problem with the christmas -- how are you doing with wrapping presents? the shopping and lists. >> sandra: are you stressed? >> bill: i'm trying to manage it. am i doing okay? >> sandra: you're keeping it together. all right. enjoy the holidays, everyone. "happening now" starts right now. >> and we begin with a fox news alert on the america first national security strategy while we now await the details of the president's plan, one that could dramatically change the relationship the u.s. has with the rest of the world. >> president trump set to turn his campaign promises into government policy when less than three hours from now he outlines his blueprint for the military and foreign policy vision. >> while the president takes aim at special counsel robert mueller over the thousands of trump team emails but makes it clear he is not going to fire mueller over it. chief white house correspondent john roberts live with more on

that. so what are we expecting today from the president's speech, john? >> the national security strategy which the president has out in his first year, not many administrations do that. he will lay out his new national security strategy at 2:00 this afternoon at the reagan building. it is really based on five pillars. all of which he talked about at length during the campaign and in the 11 months he has been president. first of all, to protect the american people, the homeland and american way of life through strengthening border security and reforming immigration and promote american prosperity by rejuvenating the economy. cutting new trade deals with some of our allies. preserving peace through strength. the reagan mantra. rebuilding and reequipping the u.s. military. championing american values while not seeking to impose our way of life on anyone and pursuing a regional security strategy to promote security and stability in an entire

region, not just among individual countries. the national security council spokesman says this is a departure from past national security strategies. listen here. >> this strategy puts more emphasis and focus and detail on homeland and border security. it is obvious why. it's such an enormous challenge the united states faces and one of the great themes the president ran and won on in 2016. >> he specifically singles out china and russia saying china and russia challenge american power, influence and interests attempting to erode american security and prosperity making economies less free and less fair to control their military and repress their soeft and expand their influence. the president believes the united states has to rethink the policies of decades past that, quote, engagement with rivals and their includes in global commerce, this premise

turned out to be false. the president also repeating, you mentioned this at the top, his assurance he isn't even thinking about firing the special counsel, robert mueller. this pops up every few weeks or couple months. this time it was floated by a democratic congresswoman with no apparent evidence said she believes the president may fire the special counsel over the christmas break. at every turn the president, his press secretary and legal team have knocked down such rumors. sources say the president's legal team has a good relationship with mueller and meeting with him this week. the last thing they want is for him to be fired, have another special counsel appointed and have the whole thing reset and started again from scratch in a process that could drag out for months if not years. on the way back from camp david the president responded to new rumors he would fire mueller saying that is not something he is going to do. listen. >> no, i'm not, no. >> is question was are you

still considering firing mueller? apparently he never was. at the same time officials from the trump transition team are accusing the special counsel's office and general services administration of wrongdoing, the attorney for transition charged that the gsa provided the special counsel's office with tens of thousands of emails from the transition, some of them privileged without notifying the ptt that they were going to do that. the special counsel's office and the gsa insist they did nothing wrong. spokesman for the special counsel's office saying when we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation we have secured the account-owners consent. a lot of discussion about this. you saw alan dershowitz on last hour. judge napolitano was of a different mind. it will get chewed on a lot. >> mueller is keeping his job.

>> there wasn't a question of that. it has come up many times and at every turn the white house says no it won't happen but it keeps coming back up. >> thank you, john. >> the president's national security strategy michael anton, national security council spokesman said it represents a clear-eyed view of america's interests and capabilities abroad. >> principled realism is a way of saying that we stick to american principles, the strategy is consistent with american principles and realistic about what america's power can achieve in the world. there is a frank recognition that the president's critique that he gave during the campaign of the past couple decades of american foreign policy, it tried to do too much. it overly defined what america's national interests were and american foreign policy tried to do things that frankly we've learned through hard experience were perhaps not achievable with american power and so this is a kind of necessary reassessment of what

our interests really are. >> joining us now is michael warren senior writer for "the weekly standard". i want to flush out for the audience what the differences are here. if you look back at a speech that president bush made in 2002 to west point and outlined this policy that we seem to have been following where it is the idea of spreading democracy and free markets and freedom and free people everywhere we possibly can. this is a departure from that, right? >> i think so. you didn't just hear it in the 2002 speech from george w. bush. you heard it in the 2005 second inauguration speech. the idea of spreading democracy. it was a big part of president bush's national security strategy. as i read president trump's national security strategy there is a departure there. president trump says there won't be an effort to transfer our values or to impose our

values onto other nations. that's simply in stark contrast between that and what president bush argued which was that it was a sort of question of balance of power that favored freedom and american values. you don't hear that so much. you hear much more in the trump document about national sovereignty and letting all countries find common ground in their own interests. >> he outlines three main challenges and kind of separates them into groups. one is russia and china, sort of reemerging as large challengers to u.s. power everywhere. then there is the rogue states of iran and north korea in a separate group and then the third group is the threat from jihadis, islamic terror, from that group. he identifies this theory of america first, project our industry and increase influence abroad would be a better way to

tackle these three major challenges. what do you think? >> yeah, that's right. the view from the trump administration is that power is something that america needs to be consolidating. the challengers you mentioned, china and russia. i went back and looked at the george w. bush national security strategy and there was this idea at the beginning of the century that china and russia were possible partners in sort of -- they were emerging and that the bush administration was hopeful they could sort of be brought into a more peaceful freedom-loving global community. that hasn't happened. that has changed. you also heard this in some of the remarks you had from that statement earlier that i think were definitely a shot at the obama administration. and their effort to sort of bring iran into the community of nations. that is certainly something that the president on the

campaign trail castigated the obama administration for. >> if you look at the spread of isis, you look at how much terror there is going on everywhere, the attacks that we see going on in europe and here at home, you look at nuclear proliferation as it appears to be happening in iran and north korea, that this other policy of spreading democracy and even nation building hasn't worked. >> i don't know, i think it's a lot more complicated and complex than that. there were certainly some really some successes from what george w. bush argued for if you look at the way that he left what was happening in iraq and when he left the white house a lot of successes there. and this is a criticism that donald trump, of course, made of president obama. that was a war that had been rewon after the surge in 2007 that obama had lost. i think that there is -- what

you are seeing here, though, is a shift in republican foreign policy from the george w. bush administration. that's reflective of frustration among certain people in this administration and members of the republican party itself from those bush years. and frustration that i think is not entirely warranted but in many ways is warranted. >> nation building and the amount of blood and treasure that has been left behind and spilled based on the idea of trying to spread democracy. i wonder from a practical point of view how do you see this taking shape? if this is the shift in doctrine, how do things look different in how we behave internationally? >> it's an inconsistency in the national security strategy released from the trump administration today which is that the strategy talks a lot about sort of being -- making sure america is inserted into

the world and our influence is expanded. but yet the sort of idea that we shouldn't be out there nation building. i think that's a sort of exaggeration of what the bush administration was arguing for. and it comes into conflict there. i think the trump administration wants to be involved. you see the involvement in syria, for instance, the retaliation against that attack. but yet doesn't want to entirely engage in that region. it is not a great situation. you look at north korea, for instance. it's a very dicey situation that the trump administration was handed. >> thank you so much. we appreciate your time. good insight. >> president trump praised for the defeat of isis. why one "new york times" columnist says the president's foreign policy success is being ignored. travel resumes after atlanta's main airport after a power outage. thousands of passengers find

themselves in a chaotic and scary scene. >> we walked down the escalators and go through the tunnels that are pitch black. you don't know if somebody will snatch your bags. that was a nightmare. amanda's mom's appointment just got rescheduled - for today. amanda needs right at home. our customized care plans provide as much - or as little help - as her mom requires. whether it's a ride to the doctor or help around the house. oh, of course! tom, i am really sorry. i've gotta go. look, call right at home. get the right care. right at home.

>> melissa: we're monitoring a situation right now, a high-speed amtrak derailment in dupont, washington amtrak has tweeted we're aware of an incident involving amtrak train 501. we'll update with additional details as they become available. >> jon: a "new york times" column shift praises president trump's -- in a column titled a war trump won conservative columnist says one reason for the lack of fanfare is because it didn't require going to war

with syria. he also points to another reason writing, but this is also a press failure. a case where the media is not adequately reporting an important success because it does not fit into the narrative of trumpian disaster in which our journalistic entities are all invested. let's bring in today's media panel. investigative reporter julie miller and a conservative talk show host. what about it, tammy? you read the column. >> i did. >> jon: are the press ignoring the president's success? >> i think it's obvious they are. what's interesting about his column it begged the question, he started out by saying the president's own behavior creates controversies that overshadow effectively great news like this. and we have defeated isis and that's what's remarkable. it is like another day, right? it is not something that people thought was a big deal.

it's a huge deal. but it also tells you that when a columnist admits that the president got something right, becomes news, that highlights the problem we have with the media. that in and of itself is news. we can tell you as an example it is not because of the president's creation of controversy, it is that the media creates them. as an example when we were defeating isis what president trump likes to call fake news from cnn talking about james comey will say he told donald trump he was under investigation. the number of firings at cnn for a false report about anthony scaramucci being under investigation and most recently the false report at cnn and msnbc about the wikileaks drop that president trump got it a week before anyone elsewhere it was after the fact, like everyone else. that becomes the news of gossip and the news of what is really happening in the country, good news, is ignored. >> jon: it is true, judy, that a couple of years ago all of the headlines out of the middle

east were people being beheaded en masse or burned alive. isis was a really scary organization. now the iraqi prime minister has said they are all but done. >> they are all but done on the ground. they are all but done territorially. the caliphate is dead. as i'm sure tammy remembers and we all remember because we were around new york on halloween, the ideology of isis persists. that the president himself has said will continue to pose a challenge. here is the thing, yes, the president doesn't get sufficient credit for carrying out the policy that ash carter implemented in the last year of the obama administration. obama screwed this up. we have isis, in part because of obama. but at least ash carter, the secretary of defense, put in a new strategy which donald trump was smart enough not to fiddle

around with. >> jon: doubt that gives credit to the obama administration for at least getting things lined up to make this success possible. but it is also true the president chose some militarily knowledgeable people to be his chief of staff as well as his secretary of defense. >> remember, there was some concern in the beginning when he was surrounding himself with generals that it would be a military coup of some sort. clearly the world has been preparing for war. the military generals within the last six months have also said the president let them do their job. his policies were you are on the ground, you know what's best. we are going to stop micromanaging this from the pentagon and from washington, if you will, from air conditioned suites and let the people on the ground make these decisions. that was a significant change that was done by the trump administration. of course, the generals are saying over the last several years we would need three to four months to get rid of isis.

they were saying it for years. it proved true. the military already had -- they knew what they needed to do. they needed a commander-in-chief to let them do it. >> you've reported from that part of the world many times. is this a case of military unshackled? >> the military was unshackled but the strategy was put in place in the last year of the obama administration. like giving george bush credit for the surge. a lot of reporters didn't want to do that, either. it was bush whose faulty strategy got us into a mess and helped create isis or what became isis from the beginning. but then george w. bush came in and trusted his generals and went with the surge. the media took a long time to get onto that narrative as well. i think there is a little of that especially because donald trump has declared war on the media. so they are not willing and able to give him the benefit of the doubt. >> but i think it's important to remember that the media does

move the narrative. gone are the days when it is just about reporting the facts. very different when judy miller was doing work at the "new york times." a different dynamic what is going to suit us better and what do we want to report. what the american people don't see is what is not reported. that's why this conversation is so important. >> jon: there is a limited amount of space in a major newspaper and right now isis is not consuming almost any of it. >> right. donald trump sets the narrative. if he wanted the talk about the isis victory he could do so. >> jon: thank you both. >> melissa: the lights are back on but passengers warned to expect delays following a major power outage at atlanta's airport. washington state police officers recovering after a gun battle. the suspect known to authorities from previous incidents firing multiple rounds. >> the suspect we've been dealing with over a long period of time. it has been rambling up the

last couple of weeks.

>> melissa: we are just now getting pictures of the high-speed amtrak derailment we told you about in dupont, washington take a look at these pictures. it appears the train -- look at that, went off an overpass and now all southbound lanes of i-5 we're hearing are shut down due to a train car on the highway. the derailment happened at 7:30 a.m. local time so that would be 10:30 a.m. in the east, an hour ago. the washington department of transportation shows a train car hanging part way off an overpass and resting on the road. there is no word when it will be back open, that highway, or if anyone was injured. we don't have that news as of

yet. this happened about an hour ago. take a look at that picture as that train car apparently sped off the overpass and fell onto the highway below. we'll bring you updates as soon as we have them. >> jon: also in washington state two police officers recovering after being caught in what officials call a fire fight. two bremerton officers approached the driver of an suv. a suspect in a domestic violence protection order. the man fired numerous shots at the officer and they fired back hitting him. he was pronounced dead at the scene. both officers also struck but they're expected to be okay. >> melissa: airline passengers traveling from atlanta's airport being urged to check with their airlines as flights resume. power has been restored after the airport was plunged into

darkness on sunday grounding 1,000 flights. not the way you want to kick off the holiday travel rush. >> how could this possibly happen to an airport this important in size? the first thing everybody thought was terrorism. that was the buzz everywhere. we're here, we safe, we hope to get out. >> melissa: how terrifying. jonathan serrie is live at the airport. what a mess. >> yeah, what a mess indeed. georgia power official s believe it was faulty equipment causing a fire causing this power outage. you can see the disruption, passengers lining up to rebook on flights and at least the situation now is under control compared to yesterday when the power went out for nearly 11 hours. escalators weren't working, elevators weren't working. it left some passengers in wheelchairs stuck. people were separated from luggage because bag an

conveyors weren't working and jet ways couldn't be wheeled into place leaving passengers stranded on their planes. >> i literally spent a whole seven hours on an airplane without food or water and then they finally let us off. then i walk into a dark room where everyone is sleeping on the floor. >> the power outage affected all airlines servicing this airport. delta will be the largest and the most impacted. they canceled 1,000 flights yesterday, canceled 300 flights today. and although airport operations are returning to normal flights are already booked for the holidays. some displaced passengers will have to wait several days before they get a seat. now georgia power has redundant systems. multiple lines feeding this airport. apparently the fire was so intense it knocked out the backup systems. georgia power officials say they continue to investigate

exactly what went wrong and focusing on reliability and working on ways to prevent something like this from ever happening again. >> melissa: it must have been so terrifying for the people out of the gate and frustrating to find a solution. i can't imagine it. thanks for that report. >> yes, absolutely. >> jon: republicans on the brink of passing their sweeping tax reform bill as they prepare to vote in both chambers this week. but their packed agenda includes making a budget deal with democrats. can they get it all done? plus california firefighters making some progress on the massive thomas fire burning northwest of los angeles. but calmer weather is not expected to last very long. >> appreciate what everybody has done to try to protect the house and salvage what can be salvaged. it is hard to put into words. this is where we live. it is just smoke and ruin right

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each of these food boxes represents a gift of life for people here in israel who are in desperate need.

in their struggle for survival. many of these people are ill, they're sick, they're alone. they don't have the money to afford

i ask you to please help. that you stand with israel at her time of need. you can make a life changing difference to help a family in need in israel. >> melissa: right now california firefighters have the massive thomas fire 45% contained as crews say they hope to take advantage of higher humidity and lower winds now. but the fire has burned 270,000 acres since it broke out two weeks ago today. adam housley live in ventura for us. >> jon, hard to believe that

two weeks ago we were standing here as the house next to me burned down. firefighters stood in the backyard with flames and embers blowing over the home and sprayed it down and kept it and saved it one of the few on the street saved. you can see the destruction in the foreground. this is one of several hundred homes in this neighborhood that burned to the ground that day. just complete devastation here, the thomas fire is now only 2500 acres away from surpassing the creek fire as the largest fire in state history burning 420 square miles. nearly the size of the city of san antonio. officially it's 45% contained with 8500 firefighters battling the flames. while things are calmer today, good news and they seem to be getting a handle. over the weekend there were erratic winds on saturday. dry conditions as well. some of the gusts on saturday were 65 miles an hour causing flare-ups near santa barbara. several homes there were lost

back then. this family returned to find what was left of their home. firefighters pulled out as much as they could before it burned down. >> we knew the fire was close and we knew it was close for a week but we really believed that it would be okay and this is very hard to look at. >> it was also an emotional day hard to look at for the family and friends of fallen firefighters corey iverson. his funeral procession was 200 miles and hundreds lined the roads as his -- the 32-year-old leaves behind his pregnant wife ashley and 2-year-old daughter. donations from a go fund me account pour in. some of the people the lined the freeway. they would go back through the sites and sift through stuff trying to find anything that is left. if you look at the stuff it is

like some green slime over it. that's seed. it has been sprayed. they sprayed all these homes and hillside with seed in hopes the rains will come and set growth into the dirt. the next threat is mudslides. now there is still no major rain in the forecast in southern california. >> jon: what a tragedy. adam housley, who comes from that area. adam, thank you. >> melissa: big week on capitol hill as republican leaders in congress aim to hold votes on the tax reform bill before cutting a deal with democrats with the budget bill on challenges. some of the final challenges lowering the corporate rate and most of the rates for individual income taxes on the tax bill. >> maybe the biggest surprise for everyone is that the conference committee report turned out a bill better than either the house or senate. lowering the top rate is especially important for families in those salt states.

making sure that the rates kick in now for every size business in america to make them more competitive immediately. again i think a big improvement over the house or senate. >> melissa: let's bring in our panel. radio talk show host and also a republican strategist. john, let me start with you. do you agree with the statement that in conference committee this bill got better? >> i think it did. this bill is going to pass, it will pass in a walk because in contrast to what the democrats -- their signature piece of legislation which involved taking money from people, tairking away choice and forcing them to buy a product they didn't want, the republican sig in tour piece of legislation so far involves giving people more money and more choices and benefits the american public in three ways. despite the democrats,

americans will receive a tax cut. they'll have a smaller tax bill. two, 43 million american households are invested in the stock market and they're already seeing their nest eggs and net worth grow. as the slack is taken out of the labor market you'll see in accordance with the laws of supply and demand upward pressures on wages. they are betting americans like having more money and choice and seeing their net worth grow. >> melissa: richard, do you think it will be tough for democrats down the road if that happens and they voted against it? >> i think it would be tough if that actually happens. i think that's a lot of idealism in his analysis there. >> melissa: where is it wrong? tell us. >> i think the ideal of depending on corporations to somehow magically spend all this money they get back in tax returns is very idealistic. one we know this. corporations have a lot of money already on their books.

let's take apple, microsoft and google. those three companies together have $464 billion sitting in savings accounts right now. they aren't spending that money. you will just add to that money and they won't create any jobs. they are not going to add any money to the economy. >> melissa: what's the difference between all the capital on the balance sheet and knowing they have lower taxes indefinitely going forward? how do corporations behave differently, john? >> i would like to respond to this. this illustrates why economic literacy is so important in these discussions. when these companies repatriot a lot of money held overseas, $4 trillion. they have to spend it or save it. if it is stock buy backs it will increase the net worth of american stockholders. more to the point economics is about expectations and incentives. when companies realize the government's war on the private

sector and war on success is over they'll make bets on the future. those bets involve investments and hiring people. that's what our friends on the left just don't seem to grasp. >> melissa: richard, one of the things if a company does just horde the cash and doesn't lower prices or hire more people or raise wages their competitor will do that and eat their lurch. that's what the free market is all about. >> i get that and i appreciate him trying to educate me on economics. i actually am an economist by training. >> i have two university degrees in economics. >> so do i. let me continue. that would make sense in the idea we live in a supply side economy. we don't. here in the united states we're a demand side of economy. our economy is pushed by consumer demand and pushed by the middle class and working class people spending money. what this tax plan doesn't do, it doesn't encourage working class and middle class families to buy things. it gives more money to

corporations and rich people. when you give more money to corporations and rich people they have a higher propensity to save than spend. if you want people to spend money give it to working class and middle class families. >> melissa: they are giving the money. >> we had 72 consecutive months of job growth, sir. >> barely. coming from the worst jobs -- job growth? >> melissa: one at a time, guys. stop, john, go ahead. >> there was job loss when obama got this economy. year two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight we saw job growth every one of those -- >> melissa: hang on, guys, whoa. john, talk to me about what the middle class is going to see with the fax rate. it's one of the big points. nancy pelosi saying the middle class is getting hosed.

the republicans saying they're getting a tax break. what do you see as the truth? >> first of all that's patently false. middle class is getting a significant tax cut. the democrats are scared of being exposed on the falsehood. 43 million americans are invested in the stock market and they are already seeing their net worths increase. >> melissa: we'll have to leave it there. we have breaking news. gentlemen, i'm sorry, we'll have to leave it there. we appreciate the spirit i had discussion. you'll both be back. richard. guys, guys. that's it. thank you. thanks to both of you. see you later. >> jon: fox news alert. we're getting more information now on that amtrak derailment

in tack ohm -- tacoma, washington the first day they were providing the service. we are going the pause for one moment now to let our fox stations join us. this is fox news coverage of an amtrak train derailment. i'm jon scott in new york. this on the 18th of december amtrak was crowing about its new service to the amtrak cascades tacoma dome station and it looks like a terrible train derailment within a mile or so of the new station. you can see an amtrak train left dangling over interstate 5 right there along the river in washington we can't tell for sure from this still photo how many cars actually came down on the highway and whether any vehicles or automobiles were underneath them. amtrak has not said anything

about the number of injuries resulting from this derailment. they did put out this statement. amtrak is aware of an incident with train 501 cascade service from seattle to portland. emergency services are on the scene and amtrak management is responding. some injuries are reported. the pierce county sheriff's office now says injuries and even casualties are reported. so that is an update over the last couple of minutes. numbers to come on that. john hyatt is a railroad investigator and he joins us on the phone from seattle. john, you know, you have to think that somehow amtrak operating on this new stretch of track so they could open up this new station had to play a role in this accident. >> it's awful early to tell. there are also some reports the train struck a truck on the track and -- looking at the

photographs, the lead locomotive seems to be intact and on the track. the other car is hanging off the overpass. the fortunate thing it's easy access for emergency people but i fear there has to be some casualties on this train. it looks pretty bad. i don't know. this is, as you said, the first day that they ran the new route but i highly suspect at least the initial indications are it may have struck something on the track. >> jon: the information that you are getting is that there was a truck or some kind of vehicle on the track? >> initially there was a transportation working on the track. he was tweeting along as he went and then he tweeted that they had just struck a truck and derailed. that was the last tweet that they had gotten from him. so that's all the information i'm going by. it is so early to tell. i was just on my way down i-5 this morning and i had to

cancel. >> jon: these cars are very robust liability so that still picture we showed earlier that showed one end of the car still up there, there is the photo, one end of the car still essentially attached to the train and the other dangling down on the tracks you have to imagine that it is similar to a human being jump off that bridge and landing on the concrete below. that's the kind of impact that train car would have had as it hit the highway. >> yeah, the fortunate thing is the one end stayed connected to the train. otherwise you lose the entire car. that would be much worse. but just looking at the photos it's bad enough. i'm praying and hoping for the people on board. they try to handle it the best they can but it may well be out of there -- i don't think they can handle it on their own. there is a ton of emergency people and that's the fortunate

part. we'll be getting more information soon, i'm sure. it does sound initially i'm telling you from things that have been tweeted by the department of transportation, that it looks like they may have struck something on the track. >> jon: old habits diehard. if it was a new line to amtrak, i'm guessing that the rails already existed but maybe trains didn't use them all that much? perhaps the driver or operator of whatever vehicle this wasn't accustomed to trains here? >> there is a 30 mile-per-hour curve in this area. i don't know that's the case. it sounds like they struck something. however, there are so many possibilities. the track had been in use, it just hadn't been used for this particular route. i'm sure it had been inspected and so forth and there is so much information yet to come out and i'm sure in the next hours we'll find out a lot more information. at this point the pierce county

people are reporting casualties and injuries. i just don't know how to interpret that. >> jon: amtrak spent years planning this new service again they just cut the ribbon on the amtrak cascades/tacoma dome station a mile from where this accident took place. they spent years planning it and spent $800 million in upgrades on not only the station but also the tracks. and yet something like this happens. >> it has been a huge project and again not knowing exactly what caused it. if it is something like a truck on the track or something, it's one of those things that hard to prevent. but at this point looking at the locomotive i didn't see a lot of damage on the font of the locomotive so i don't know. i'm 10 miles from there and try to make my way out there very soon but traffic is outrageous. >> melissa: i can imagine. i'm looking at some of the witness accounts online on

social media. they are saying it felt like they were suddenly going downhill and then they hit the seats in front of them. what must that impact have been like? >> it had to be very frightening. something this large moving that fast and all of a sudden having speed deterred obviously all the kinetic energy and everything else involved it will be very treacherous. probably a good thing the one half of the car is still hung up. it probably cushioned from a lot worse blow. there is so much to find out here. i know in the next hours we'll have more information. >> melissa: you mentioned if you look at the picture closely the car in front of the one dangling from the overpass is still on the track. so this wasn't the lead car. what do you infer from that? >> well, that's so hard. in an instant like that you would tend to think it was more mechanical, more track involved but the report -- that's all i'm going by is the one tweet

from the department of transportation that said they had struck a truck. now how he knew that being back in the train, i don't know unless he got up there and spoke to somebody. but you know, it is unusual if they did strike something that the engine stays on and other cars derailed. there are so many things involved in what took place here. i don't know exactly if that -- what the track speed is right there. it looks like they must have been going at a slower rate of speed, otherwise i believe that car probably would have gone all the way off. >> melissa: we know they were heading on a new route to a new station. is this the first train to go through there or if others went ahead of it today? >> i believe this was the first one is what i've been told. they thought it was the very first one. they usually go around what is called the lake view subdivision and this time they actually come right along the river and it is a shorter route and faster route and track speed is higher. at one point shortly before the incident they were going 79

miles per hour, which is track running speed right through there. the state department of transportation person was commenting how they were passing trains on i-5 just prior to this and then they must have slowed down to come into the curve i spoke of and something terrible happened. >> jon: john hyatt is a railroad investigator and authority. our guest with us right now as we continue to cover this amtrak derailment on the first day of service in the tacoma area. there are casualties reported, injuries reported as well. how many we don't yet know. jonathan hunt is covering for us from our los angeles bureau and has a little more information for us now. jonathan. >> jon, this was amtrak 501. it had gone through seattle and had stopped, as we understand it, at the new station in tacoma and just south of tacoma this derailment appears to have happened near the town of dumont. now, as we have been looking at

the map here, it appears that it was taking a curve near the eagle's pride golf course. out of that curve it goes across i-5. that's the picture you are looking at there. you can see the bridge it was crossing. that's where the derailment happened. what we don't know and what ntsb investigators will be looking at very closely is the speed of the train. now, we do know that on that particular part of track it could reach speeds around the 80 mile-an-hour mark. we don't know at what speed it was traveling. we don't know the condition of the engineer at that time. all of those things are things that the ntsb will want to look at very closely. they will also be looking extremely closely at the track because these -- parts of this track we know -- we don't know if this was one of those specific new parts, but parts of the track were just upgraded.

amtrak had a ribbon cutting ceremony for this new station in tacoma and touted the new parts and the upgrades to the track and signals in that area. that ribbon cutting just took place on friday and this, as we understand it, was the inaugural run of a train along that new route. so all of those things potentially very significant in what looks like a very bad crash right now. you can see very clearly one of the carriages hanging off the overpass. it is closed down at the moment. we've seen another picture closer up and that appears to show another one of the train cars completely shattered and on the ground on i-5. we've heard from the sheriff that there are injuries and in his word casualties. he did not differentiate what he meant by the difference

between injuries and casualties. but clearly we will find out a lot more, jon, in the coming minutes and hours. jon. >> jon: jonathan hunt reporting from los angeles for us. jonathan, thank you. so yeah, very serious accident as jonathon was just telling us. you can see the evidence of it on the picture, the large picture on your screen right now. that's an amtrak train. its first day of service for the new amtrak cascades line and something went terribly wrong. injuries and casualties as jonathan hunt was just telling us. how many we do not know. interstate 5, a main artery for that part of washington state, is shut down while they deal with this. a public information officer for washington state patrol and joins us now. what can you tell us? do you have any casualty counts? >> i can't give you information about the scene itself.

washington -- we are being requested. we're shutting down all of i-5 and diverting traffic. providing resources when we can and helping to get resources to the scene itself. >> jon: in terms of travelers on i-5 where are they going to have to get off? >> they will have to get off at dupont. it would be preferable if you can say off i-5. this will be an all-day process if not a couple of days to get the investigation clears. we're asking everybody if you don't need to travel southbound don't travel. northbound i5 is slowly getting through in two lanes but stay off if possible. >> jon: it appears to be rainy but that's pretty normal in that part of the country. was weather very bad or an ordinary monday. >> this is a normal day in washington >> jon: and again you do not have any information about casualties or injuries that

we've heard about. >> that needs to come from amtrak. i don't have any information on that. >> jon: how many troopers and cars do you have responding? >> we have anybody that is available. we have troopers that -- this is district one pierce county area. we have taken troopers from the olympia county area. we have mutual aid. everybody is helping out with us now. we have pierce county, lakewood, dupont. a collaborative effort. >> melissa: this is melissa francis. we're looking at a live picture as well of the highway. it actually looks like it is moving very slowly. we imagine they're diverting some of the traffic. other seems to be going through. are there still cars that are trapped in that area where the accident happened or are you able to get people off and through, do you know? >> there are a few but we are turning them around one by one. you can see the backup. it will take some time to get those vehicles turned around one by one.

we're working with joint base lewis, using some of their access roads to detour traffic as well. we hope to alleviate some of the backup soon. >> jon: a huge military base in that area. the traffic camera that melissa was alluding to appears to be at dupont where officers are slowing down what should be a four-lane interstate and taking them all off the dupont exit. that will tie up traffic for quite some time. >> yes, it is. folks, i'm sorry to cut you short. i have to go meet with my command staff. >> melissa: thank you so much for that. so jon, one thing that jonathan hunt pointed out to us as you look at the picture, it is not just the train that's dangling there. there is also one that has fallen down onto the highway. >> jon: one car down on the highway. i believe i can see that in

this picture but again, the eyes can be deceiving so at least one car left dangling and another car apparently flat on the highway and perhaps straddling the guardrail or so it would seem the guardrail in the median separating the traffic flow in the north and south directions on i-5. this all happening again on the first day of service for the amtrak cascades tacoma dome station. the cascades train had just departed that station when the accident took place. >> melissa: conflicting reports. if you listen the reporters and look at reports online as to what may have happened you can see there is a lead car that is still up there and is still on the rails. there was a turn that they were coming into that apparently they had slowed to take. there were also reports coming from on the train we heard about earlier in the show that the train had struck a truck. all of these are coming from

guests that we have had on or reports we've seen online. we in no way no exactly what happened. these are the reports that we're seeing right now to try to figure out how on this maiden voyage this could have happened to this train. >> jon: it would fit, melissa, that on a maiden voyage, this is a a big deal for amtrak. they spent $800 million, almost a billion dollars getting ready for this day and it would fit that they would have, you know, kind of a p.r. person on board the train trying to drum up the excitement. that's apparently the person who first put out the word or one of the people who first put out the word they had hit something on the tracks. what looks to be a terrible, terrible accident ensued. with one train car -- at least one train car down flat on the highway. another one there left dangling with one end of it basically on the road and a second car dangling as well. although not in nearly as precarious a position.

>> melissa: we're getting reports there are injuries and casualties but we don't have numbers of either of those things. we'll stay on top of this throughout the day. >> jon: the amtrak cascades tacoma dome station just opened. jonathon hunt was telling us they had the ribbon cutting on friday. that's it for us on fox news channel. "outnumbered" is up next and we'll have continuing coverage on the fox network. some stations will be returning to regular programming. >> we're watching now to >> harris: we are watching now to the left of your screen what has been nothing short of catastrophe for the amtrak line. 70 people were on the train that we know and parts have derailed. look at the picture now, getting some new information, a new image is in. this is amtrak in seattle, the cascade line. the brand-new lin