congressman. you said -- >> i am not saying bias -- >> you said mueller's team is anti-trump. >> john, i said this. i said, look, if all we were focused on was anti-trump, there wouldn't be anyone left on the mueller team. that's not my focus. >> congressman -- >> the focus is what peter strzok did and what he wrote. >> rod rose snstein was appoint

by president trump, appointed by george w. bush at one point. is he anti-trump? >> i wish what rod rosenstein would do is answer our questions. >> is he anti-trump? >> i wish he would answer our questions. i wish mr. wray would answer our questions. i wish we could get the documents that we're entitled to so the american people can get the answers and so you can get the answers, john. we're not getting that. we're going to keep pushing. andrew mccabe is scheduled to be deposed tomorrow. we'll be doing that tomorrow. we're going to keep digging to get the answers. what's come out thus far looks pretty bad. the dnc paid for the dossier -- >> was james comey part of a plot to keep donald trump from being president? >> we'll find out. we'll find out. all i know is the text message from peter strzok to lisa page sure points to that being what looks like took place. >> you think james comey was part of an effort, that went all the way to the top of the fbi to

be president? if that's true, why, then, did he come out, again, and reopen the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mails and never even tell us before the election about the investigation into alleged trump collusion if he was trying to keep donald trump from getting elected, don't you think he might tell voters that. >> we'll have to find out. why did james comey go public and change the exoneration letter and there's all of those things that took place in that investigation. we're trying to get to the bottom of those. >> you said the fbi's trying to defeat donald trump. all i'm saying is, if you're going to make a statement that bold, wouldn't it just be logical for him to tell the american people that he was investigating him before the election? >> you'll have to ask mr. comey. we're going to try to find that out. the text messages that came out last week sure point in that drekz and that's what i said and i think commonsense says when you look at the history of peter strzok and what he said in those text messages, if that doesn't

show intent -- >> you said the fbi was part of an effort to stop president trump from becoming president. >> andrew mccabe's office, deputy director of the fbi, lisa page, peter strzok in his office talking about how they don't want donald trump to be president, we can't afford to take that risk, we need an insurance policy. commonsense -- >> running the investigation over at house intel, republicans say he has no problem with andrew mccabe after talking to him for a full day. >> you know what, we're going to talk to him tomorrow, john. >> happy holidays, sir. >> you bet. merry christmas. joining us now, former fbi and senior official phil mudd, brian stelter, former special agent and matt lewis, senior columnist for "the daily beast." actually, phil mudd first. what do you make of the

conversation with jim jordan there? >> you mean after tylenol? they come and yell at us about what is relatively simple. let me give you some facts. there's 35,000 people in the fbi. dozens or hundreds are involved in an investigation. are you surprised that some of them have views about either hillary clinton or the president of the united states? i'm not. in a politicized america, everybody has views. they should not have shared them on government computers but of course they have views. let's be clear here. a republican-nominated former fbi director robert mueller runs the investigation. that investigation has been certified by a republican deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and the key senator on this, last i checked, is a republican, senator burr. and you want to tell me that this is a biased investigation? there are people who are going to have views on politics. they should have been removed because they talked about it in a government space. they are going to talk about it at home like every single american does.

that doesn't tell me that the investigation is bias. the fact that the people looking at this investigation are largely republicans tells me this is nonsense from the hill and i'll never pay attention to a democrat or a republican talking about it. >> we pay attention to you, phil mudd, and we're going to pay attention to everyone else after the break. much more, next. directv has been rated number one in customer satisfaction over cable for 17 years running. but some people still like cable. just like some people like pre-shaken sodas. having their seat kicked on an airplane. being rammed by a shopping cart. sitting in gum. and walking into a glass door. but for everyone else, there's directv. for #1 rated customer satisfaction over cable, switch to directv and for a limited time get a $100 reward card. call 1-800-directv.

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a moment ago you heard from ohio congressman jim jordan and his theories about the fbi which

include conspiracy theories on fox news and elsewhere. >> the vast majority of the fbi are great people doing the lord's work out there. i'm talking about the guys at the top, andrew mccabe, peter struk strzok, lisa page, top officials at the justice department bruce orr who was meeting with the author of the dossier christopher steele and the people who paid for fusion gps. i'm talking about those people. >> the bread crumbs to follow those arguments. matt lewis, i want to bring you into this conversation right now. i just don't think there's any question at this point that there are republicans trying to discredit the mueller investigation right now. i asked jim jordan and tried to get him to say whether or not he coordinated that message with the white house. he said he's talked to the white house and about the mueller investigation but not in any coordination. your thoughts? >> very clearly, donald trump

wants and donald trump supporters want to discredit institutions that hold them accountable. they want to discredit the deep state and the immediate yeah. the problem i have is these institutions are going out of their way to help donald trump do that. if you look at robert mueller, six of the 15 lawyers on his team were hillary clinton donors. you have the one tweet coming, you know, from the guy having an affair who says we can't take that chance that trump will get elected. you have the senior department of justice official who was meeting with the research team behind the trump dossier. his wife he didn't disclose but at one point worked for this firm. what you have is basically -- i think somebody else on mueller's team, i think at one point was a counsel to the clinton foundation. i mean, it is ridiculous that robert mueller has done this, i think, to his team. he has helped donald trump in

the process of attempting to discredit this investigation. >> you know, asha, what do you see here? do you think this has somehow tainted the special counsel's investigation? do you think there was a plot to keep donald trump from being elected president? >> people need to understand exactly how investigations work and i'm going to give you three points that your viewers can take into account. so, the first thing is that everything that the fbi does happens in teams. so interviews, investigative techniques always happens in teams of two or more and it's precisely so that if anybody's integrity or honesty comes into question, there are always other witnesses who can attest to whatever happened and i guarantee you that happened both in the hillary investigation and whatever is happening now with mueller. the second thing is, there are very strict standards for opening and closing a case. so-and-so is an idiot is not a basis for opening a case.

if it were, the fbi would have too many cases on their hands. you have to have a legal basis for opening a case and you have to articulate the facts. the last thing is, a case could not stay open for more than six months legally unless there are facts that support a violation of federal law or a serious threat to national security. now, the mueller investigation, he took it over, it started in june 2016. it is now december 20, 2017. you do the math. these are the facts. jim jordan should know this and if he doesn't, he shouldn't be on the judiciary committee but if he really wants to get to the bottom of it, he should read the rules. >> and brian stelter, again, this is not the only one delivering this message. you have members of congress doing it and a lot of people on tv right now trying to discredit the mueller investigation, particularly on fox news. i want to play you a little bit of what we heard last night.

>> well, i think they're going to say what was his intent, right, because that's exactly what fbi director -- former fbi director comey said when he was letting hillar clinton off the hook. and his intent, regardless of whether it was an assassination attempt or whatever -- >> whoa. >> i'm just saying, we don't know what it was. when you say we've got to make sure this guy, you know, doesn't get in at all costs, what does that mean? there's a spectrum of what does it mean but one thing we know for sure is he was plotting in an election against a candidate and there's fbi fingerprints all over this. >> assassination attempt? brian stelter? >> fox news says that particular moment with kevin jackson has been addressed but this is a trifecta. there are trump allies in the media all over fox news discrediting the investigation. then gop lawmakers like jim jordan and then trump and his

aides. jim jordan doesn't seem to want to know what happened before election day. he doesn't seem to want to know what trump campaign aides may have done and if president trump is somehow compromised. it's as if, john, we are all out on the woods and we can see a fire, a burning fire. we can't quite reach the fire but we smell the smoke and see the smoke and there are these folks in right-wing media and near the white house who are saying, don't look at that fire. look over there. look in the opposite direction and, actually, beyond that, let's lay off the firefighters. let's not even have the fire be extinguished. >> yeah, but i would just say, i think that's a valid argument but these are not crazy things to bring up. when robert mueller, who is highly respected, has a team that consists of only like 15 people or less and almost half of them have donated to hillary clinton -- >> which means half of them didn't. but more importantly, these people who are doing this investigation, it's all you ever

talk about is how evil and how tainted this probe is and how to take down the president -- >> these institutions are helping, whether it's the fbi or the media, i would argue, are helping donald trump discredit these institutions. and that's very bad for america. >> well, obviously this discussion isn't going to stop tonight. thanks, everyone. i do wish we had more time. coming up, it latest on the deadly train derailment and three heroes, soldiers, who happened to be driving by and risked their lives to help these people trapped in this unimaginable scene. (avo) when you have type 2 diabetes, you manage your a1c, but you also have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke. non-insulin victoza® lowers a1c, and now reduces cardiovascular risk.

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amtrak is apologizing for

the high-speed train derailment in washington state that killed three people and hurt 100. "we are terribly sorry to the people that are involved." at least 24 people are still hospitalized. tonight i want to tell you the story of three soldiers who risked their lives to help strangers. first, kyung lah has the latest on the investigation. kyung? >> reporter: john, you can see that interstate 5 is now open. that's because all cars have been moved off the freeway. they are going to be looked at. the black boxes are now at the ntsb lab. they are being analyzed. investigators that we are told at the very last news conference that they have not yet been able to interview the staff of the train. they hope to learn much more there. we are also getting word tonight that the governor of the state says that amtrak has committed to pay for everything, medical costs, the damage to the freeway, everything that is, as far as response, all of that is going to be covered by amtrak

and you mentioned, john, that we're also now tonight hearing many more stories about the heroes who risked their lives to save passengers they simply never knew. >> i hear a loud noise and i look up and i see the train and it's hitting the concrete barrier and it gives way and the train just toppled. >> i told my wife, oh, my goodness, that's a train wreck. that's a mass casualty situation. >> reporter: three soldiers now in the middle of an unfolding disaster. >> there's roughly seven to ten individuals who have been ejected from the train and these individuals laid right under where the rail cars was hanging and so my thought process was, if this rail car falls, it's going to land right on these individuals. my main focal point was this hanging train. i ran to the semiand i just managed to just kind of grab on to whatever i could and shimmied

up the semi and there was an upside down rail car. >> reporter: so you're making your way up an unstable rail car? >> it was chaos in there. it looked like a typhoon had hit in there. there was luggage everywhere, individuals were every. >> reporter: a father and a baby trapped in the bathroom. a woman pinned under the seats. all the while the train car on its side. did you feel this train could go at any minute? >> there was a couple times inside that i felt dizzy and i thought i was going then because i actually thought it was going to go and we're going down so i gathered myself, we got to get those people off that train. >> reporter: these soldiers, two who have deployed to iraq, are medics, trained to treat fellow soldiers wounded on the battlefield. only this time, the americans who needed help were right here at home. >> the fact that we had

individuals in the community in need, it felt like the right thing to do at the time. you have two options to either lay aside and let what happens happens or take action . >> reporter: and they decided to do something about it. they definitely took action. and john, we did ask them does it feel strange to be back here because it's the first time they had been back since monday morning. they all said that it is very eerie. this is, they believe, going to have a lasting impact on them. >> wonderful people. awful, but it could have been much worse. they helped so many. kyung lah, thanks so much. >> breaking news coming up. president trump's ambassador could be kept out of the job. what we're learning about kt mack farland. that's next. rinow when you get an unlimited family plan, netflix is included.

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breaking news tonight. confirmation may in in series jeopardy for one of president trump's ambassador nominees, k.t. mcfarland. flynn pleaded guilty for lying to the fbi and is now cooperating in the russia investigation. cnn senior congressional contour manu raju joins us with the latest. what are you learning aboutle mcfarland's chances off getting confirmed? >> mcfarland is going to be sent back to the white house as soon as this week when they wrap up the session here in congress. largely because of concerns that she was not straight with the committee when she testified earlier this year about those contacts she had with michael flynn. she was a deputy of michael flynn's when she served in the national security council. when robert mueller issued and unsealed this plea agreement with michael flynn earlier this

month, it disclosed there was conversations that michael flynn had with an unnamed senior transition official. that senior transition official we now know was mcfarland. what we now know, she and michael flynn discussed conversations that flynn would have with sergey kislyak about sanctions that the then-obama administration last december was issuing sanctions. when mcfarland was asked directly about conversations she may have had with michael flynn about sergey kislyak. in written correspondence because cory booker, the senator from new jersey, she said she was not aware of any of these correspondence. after the plea agreement came out, democrats and republicans said she needed to careful her testimony. i'm told from senators in both parties that she's yet to

clarify her testimony. what does that mean? they're going to send her back to the white house and the white house is going to have to make a decision about whether or not to be renominated. her chances of being confirmed are exceedingly grim until she does so. so she's probably not going to be the ambassador of singapore. >> she's not the only one to have problems because of alleged russia ties, right? >> yes. sam cloves who was noticminated president trump to take a senior level position at the department of agriculture had to withdraw. he tried to set up a meeting between trump and putin and was in contact with sam clovis. after it was revealed during

this agreement in which papadopoulos -- he bruptly where do you as well. two nominees john, potentially being done because of the russia investigation. not to mention several other nominees who trump has had to pull back or had been rejected. unusual for having a party in his own power in the senate. >> thanks, manu. the big day for president trump, not only did he score his major legislative victory, he got to collect praise for himself. the latest from the white house, next . .