[ talking at the same time ] >> melissa: all right. that was the white house briefing wrapping up with an appearance by the treasury secretary and the national economic director. that was a lot of news there. hello, everyone. i am melissa francis. president trump's top two economic advisers, you just saw them there. steve mnuchin and gary cohn. they were unveiling the blue print for what the administration is calling true tax reform. there was a lot in there if you were listening. it was a lot of math. but it means a tax cut for basically everyone. we are looking at three instead of seven brackets, 10, 25, 35%. that's taking that top rate down basically all of them. they are putting in a child care tax credit, but they're also protecting that credit for saving in your 401k.

also for mortgage. they're lowering the dividend and capital gains tax to encourage people to invest, to create jobs. lowering the corporate tax rate to 15%. also putting in a one time tax to encourage companies to repatriate their profits back here. they doubled the standard deduction. that's a big tax cut for everyone. so this is a lot for tax cuts, for growth in the economy. incredibly important. job creation. let's bring in chief white house correspondent john roberts who joins us now with more. boy, who was thering for everyone there. >> reporter: there appears to be, particularly with the tax rates, 10%, 25%, 35%, and then the fact that you won't pay tax if you're a married couple on the first $24,000 of income. that will effectively increase the number of people who are at a zero tax rate. i'm told the decision making process was that twhaeupbted to maximize the bang that this plan

would have for middle income people, which is why the proposed rate for higher income people went from 25% to 33% to now 35%. so they will get a reduction of four points on their effective tax rate. but at the same time, they will be eliminating a lot of tax deductions that wealthy people take advantage of now. the only tax deductions that will be allowed are charitable tax deduction, as well as a deduction for your mortgage. now on the corporate side, 15% is the rate that's being proposed down from 35%. that will apply to s corporations as well. there were a number of things that were not talked about, such as will free lancers and contract workers be included in that 15% tax bracket. that was president trump's initial plan going back to the campaign, as well as will he eliminate the marriage penalty. i was called out by gary cohn for asking about my microdetails. that's not exactly a microdetail, not when some many

millions of people pay thabgs. that's something president trump promised on the campaign that he was going to get rid of pit. it answers some questions here, but then there are some devils in the details that have yet to be worked out. >> melissa: yeah. no doubt. a lot of details. but we got a lot of clarity on what we've been talking about but you're right, still more questions. thank you very much. for more on this let's bring in a mainstream columnist for "the wall street journal." former chief speech writer for george w. bush. also the president of americans for tax return. lot to chew on. this is a map. let me ask you for your take overall. what do you think of the plan? does it equal growth? does it equal tax cuts for everyone? >> i would say at the macro level, what i took away from it were a few good things. one, the president is going to not, like healthcare, wait until the end. he wants to have an argument

about growth and tax simplification and so forth. and i think that's good. because once this goes through congress, a lot of these details will be haggled over and taken out or revised and so forth. i think this is a good conversation to have. i especially like gary cohn and secretary mnuchin talking about growth. i think that is the key thing. when they talk about what does this do for working class americans, yes, doubling the standard deduction gives you more of your money back from the government. any time you can keep more of what you earned i think that's a good thing. but the real benefit for the ordinary american who's struggling out there, lifting our anemic growth rate from the 2% that's been the average since 2000 back to 3%. that's, people don't realize that brings some fatter pay checks and it sort of compounds every year. there's no substitute for that. so if we look at it just in terms of what you would gain on a $50,000 or $60,000 income

without the economic growth, we're going to get a very cramped reading of what the benefits are. >> melissa: there were a lot of things that cut both ways. immediately there will be folks saying is this better for rich people? does it help rich people? does it help poor people stphf we're getting rid of things like deducting your state and local taxes for people in new york and california and places where taxes are very high. that's painful because that means that we can't dedutkubduc taxes that we pay. that's tough. but at the same time, you're seeing the rates come down and that deduction out of the gate that everyone takes doubling. what do you think net net everything? >> this is a phenomenal reduction in taxes and also it focuses on growing the economy and creating jobs and more income. that just swamps everything else. reagan's tax cuts led to 4%

growth year after year. we've been living at 2%. the difference between growing at 4% a year and 2% a year for the government alone is 5 there's billion over a decade. so somebody said how are you gonna pay for all these tax cuts? getting 5 theretrillion more is phenomenally important step in the right direction. we should be getting more revenue by having millions more americans at work. the first year of reagan's tax cuts. this is very close to reagan's first tax cut reducing marginal tax rate and the second tax cut which was tax reform rates down broadly based. this does both. >> melissa: yeah. >> no death tax. no amt. talk about democrats who live in blue states who may not like to lose the deductibility of their state and local taxes. getting rid of the amt is a tax on democrats in blue states, and

we're getting rid of it. >> melissa: the two guys that you saw up there, pardon my french, these are two bad ass guys from goldman sachs who understand math and accounting and how things work. they got up there and presented what they thought was going to be a lower effective tax rate for people. that's net net net. they also think the president's goings to be able to get it through. listen to this. >> this isn't going to be easy. doing big things never is. we will be attacked from the left and we will be attacked from the right. bun thing is certain. i would never ever bet against this president. he will get this done for the american people. >> one of the attacks that you heard out of the gate is does it pay for itself? a question that drives a lot of people crazy because they're talking about static analysis. they score it without taking into account the tremendous growth it might create. >> makes it difficult to get

through. >> melissa: is it fair though? >> that's where the president has to keep this debate on growth. as grover said, we agree. the primary benefit is not that your tax rate is reduced by a little bit. the primary benefit to most ordinary americans will be that the economy is thriving and that it's growing. that growth that grover talked about, moving from 2% to 3% or 4%, that's dreams for the american people. that will lead to your kids going to college. that lets you buy a better house or get your daughter a car when she gets out of college to work. there's a lot of dreams in that. we have to get the debate on the growth. overseas you mentioned the numbers are difficult. yes, that's true. i was overseas for ten years. people overseas, they understand you need to attract investment if you want your nation to prosper. we're sending so much of our own

money overseas with high rates and regulations. >> melissa: what he's talking about is the religion of supply tide. do you believe in it? >> i believe in growth and supply side. i debated bolshevic this week. he kept saying we can't have growth any more. we can never get above 2%. this is the new norm. >> melissa: then we should just give up? >> i said, i remember when, after four years of carter's failure to have growth, the entire world announced there were limits to growth. remember the club of rome? not only america, but the whole world was never going to go again, until we cut tax rates. after eight years of the worst recession -- sorry, the recovery. we were at 2% growth. reagan was at 4%. now the left is going, oh, 2%'s all you can do.

it's not that their policies failed. it's the entire world conspires. that's nonsense. this bill changes everything. >> melissa: one of the most essential things that i saw is that it encourages small business. small business owners. s corps. people who pay income tax on their business income because they don't have a lot of employees. what does that mean? >> it means a lot. lot of smile businesses file as s corps. it's very complicated. i know a guy in my town who runs a deli. hayes five or six employees. his wife is up all night trying to do the taxes and comply with regulations. one of the things i think it was what mr. cohn said the goal is growth and ease. lot of people do feel the system is out to trap them, that they don't understand it. i mean, i do my taxes on turbo tax. they're not that complicated. but i have my complaints. especially about the people's

republic of new jersey's stand and their tax. if i were running a little pweudz, it would be terrible. >> melissa: it's overwhelming. >> the time. the time is just as important. >> melissa: yeah. gentlemen, thanks to both of you. appreciate it. republican lawmakers saying they're ready to work closely with the president to enact his tax cut plan. and get the economy back on track. peter ducey is live on capitol hill. do we know how many leadership plans or how the leadership plans to move forward with the tax reform plan now? it's gonna be in their hands. >> reporter: we do, melissa. the speaker of the house, paul ryan, just announced that he wants to use this process called reconciliation, which they all used in their failed attempts to repeal and replace obamacare because with reconciliation, once the bill gets out of the house, if it does get out of the house, it will only need 51 votes in the senate and that means no democrats needed. >> we think reconciliation is the preferred process. we think that's the most logical

process to bring tax reform through. chairman is marking it up. i think we're planning, once we mark up a bill, we want to move to the floor as quickly as possible. >> reporter: surprisingly the top democrat in the senate isn't saying no outright to the thought of tax reform but minorny leader chuck shumer also doesn't like the general outline of what he's heard so far. >> we'll take a look at what they're proposing, but i can tell you this. if the president's plan is to give a massive tax break to the very wealthy in this country, a plan that will mostly benefit people and businesses like president trump's, that won't pass muster with we democrats. >> reporter: as for potential republican opposition slowing down the tax reform effort, i did ask president trump yesterday if he's worried about republicans getting in the way of 216 votes that they would need to pass a reform bill out of the house and he told me no.

>> melissa: i love the tax talk. i gotta ask you about the briefing with all those 100 senators that they're invited to this afternoon. what about that? >> reporter: you know, melissa, it's very rare for republicans and democrats to do anything in really large numbers except for vote. they apparently think things have heated up with north korea. they brought in some buss to take these lawmakers down to the white house because they want to see the latest intel for themselves. normally this type of high level classified briefing would happen here at the capitol because they do have the facilities for this. the white house found out every senator wanted to know the latest. they o conference room. once they are there, hearing from rex tillerson, who is listed as the highest profile briefer, as high as profile as you can get in washington. president trump is going to drop

by at some point. these two buses we expect to be filled within the next ten minutes by as many senators as they want. yep. 100 invited. >> melissa: yeah, definitely. i will be curious to see how many get on board. thank you so much. we've got some breaking news on the health care repeal plan. in a new statement from the freedom caucus. and as peter just mentioned, the white house is set to host a critical meeting on north korea. we're gonna have more on what we can expect. this is after u.s. military launches an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile in california, putting our readiness and nuclear capability on full display. >> while recent actions by beijing are encouraging and welcome, the fact remains china is as possible for where north korea is today as north korea itself.

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>> melissa: fox news alert. the freedom caucus now saying they are okay with the revisions to the new health care bill. they've been a major road block in president trump's plan to repeal and replace obamacare. mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. mike, do they have the votes to pass the republican healthcare package now? >> reporter: melissa, that is the question. winning over the freedom caucus is important. the group statement says, quote, while the revised version still does not fully repeal obamacare, we are prepared to support it to keep our promise to the american people to lower health care costs. i asked house speaker paul ryan if this revised version has enough votes. he endorsed the change. >> we want to give the states the ability to kind of customize the reforms to maximize the ability to lower premiums and protect people with preexisting conditions. that is at the heart of what the

amendment does. i think it helps us get the consensus. >> reporter: the fear has been winning over conservatives could lose moderate support. if they have the numbers they need, sources are suggesting a vote could come next week. >> melissa: what's the latest on the efforts to fund the government? that's another big question right now. >> reporter: everyone i talked to said they are close. sounds like they are buzzing up the final items and key lawmakers sound hopeful. >> democrats have been supportive of keeping government open. we have a record in the past of working in a bipartisan way with our republican colleagues when they could not get the votes in their own caucus to keep government operating, to come to democrats and work with us to keep the lights on. >> reporter: they are facing a friday night midnight deadline. if they don't have it there they could do a few day or one week extension. nobody is talking about a government shutdown at this point. melissa. >> melissa: mike, great reports. thank you. an explosive warning overnight to north korea, as the u.s. test

fires a nuclear capability missile off the california coast. this as president trump's top military minds gather for a rare meeting with all 100 u.s. senators. ahead, the latest on the strategy for containing pyongyang's nuclear ambition. plus, a federal judge dealing another blow to the white house, this time blocking an executive order on sanctuary cities. coming up, what the president has to say about that. you don't let anything

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>> melissa: u.s. is taking new steps to bring the leaders of nuclear north korea to their fences. installing an advanced missile defense system in south korea and firing a missile capable of

delivering a nuclear weapon to the south pacific. warning the rogue nation against testing america's resolve. all this as the entire senate heads to the white house this hour for a rare classified briefing on north korea. national security correspond anne jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon. who will be at the white house meeting this afternoon? we saw the buses. who's going. >> reporter: well, melissa, it will be all 100 senators all were invited. and classified briefing, of course, will be led by defense secretary jim mattis, just back from a week long trip to the middle east. chairman of the joint chiefs, joe dunford, dan coats and secretary of state rex tillerson, who will head a u.n. security council meeting, dealing with north korea on friday. on capitol hill, the head of the u.s. pacific command admiral harry harris gave a preview of why the u.s. is so concerned about kim jong-un right now.

>> he's doing nuclear testing. if he puts all of that together, miniaturizes the nuclear weapon, puts it on an icbm that he's testing here and figures out a way to have that thing survive reentry and then we have a serious problem on our hands. >> reporter: admiral harris said the north korean leader is not afraid to fail in public with repeated tests, whether nuclear or missile tests. >> melissa: so did he say anything about the uss carl vinson strike group kim jong-un has threatened to blow it out of the water. >> he apologized for giving the wrong impression of where it was, but warned jong-un not to make threats against the vinson, that is within striking distance of north korea. he said the north koreans do not have a missile capable of striking the air strike group. harris said but warned the u.s.

navy would shot down anything that came near the carrier. the u.s. test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile today from an air force base in california. the missile traveled over 4,000 miles before splash down in the south pacific early wednesday. the nuclear capable missile was unarmed according to an air force spokesman, melissa. >> melissa: wow. jennifer griffin, thank you very much for that report. for more on all of this we want to bring in the director of japan studies at the american enterprise institute and author of the end of the asian century. all right. we did have another guest who's not with us right now. let's go with michael. might bel -- michael, what do you make of that? >> i think what the trump administration is trying to do is say we're different from the team you just were dealing with, the obama administration. we're not afraid to put pressure on you right from the beginning. we've got an aircraft carrier

coming your way. we've got a ballistic submarine there. when you try to do, just remember we can respond. number two, if we do decide, i think this is what the trump people are trying to say. if we do decide to go into negotiations with you, it is going to be from a position of strength, not weakness. >> melissa: bruce clinger, senior fellow at the heritage foundation, he is with us now. so, bruce, let me ask you, how do you think that north korea's likely to respond to that test? we are, after all, it seems not dealing with a rational person anyway. >> well, we know north korea's gonna do a nuclear test. we know it's gonna eventually test its icbm. we just don't know when. there is often emphasis on linking it to some anniversary. in my discussions with administration officials the parameters of the policy for north korea are an increased pressure, sanctions, targeted financial measures. leaving the door open for

diplomacy but not rushing back to negotiations. that said, that seems to be out of sync with the public messaging which seems to be much more suggestive of u.s. unilateral preemptive attack. >> melissa: that is the signal it feels like the u.s. is sending. a very strong message about we're willing to strike if this is not resolved. there's a danger in that, of course, right? >> there is. i think it's part of the administration's approach though. especially after syria. to say, look, we're unpredictable and you don't know what we're going to do, partly because we may just decide on the spur of the moment to act in ways that would be very harmful to you. i agree with everything that bruce said. there's a lot of homework that this administration is doing to clean up the gaps that the last administration left, including serious enforcement of sanctions. but the real message is being sent to pyongyang and beijing. it's trying to say you can't pretend that the united states now is going to just wait and

revert to form and always expect that we're just going to be negotiating. >> melissa: the narrative that seems to be out there in this situation is we're dealing with basically one crazy guy. that his own advisers are afraid to tell him the truth because they're afraid for their lives. they see what he's done to members of his own family. how does that change the strategy if it's about one main person? >> well, the danger is with the rhetoric on both sides, as well as south korea talking about a preemptive strike if necessary. you have all three militaries in close proximity to each other. you can have incidents which go from tactical to strategic in the blink of an eye. the more north korea brags about its nuclear capabilities, the more the allies may feel necessary to lean further forward in doing a preemptive strike. we srauls the trump administration saying they may feel it necessary to have a military option if north korea

simply demonstrates a technological capability that we deem to be a threat. >> melissa: yeah, that's a lot there. thanks to both of you. senators are leaving the capitol right now to head to the white house for a briefing on north korea. that's what you're seeing there on the buses. peter ducey is live on capitol hill. you just caught up with senator john mccain. >> reporter: right, melissa. again, it's very rare for republicans and democrats to all get on a bus for a field trip down to the white house together. but senator mccain who, until very recently when the white house started showing strength in syria and towards north korea, he was a big critic. but he just told us about what he thinks this briefing is going to accomplish with him and the rest of his colleagues, some of whom are still trump critics. listen to this. >> i think what they need to think is the chinese will stop their economy in every way unless they stop this progress towards acquisition of a nuclear

weapon and a means to deliver it. china is a key to this. >> reporter: are you expecting president trump to try to get all 100 on board today with some sort of military action when he drops by? >> that's not the purpose of this briefing. the purpose of this briefing is to tell us the situation and the intelligence we have and what the options that we have. >> reporter: so these buses are still loading up. we expect that briefing that mccain says is going to be classified info session, basically, for the entire legislative upper chamber to start here in the next couple of minutes. melissa. >> melissa: peter ducey, thank you. the battle over sanctuary cities heating up. how a judge is challenging another one of president trump's executive orders and what this means for sanctuary cities. aleve with direct therapy

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>> melissa: president trump blasting a federal judge's decision to block his executive order which looked to with hold funding to so called sanctuary cities. the president calling the ruling ridiculous and vowing to fight it all the way to the supreme court. claudia cohen is live in san francisco where that decision was made. claudia? >> reporter: hi, melissa. this ruling affects not only san francisco and santa clara. those are the two counties that filed this lawsuit, but hundreds of so called sanctuary cities across the u.s. that can now move forward and plan their budgets knowing they will get all the federal funding that

they counted on no strings attached, at least for now. >> the court sides with us on every substantive issue. i hope this president learns from his litany of mistakes. his first 100 days have been a disaster. but i hope for all of our sakes that he can turn it around. >> reporter: the lawsuit was filed just blocks from where bay area resident kate steinly was fatally shot in 2015 by a repeat felon and five time deportee who was supposed to have been turned over to federal immigration agents but who was shielded by the city's sanctuary policy. the case shocked the nation and became a campaign talking point for donald trump, who signed an kpebive order in january to with hold federal funds from cities that harbor illegal immigrants. now a district judge has blocked that order from taking effect. it will still wind its way through the courts. melissa, we are still waiting to see whether the trump administration challenges this

nationwide injunction at the 9th circuit court of appeals, also based here in san francisco. >> melissa: we will see. thank you. to help us break it all down, let's bring in attorney john billboard and emily companu. she is the former criminal defense attorney. thanks to both of you for joining us. let me start with you. talk procedure for me first. >> well, there's a fairly straight line now between where this case is in the northern district of california and getting up the chain of the ranks all the way up to the supreme court. donald trump has come out and tweeted, i'll see you in the supreme court. obviously he disagrees with this judge's ruling. the next logical step would be the 9th circuit court of appeals. we never think there's a ruling that sticks 20% of the time, then it would probably go on up. >> melissa: emily, let me play for you what president trump said and ask you ab that. go ahead. >> i'm never surprised by the 9th circuit. [ laughter ]

as i said, we'll see you in the supreme court. >> melissa: emily, is that where this is headed? >> reporter: likely, it is. i'd like to.out the fact that the government really needs to step up their specificity here. they need to make sure there isn't room for these judges to legislate from the bench. there was an argument over, how broad is this? this could be billions argued the counties. the government says, no, it's to the tune of probably 1 million for the county of santa clara and maybe nothing for san francisco because it only involves three agencies. so it behooves again the government to come in with any appellate argument in addition to if they do rephrase this order to be so specific and so particular that no one will be able to argue the fact that, look, this is exactly the money that's being withdrawn. it's preconditioned and relative to the issue you are refusing to comply with. >> melissa: is that possible? do they need to tighten up their

language or is this circuit going to have a problem with it no matter what? >> they're going to have a problem with it no matter what. this is the black robe equivalent of marching in the street. this is the resist everything that this administration does to try to prove that it's a failure, which isn't. the four corners could have been pristine. it was still going to be challenged. it will always be challenged. but in the end donald trump is going to win this. he has the authority to withdraw the funds. he has the ultimate authority over our immigration laws. he is going to win. this is just a delay. >> melissa: one of the concerns, fighting points, is what is a sanctuary jurisdiction. when you had sessions coming out saying that it requires that they not block communication with immigration and customs enforcement. the mayor said that they're complying with the law, that they're unaware of any places that they didn't.

what do you think? >> exactly. i think that's partly what's kind of feeding into the confusion. certainly the public perception of the confusion over this issue. that's why, again, that specificity is paramount. why at the heart of this issue, is nonarguable. so even county officials last night from santa clara were arguing kind of the concept of whether or not the president can do this and the concept of immigration. it was totally beside the point that we can with hold federal funding from a city if they refuse to comply with a certain related precondition issue. so, again, that kind of sanctuary city title being brought into it, it might not even have frankly an application here and a specific example. >> definition of a sanctuary city is like the definition of obscenity. you know it when you see it. these cities that ignore the lawful ice detainers that is a sanctuary city. i don't care how sessions defined it. and i hope that we resolve this before we have another kate

steinly incident. >> melissa: interesting. thanks to both of you. appreciate your time. with rising tensions with north korea, the entire senate is headed to the white house for a rare classified briefing on the situation with the trump administration's top national security advisers. we are monitoring that for any breaking news. plus, we have a preview from the va secretary of some changes coming to the veterans affairs department. and we're gonna tell you how you can help our veterans right now. but first things first- timcall trugreen,ed. america's #1 professional lawn care company. millions of homeowners like you trust us to give them a lawn they can live on. start your trugreen lawn plan today for only $29.95.

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>> melissa: president trump is working to make good on his campaign promise to overhaul the department of veterans affairs. an executive order is expected to be rolled out any day now. earlier the va secretary giving a preview of what to expect and reiterating that the trump administration has no plans to privatize the agency.

>> i can say definitively that we have no intention and it would be a bad decision to think about privatizing the va. so what you end up with is an integrated system of care taking from veterans what the va does and is so important to maintain for veterans, as well as what the va is not doing and not doing well and allow veterans access to though services in the private sector. >> melissa: so what does the va need to focus on to help veterans now? joining me is the ceo of team rubicon. he is also a former sniper in the marine corps. let me ask you first about your reaction to what you heard. do you think that's the right plan, to not privatize it? >> i think it makes sense. reality is many of the federal challenges that veterans are facing when they come back from conflict overseas are very unique. there are some things that private health care can do very very well. but the realities are that there

are significant challenges, medical challenges, that are facing veterans that having a closed eco system makes a lot of sense. it should be integrated along lines where there are expertise and efficiencies in the open market. there are thins the va needs to do. >> melissa: it is a disgrace the way it stands. we see the stories all the time. we are not doing right by our veterans. what do you think needs to change first though? >> the va's made a lot of progress, both under the former secretary and under the new secretary. i think they'll con to improve. they have been getting more money, larger budget. they really stream lined the digital experience for veterans. they still have room to improve there. they pulled together all these websites and digital tools that made a single front door for veterans to walk in through the va. that's a huge improvement. it's able to deliver better services more consistently. >> melissa: yeah. let me ask you about your

organization. you do something really special to empower veterans and really give them a purpose of helping others. >> yeah. so we started team rubicon after the haiti earthquake. what we learned was that veterans, we put a lot of money into their skill and training. they come home. they're returning to all these communities across the united states. what team rubicon does is organize and retrain them and redeploy them into disaster zones as volunteers to help our communities. to help piece them back together what we found is there's a real role for restoring that sense of purpose and commune within our veterans. that is really the foundation for a healthy transition. the va has a role. education has a role. but helping to make that person feel whole again, make them feel that sense of purpose, that sense of identity, there's a real value in using that as a form of reeupbtd great lakes as

well. >> melissa: they're doing work that not a lot of people can do that is desperately needed. tell us about some of the video. what is the disaster they came to address? >> we respond all over the world and throughout the united states. about 175 disasters since we were founded in 2010. so we're looking at some video from areas in oklahoma that were impacted by tornados. there's hurricane matthew last year along the east coast of the united states. we responded in five different states on the eastern seaboard in response to that disaster. we're talking about the opportunity to plug into the idle capacity of thaoe veterans in these communities. there's 3 million men and women that have served since iraq and afghanistan. how do we tap into that skill? we've invested taxpayer dollars into them. how do we continue to get a return on that investment. >> melissa: not only that, but it's work that's desperately needed. if you've ever covered a natural disaster or been in one, it's very physical. the help that's desperately needed when people return to their homes and community and they need to start picking up the pieces, quite literally.

these are things veterans are uniquely qualified to go into real physical disasters and deal with them. if people are watching at home, how can they get involved in your organization. >> there's a couple different ways to get involved. you can see the website team rubicon usa.org. you can also text america to 87872 just to get more information. i'd encourage any veterans out there listening, be it of any generation, going all the way back to world war ii, we'd love to have you. if you're someone who served in the military, we'll take you as well. if you love to support we're a nonprofit organization so the money goes a long way. >> melissa: thanks for joining us. appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me. >> melissa: all 100 senators are headed to the white house to meet with with the president's national security team for a classified briefing on rising tensions with north korea. what they're likely to hear and what i means for security in the region and here at home.

>> melissa: we are watching the buses arrive and senators here arrive at the white house for a 3:00 p.m. meeting on north korea. we've seen some of the buses roll in. here, you can see them having departed the bus, kind of walking up towards the white house there. they're going to be talking about north korea. we also know that general james mattis is already there. secretary of state rex tillerson as well. we will keep you posted on that meeting as it happens. fox news alert. an investigation under way after a state trooper was shot multiple times in delaware. outside of a convenience store. trace gallagher is live with more on that one. trace? >> reporter: melissa, this

happened in bear delaware just southeast of the university of delaware. closest big city for some perspective is wilmington. but the search for a suspect or suspects is focused on middle town, delaware, maybe 10, 15 miles away. the pictures you are looking at are from that wa wa convenience store. that's where a heavy police presence is converging. police are saying very little, but witnesses say the trooper was at or near the wawa convenience store and that a driver pulled up to a red light. when the trooper got out, he was fired upon. and then when the trooper fell the suspect said the witnesses walked up to the trooper and began firing several more shots. the downed officer was then being helped by some other people as the suspect or suspects fled. several people ran to help that officer, but his condition has not been released. keep in mind, about 15 miles away in middle town, we now know that the local abc affiliate

there is reporting that one person may be in custody and that there could be a standoff involving a potential second suspect. again, police have not confirmed that to us. we do know that several state and local agencies are now involved in both the wawa scene in bear, as well as in middle town. and the potential search for a suspect or suspects. again, this is all evolving very fast. a trooper was shot. we do not know his condition. he was taken to a local hospital as we get more information on this shooting in bear, delaware, we'll get back to you. melissa. >> melissa: trace gallagher, thank you. all eyes on the white house now as senators arrive for that big meeting on north korea. this is unprecedented. a big deal. all coming in to put their heads together and hear what's going on and talk about what can be done. we're gonna keep an eye on it.

we'll be right back.

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>> all right. let me show you the big story of the hour. these are senators arriving at the white house for the 3:00 p.m. meeting on north korea. they're making their way in after taking buses over. we'll keep an eye on this meeting. it's unprecedented and very important. also, if you can't make it through, why not jump over? >> racing to the plate. the throw is not in time and an incredible slide. >> unbelievable. did you see that? that is the blue jay's chris coughlin diving on iad -- yadier molina.

coughlan says if he goes low, i go high. look at that picture! you got to love it. thank for joining us for the hour. i'm melissa francis. here's shepard smith. >> news on the west coast, 3:00 here in the city. we're monitoring several fast-breaking stories. at this moment, senators are arriving at a building on the white house campus for a briefing on north korean. this as the north korean dictator flexing his muscles showing off his forces. the pentagon showing off its strength. president trump signing an executive order on education. one aimed at minimizing the federal government's role in teaching america's children. but critics say it could end up hurting some kids. and the trump administration releasing new details about what it calls the biggest tax cut ever. major changes proposed on how