cougar as you look at lake george in new york. a breezy day up north. we hope it's a great wherever you are across the usa. >> a great place to take the kids. have your radio show coming up. >> a lot of exciting people. >> listen. we'll see you tomorrow. >> so long, bye-bye. >> dana: toxic train derailment threatening a small town in ohio. 12 days since it happened and families don't know whether it's safe to be there. good morning, asme owe dana perino. bill is off today. good morning, john. >> john: good to be with you early in the morning. relatively speaking. i'm john roberts. this is "america's newsroom." the lack of answers infuriating the community of east pal iss tine. after nearly two weeks of growing uncertainty there. >> dana: a train operated by

norfolk suffolk rail derailed. >> vinyl chloride, a highly flammable carcinogen. >> concerns of a possible explosion the governor ordered an evacuation and crews conducted a controlled burn on five of those cars filled with hazardous chemicals and intentionally leaked them into the air to prevent them from blowing up. >> bill: the people who live are getting sick. also concerned fish and other animals being found dead. despite all this the environmental protection agency says it hasn't detected contamination at levels of concern. the people who live there just are not buying it. >> local fish in our creeks have

died. oily scenes and colorations in the water. chemicals in the air. >> it is half of my family lives in east palestine. you have all these toxins, all the chemicals basically that is going to cause cancer. we've all been exposed. it is not a one mile thing. >> test the water is it safe? the fish are dying. how should i feel safe bathing my children, cooking with any of it? >> we have gone back to grab a couple things and i can't stay there before an hour before i have a giant migraine. >> dana: a reporter pressing governor mike dewine whether east palestine is safe. it is not instilling confidence. >> i would be drinking bottled water and i would be continuing to find out what the tests were showing as far as the air.

i would be alert and concerned but i think i would probably be back in my house. >> john: geraldo rivera is on deck for this. we begin with ohio congressman bill johnson whose district includes east palestine. the release and burning of vinyl chloride as being the least of two bad options. a lot of smoke and gas went into the atmosphere. the ohio environmental protection agency said everything is fine. she said we're confident the low levels aren't getting passed on to customers. are you so confident? >> well, i think there are a lot of unanswered questions and i think that's why the residents there are still concerned. i'm going to continue digging until we get the answers they need. i hear the same thing that you are. you know, the issue of the

controlled burn, the reason that there was a mile evacuation perimeter set up was because the -- in the initial stages of the incident, the gases or chemicals in those tankers were becoming unstable. this is what i was told. they were in danger of exploding on their own. had they exploded on their own, not in a controlled manner, that they then would have sent shrapnel out for a radius of a mile. that's how they came up with the mile. i was actually on scene on monday. did a tour of the site with the mayor, the fire chief, county commissioners, epa, representatives from norfolk southern i will be back there today, this afternoon and this evening to participate in that town hall. and look, i think the residents

have every reason to be concerned. we are going to continue to dig. that's the importance of these testings. testing the water, the air. i know hundreds of tests have been conducted and i know that the epa has said that there is no toxic levels of these chemicals. but still residents are reporting things that have to be answered. so i'm going to go back there today and try to get some of these answers. >> dana: could you describe your level of confidence in the competency and communication from the federal government? governor dewine is there on the ground in ohio so they've got that. you are the representative that can most get answers from the biden administration from department of transportation and epa. your thoughts on how they are doing. >> i can only go by what i hear from the local authorities there. the mayor yesterday indicated to me that he is getting everything

that he is asking for. he believes that the epa, the national transportation safety board that is looking at how this accident happened, is all over it. certainly there still remain some questions. we are a long way from concluding this. but at least at this point it appears that the epa, the national transportation safety board, that they have responded and are communicating openly and transparently with the local authorities. and so that's the report that i got from the mayor. now i will tell you, my staff has been in touch with the epa. we have offered them our support. we have told them that we are standing by for anything that they need. and so we will continue that engagement. i have not talked directly with the national transportation safety board and coincidentally not a word from the transportation secretary,

secretary buttigieg. >> john: he seems to be prolific on twitter and think he would come out there and talk to some folks. we'll look forward to seeing what we find from this town hall meeting later on today. thank you for starting your day with us. >> dana: want to bring in geraldo rivera, an ohio native now. listen to an ohio resident about secretary buttigieg. >> he ought to be on this. he has been ignoring this. he turns his back on middle america when they have a crisis like this. >> dana: that's congressman turner. there is some frustration with the federal government response. what do you hear on the ground? >> i think there is high confidence in congressman johnson, the local congressman seems to be hands on and deeply concerned. governor dewine is very highly regarded in ohio. he was on scene trying his best to comfort people. but the absence of pete buttigieg, the transportation

secretary, is greating on ohio after all these days you would think he would take a couple hour car ride from washington, d.c. and check out what's going on. people are concerned. >> dana: what about the epa? one thing about the crash. that's a department of transportation issue. people are concerned about is their health and that is supposedly looks like a direct correlation to chemicals in the air. >> the "new york post" reporting 3500 fish have died off the fox and chickens reporting lethargy in other kinds of symptoms. vinyl chloride is linked to various cancers. this is not a story that will be over in a few days or a week or so. the long-lasting implications of this. the ohio river is right there. is that now infected as it goes downstream towards cincinnati? in cleveland we're upwind of it. it is not quite as alarming but that black smoke is scary.

if you look at your window and look at that toxic fog. >> dana: you want to protect your family and might not have anywhere else to go. erin brokovich spoke about the white house response. >> by not showing up, by not addressing what is a national train derailment of very high information, you do nothing but create a vacuum of an upset community, a misinformed community, a distrusting community and it adds to rumors, speculation, losing trust and a lot of -- act like they care about what is going on in your backyard and this country. >> dana: the epa says everything is good. people say i'm getting headaches, neighbors are reporting their animals aren't well. i'm scared to bathe my children. you get to the whole thing the

talking about the distress of the institution. >> bravo to her and been an impetus and catalyst to get these agencies really paying attention to these crises. but there is this lingering distrust. it isn't that we don't, you know, trust the epa or whatever. it is that we have families and have to drink bottled water and stay indoors. the dog seems legislature are i can. you worry about your children. this is something that's very critical. there are 1700 train derailments every single year in the united states of america. we rely on rail. 15% of those derailments are broken rail. it seems to me with this 1.9 trillion infrastructure bill the biggest priority should be

getting the nation's railroads back in shape where we know when there is toxic cargo on board these trains and we can do something to keep everything safe. >> dana: good point. also could use more pipeline. >> absolutely. >> dana: see you on "the five." more coming up with michael reagan. he will be here with us and hear from him at the top of the hour. >> john: see if he has answers as to whether or not it is safe or not. chemical scare in the south. busy freeway closed in arizona this morning after a nitric acid spill last night. it happened after a truck carrying the chemical overturned on interstate 10 in tucson. officials announced the truck driver is dead. no other injuries reported. evacuation and shelter in place orders were issued last night. some schools in the area are closed today as well. more on the story. >> dana: police identifying all

three students shot and killed in the msu campus rampage monday after a man walked out the campus and opened fire. five people hurt and chilling new details about the shooter as investigators search for a motive. mike tobin is back on the story in east lansing today. hi, mike. >> hi, dana. here we are another spontaneous memorial in the after math of a mass shooting at the spartan statue at michigan state university as locals, staff and students try to deal with the shock and grief. we're learning more about this shooter, 43-year-old anthony mcrae. he had trouble with law in the past. had trouble with guns in the past. 2019 he was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon. his lawyers contested the way he was searched and he pleaded out to a misdemeanor. in new jersey the officials

there say he had a history with mental illness. here we are in the after math of another mass shooting. politicians say something has to be done. >> some of you know i -- that i'm going to say something that's always controversial but there is no rationale for assault weapons and magazines that hold 50 and 70. got it done once and we'll do it again. >> now here we are. three people dead, five still in critical condition at the local sparrow hospital. you have hundreds of students at michigan state having lived through the reality that it can happen here. >> first thought is just to get as far away from the situation as possible as fast as possible. so we were just booking it on our bikes back to our dorm to try to get to what we would consider a safe place. >> this needs to stop. this shouldn't have happened. it didn't need to happen.

>> mcrae killed himself when spotted by a citizen and tracked down by police. on his body a note threatening schools in ewing, new jersey. schools there were closed out of an abundance of caution. here in east lansing the schools at msu are closed through monday to give students a chance to deal with this tragedy. >> dana: thank you for the update. >> we paid $7 thousand in mexico and when we cross the river, we need to pay another $7 thousand. $14,000 total. >> john: shake down at the southern border. cartels turning smuggling operations into a multi-billion business. >> dana: protecting our kids online.

now a movement is taking shape calling on young people to use social media safely and also this. >> i will tell you this. the president is the best communicator that we have in the white house. >> john: the white house calling president biden it's best communicator but he is staying silent about those flying objects. senator john kennedy among those demanding transparency and he joins us next. >> the american people need to hear more from the president. >> the american people need and deserve to know more. >> lock your doors tonight. car loans can be expensive and the payments high. consolidate that car loan into a newday home loan and save hundreds every month. okay everyone, our mission is complete balanced nutrition. together we support immune function. supply fuel for immune cells and sustain tissue health. ensure with twenty-five vitamins and minerals, and ensure complete

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>> dana: americans are still waiting to hear directly from the commander-in-chief on the three unidentified objects shot down over north america. patience is running thin on both

sides of the aisle. gillian turner is at the white house today. >> this just in a moment ago. overnight u.s. forces in syria apparently shot down a drone that the pentagon tells us was being operated by iran. u.s. central command says the drone was operating some kind of reconnaissance mission over a petrol base inin the east part of the country. 900 u.s. service members on the ground inside syria right now. here at the white house meanwhile the president deployed his homeland security advisor yesterday to try and reassure governors across america about these four airborne objects that have been shot down over the past week. she said to the governors there are no ufos, this is not an invasion of the aliens. republican lawmakers led by dan crenshaw revealed congress learned this at a briefing from military officials just yesterday quote. newer technology has allowed for more detection in recent years.

they weren't detepidityed before because radar was not adjusted for slow moving objects. here at the white house briefing yesterday, john kirby seemed to undercut those claims by liz sherwood randall saying they were, in fact, ufos. listen. >> these very well could be balloons, completely benign nature. perhaps commercial or scientific research sort of focus there. >> senator roger marshall republican now is leading the charge demanding president biden address these uaps directly. take a listen. >> the president needs to find the courage to get in front of the american public and tell him what he knows. he can get in front of america and tell them that we're safe and everybody will be okay that we've got this under control. america needs a strong leader to step forward. >> the soonest we could reasonably expect to hear from the president about this today is at 2:30 p.m. eastern set to

give public remarks then from maryland, dana. >> dana: gillian turner at the white house today. thank you. >> john: a classified briefing yesterday on the three unidentified objects shot down. left senators from both sides of the aisle with more questions than answers. that includes our next guest republican senator john kennedy from the great state of louisiana and you were briefed on the chinese balloon as well. did you get the answers you were looking for? >> some. here is what i learned based on two briefings. there are unidentified objects and identified objects. in terms of the unidentified objects in the past 20 years there have been over 100 of them, maybe even more. they're not sure. the intelligence agency thinks they might have missed some of them. in fact it's more than 100. i'm just recalling it's almost 500 that the intelligence

community doesn't know who sent them, doesn't know what they are. the only difference between now and then over the past 25 years or 20 years of these unidentified objects, we started shooting them down. now, the identified objects. chinese spy balloons, china has been doing this for a while. at least for five years. sometimes we have known when they were sending these balloons and sometimes we haven't. in the most recent instance, intelligence knew that the balloon was there. i don't know this for a fact but i get the impression that had a civilian not sighted the balloon and reported it to the media, that the biden administration would not have said anything. >> john: you thought they might not have even told the president about it. >> that's entirely possible.

i think the administration was caught flat footed here and they had to respond to a media report. why does this matter? first, i don't think there is any immediate threat to the american people. but we do need to send a very firm signal to china that they can't do this kind of stuff. and that we will catch them every single time and in the past it's not that we didn't have the technology, it is that the technology was not calibrated correctly. >> john: gillian turner reported a couple of weeks ago on set here that we knew a long time in advance this thing was being filled, going to be launched from china and we watched it track all the way across the pacific ocean. the "washington post" matched that reporting today. but if as you say the intelligence community had not said anything about this, let it float over the united states, would they have been able to

prevent china from scooping up signals intelligence and taking the pictures they wanted of sensitive sites? >> good question. the intelligence community and biden administration have said once the balloon entered american territory it jammed the balloon's ability to relay information back to china. >> john: we were flying u2s up there. >> presumably they weren't immediately as worried about it as perhaps some think they should have been. >> john: do you believe that our intelligence agencies were jamming transmissions from that balloon as it traversed the united states. >> i believe they said they were. i don't know how and i don't know how they judge success in that allegation. i do know this, though. as they say the cow is now out of the barn. i think the president -- this administration has a tendency to ignore problems and ignore

issues. i give you the border. it tends to say look, you know, while i really admire the problem i don't want to talk about the solution. i think now the president needs to talk straight up to the american people. >> john: one question for you because same thing happens in louisiana, it happens in ohio. lots of trains running back and forth across the state carrying toxic materials. one axle bearing seizure away from having the derailment they had in east palestine. how do you think the federal government is handling this and should the secretary of transportation be out there talking to folks? >> this is why god made pipelines. they're safer than trucks or trains. i understand this particular chemical could not have been transported by a pipeline. but all you can do is require the truckers and require the railroads to be as safe as they possibly can. but when you can, do it through a pipeline. much safer and i regret the fact

that the biden administration seems to look at pipeline because of their connection to natural gas and oil. >> dana: so glad he was there with you in studio. the other thing you talked about is how the president hasn't communicated. the white house press secretary strongly believes he is the best one to do so. listen here. >> i'm asking. you are on his communications team. is it the view of the president's communication teerm he is adept in all settings in terms of communications or some that play to greater strengths or somewhere he probably isn't as strong? >> i will tell you this the president is the best communicator that we have in the white house. >> dana: one of the things about that going back to 43 days. that's true. you can't necessarily have the president comment on every single thing but the thing about

this white house and you have covered many is the president rarely speaks directly to the media or communicates with them. it's pretty thin on the ground. >> john: it is. what you heard from karine jean-pierre was a job preservation statement. can you imagine if she said the president is pretty good but that jeff zients can set the podium on fire. i don't think that will happen. speaking of 43, i was regaling our 11-year-old twins the other day with a compilation of bushisms, some are priceless. beans and meat wrapped in a tortilla. >> dana: don't forget. >> john: the kids laughed whether the president said not enough oby -- >> dana: i'm not prepared with

my bushisms today. let's get back to this now. the spread of homeless encampments in the nation's capital is a huge headache for officials there. an effort to get a solution is sparking local advocates. many parents worry social media is taking over their kids' lives and now a group of teen users who not only agree but taking it upon themselves to act. one of them is our next guest. >> social media was not magic. it was an illusion. we can't wait another year or month week or day to begin to protect the next generation. girls, pets are a big expense. aww. [ audience cheers ] maybe try switching your car insurance to progressive. you could save hundreds. [ audience laughter ] thanks, tv dad. we'll think about it, okay? look what i found. -a puppy! -a puppy! oh, no, no.

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my ameriprise advisor has helped me navigate uncertain times before, now is no different. with his advice, i'm confident i'm on track. the plan we created is for the long term. no wonder clients rate us 4.9 out of 5 in overall satisfaction. ameriprise financial. >> dana: our next guest joined instagram when she was 12-year-old old and realized the dangers looking within the followers likes and comments like this and other apps. she founded the log off movement dedicated to get teens to

rethink their social media. emma testified yesterday at a senate hearing on protecting our children online. listen to her here. >> the genie is out of the bottle. make no mistake. unregulated social media is a weapon of mass destruction that continues to jeopardize the safety, privacy and well-being of all american youth. >> dana: you really presented incredibly well yesterday. congratulations to you on that. i read your written testimony and wanted to ask you if you can describe this moment. you said after being on instagram and maybe other social media for 5 to 6 hours a day for a few years you started when you were 12. in the ninth grade you reached a breaking point and accused to remove social media apps from your device. what you considered to be your breaking point. what does that look like? >> so my breaking point. thank you for having me on today.

it was a culmination and a build-up of all of those negative emotions and harms i had experienced. heightened anxiety, deepened depression, path that led me towards distorted eating and after 3 to 4 years of mindlessly scrolling i got to a place where i had a buzz, the notification rang and i had a response to grab my phone. i was in that buzz and response and i asked how is it that i'm allowing these apps to have so much control over me as a young woman and how are they doing that? the research led me down this path. >> dana: other young people who feel that breaking point? >> absolutely. i think that's another beautiful thing i found within the log-off community is so many young people come into this space and want to change their use of technology from different angles. some people reach a breaking point. some people are still

struggling. no matter what members across my generation are ready and able to begin tackling this issue and working to build safer spaces so the next generation isn't harmed. >> dana: i read the poll that 54% of teens said it would be hard to give up social media. i was surprised it was only 54% because everybody is on these phones all the time. i will put myself in that category. when you were at the hearing yesterday did you get a sense there might be an actual movement for legislation to see about banning young people from being on social media until they reach a certain age? >> i think it's not necessarily just the ban. i think that there is a tension that is being given the leadership, senator graham and blumenthal, blackburn and a lot of other members in the committee to push for making spaces online safer beyond just age restrictions. age verification is an important

feature but it is not the only question that we must answer and consider when building out these pieces of legislation. from what i'm heard i'm optimistic this leadership will move forward in the right direction. >> dana: senator cornyn made a statement. >> i'm also reminded of the fact that technology does not move at the speed of legislation. and it seems like the people who profit from this technology, these apps, are very adaptable to whatever obstacle or whatever penalty that congress might impose. >> dana: those words hit home for me. years ago i worked on capitol hill and i was on the telecommunication act of 1996. looking back on that time i thought well, congress is really on top of things. you realize looking back that congress is always far behind

the technology. just last week they said they were going to create an a.i. caucus. a.i. is already here, social media is already here. do you think the companies that are developing these products would act without legislation? do they get the sense there is a demand from consumers for some way to cut back on the feeling like you had about being overwhelmed? >> well, dana, what i would respond to is i experienced these harms at the age of 12 and i'm sitting here today eight years later and still see harm occurring. these companies have been incapable if not unwilling to make these changes based off the harm they are causing young people. so it is time for lawmakers to hold these companies accountable to design with the best interests of their young users in mind. >> dana: you are an impressive young lady. wish you the best as you contact

us from your dorm room. get back to class, we appreciate you. >> thank you so much for having me today. >> dana: back to you. >> john: we want to take you live to the courtroom in south carolina. this is going to be a pivotal day in the alex murdaugh murder trial. the prosecution expected to finish presenting its case. the defense will then have a chance for rebuttal and then eventually it will go to the jury. so far the closest thing that we've had to linking alex murdaugh to the murders comes in the form of an audio recording that was video and audio recording taken the night of the murders just before they happened. a voice on that recording said to be alex murdaugh by a couple of witnesses would shatter his alibi that he said he was not anywhere near the area when the murders occurred. this would, if it is his voice, put him in the location just before the murders occurred.

also forensic pathologists from the south carolina law enforcement division testified there was mix tours of dna on a white t-shirt that alex murdaugh was wearing that included his dna and likely the dna of his wife and son. none of that was blood. we'll watch it to see where the prosecution and state goes throughout the rest of the day and where it ends up. >> dana: watch here in ohio. >> we have first made sure that we were providing a clean atmosphere, clean air, and now we're actively working to assure that people for the long run have clean water. >> dana: toxic train derailment threatening the small town in ohio. are residents safe? we pressed the epa administrator for answers and he will be joining us next hour. credit card debt?rate

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>> in is a business for the cartels at the end of the day. through the yuma sector a $20 million a week business. >> what the cartels do is tie up border patrol resources. >> commodity neutral. wherever they can make money. they are bringing poison to our communities. john border officials sounding the alarm on the cartel crisis. cartels making billions of dollars smuggling migrants and drugs. it is coming at the cost of american lives. victor avila is a retired ice, homeland security investigation special agent and his partner was killed by the cartels in 2011. he joins us now. victor, good to catch up with you again. thanks for being with us. you have personal experience with this. your partner was traveling with you on the road back from monterey mexico to mexico city

and ambushed by the cartels and he was killed. he died in your arms. how widespread now is cartel operations and influence not just on the border but deep into the united states? >> first i want to say thanks for having me back, john. today is the 12th year anniversary of the shooting and the day we lost my partner in the line of duty in mexico. and it is a somber day for me. my thoughts are with his family today. i remember him on this special day. yes, this is personal. i understand the threats of the cartels. and like these sheriffs and these law enforcement officials telling bill, the money is flowing on the border. cartel is sending that money -- i was in a county there they are recruiting 17-year-olds and recruit groups to take illegal aliens to stash houses and u.s. citizens from across the country

down to the border to pick up groups and smuggle them. smuggling is out of control down at the southern border right now. >> john: you mentioned this is big business. it calls for 2 and 3. 2018 the cartels made $5 hundred million smuggling people across the border. 2022 that number had increased to $13 billion and that's reflected in the numbers as well. fiscal year 2022, 2.4 million people came across the border illegally. year-to-date so far 874,000. that's on track if it continues to be 2.6 million for this year. it would set another record. it slowed down a little bit in january but overall, victor, the numbers are out of control. >> they are out of control, john. let me tell about the slowdown in the number. not cause they stopped coming but because of the new initiative of cbp1 this administration initiated. which i believe is pleatly against the law to do that but

the cartels will take advantage any way they can. the fentanyl, methamphetamine, the human trafficking. i spoke to a nicaraguan national at the border and he owed the cartel 8,500 to go to minneapolis and has to pay them $1 thousand a month as soon as he gets there. if he is late with the payment it is a $3 hundred penalty. if he doesn't pay, they will kill his mother and father and take their home. what do you think that individual will do in minneapolis? find somewhere somehow something to do to get that money to the cartel. and this is how they own these individuals. a lot of them all over our country. and guess what? the cartel is there present in minneapolis and everywhere in the country supervising and looking after not only the drug product they're pushing but the people they control and some that traffic as well. >> john: it is extraordinary.

i know it is a somber day for you today, victor. we tip our hats again to your partner and the great work he did and thank you for being on with us. appreciate it. >> appreciate you, john. thank you. >> dana: the acting head of the faa is set to testify on capitol hill at the top of the hour after several recent near collisions at multiple airports and last month's computer outage that forced a nationwide ground stop. real estate agents are now looking for other work as the housing market cools. what is behind this trend? we'll tell you. veteran homeowners, it's time to fight inflation. use the 3 ps: plan ahead by getting a va cash out home loan from newday. pay off your high-rate credit cards. pay yourself cash.

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when covid hit, we had some challenges. i heard about the payroll tax refund that allowed us to keep the people that have been here taking care of us. learn more at getrefunds.com. >> john: the cooling housing market has some real estate agents looking for other work even in typically red hot

markets. madison is live in miami beach. what's going on there? >> when you see views like this you understand why people want to move to the great state of florida. but here is the thing. even here they're having the issue with an exodus of realtors. we see last month the number of active realtors dropped by over 30% in south florida. important to note it is not just a florida issue. when you look at the national association of realtors, they say that membership dropped from their peak of 1.6 million in october to 1.5 million last month. so people are leaving the industry. i want to bring in a person who has been in the industry for two decades. why are we seeing realtors leave now? >> it is a big pause, madison. we're a year into it. whether the stimulus money stopped and interest rates went from 3 to 7% and everybody stopped buy homes the transactions are down. transactions are down 40% from december to december in this area. so there is less of a pie to

get. >> thank you so much. two last things i want to hit before we wrap up here. one, florida is still a hot state to move to. the largest population growth last year u.s. census 1.9% population growth. the other thing is very rich people are moving to florida so the realtors here have the opportunity to make a lot of money. two of the most expensive neighborhoods in the u.s. right here in florida. i'll send it back to you. >> john: madison with the latest from the sunshine state. thank you so much. >> bathing my children, cooking with any of it. >> the smell of burning plastics and chemicals in the air. issues with our dog. it is scary stuff here. >> it is nerve-wracking. it is the unknown, that's the worst part. >> we're looking for answers and we're not getting them. >> dana: a train load ofro