this in more than 150 years in the western hemisphere. we love to hear your thoughts on facebook, twitter, snapchat and instagr instagram. i turn it over to the capable hands of my colleagues, ali velshi and stephanie ruhle. last day in d.c. >> did you see the moon? >> i was up early but not looking at moons. >> i was up late but not looking at the moon. >> we'll wish you when back in new york. >> thanks, guys. i'm ali velshi. >> i'm stephanie ruhle. >> it is wednesday, january 31st. we're breaking down the state of the union. >> the state of our union is strong because our people are strong. this, in fact, is our new american moment. since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs. we are finally seeing rising

wages. african-american unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded. the stock market has smashed one record after another, gaining $8 trillion and more in value. we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in american history. we repealed the core of the disastrous obamacare. the individual mandate is now gone. tonight, i'm calling on congress to produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment that our country so desperately needs. i am extending ab op ining an o work with members from both parties, democrats and republicans, to protect our citizens of every background,

color, religion and creed. americans are dreamers, too. under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives. under our plan, we focus on the immediate family. the people dreamed this country. the people built this country. it's the people who are making america great again. >> as president trump gets set to meet with workers from across the country later today, he's receiving some mixed reviews for his state of the union address this morning. he is being praised for staying on message on teleprompter and avoiding any campaign style asides. but there are serious issues with some of the claims you just heard, ranging across several topics in his speech. fact checking is what we need to do. there are unforced errors, and

it is no surprise. on the economy alone, he made claims about job and wage growth, tax reform, unemployment numbers and the affordable care act that deserve a much closer look. >> i like the theme music. >> pretty good. >> is it going to stay? i love it. >> i want theme music to travel everywhere i go. >> this is a conspiracy. when i start talking, it'll stop. i can't believe it is going to keep going. oh, it's austin's music. former chairman of the council of economic advisers under president obama. professor at the university of chicago school joins us, as well. >> i'll go first. i want to share a tweet i just read because it is important. why are democrats not applauding job growth, higher wages and the drop in latina and african-american unemployment? i thought economic success is good for everyone, regardless of party. >> i mean, everybody should applaud that. >> we do. i want to make that very clear.

>> it is amazing. >> president trump is a tremendous salesman. consumer confidence spiked 16 points in the last year. he is great at selling the economy. the issue is giving credit where credit is due. >> right. >> so if you want to take african-american unemployment for a moment, you're right, factually, it is at a low. >> do we have the big chart we've been showing about the decline in -- let's put it on to illustrate your point. it is great it is low. >> it is at a low. let's celebrate that. but it is an absolute lie to say they were living in a disaster scenario a year ago. >> right. >> and now it is good times again. >> under president obama, african-american unemployment peaked, 16.8% to 7.8%. dropped by half. in the last year, it's gone from 7.8% to 6.8%. on a trajectory you've seen since 2010. austin goolsby, it annoys us as journalists that the president does this. having been in the administration, it has to get under your fingernails a little bit.

>> look, last night, a, i will say, i liked the tone of a lot of the speech that president trump gave. i like teleprompter trump better than twitter trump and some of the other trumps. there were at least three outright falsehoods and six other things on the economy that are probably wrong. that said, it is probably a better accuracy rate than in the normal course of events. i find it annoying, kind of like, you know, your star quarterback came in when you were 800,000 jobs a month down, led the furious comeback, and in the second half of the fourth quarter, they take him out to a standing ovation. the new guy comes in and says, i just won the super bowl. i feel that way. >> ali, it is the lack of graciousness. if the president gave that hat tip to the obama administration but said, my pro business policies, my deregulation supercharged it --

>> something about that is true. >> absolutely. for a claim like this, it is 100% wrong. it's a lie right there. >> john harwood, the president does claim, and he might have some wind in his sails about the tax cuts creating a better and stronger market, but he did say, our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class. there's lots of analysis. let's take moody's, for example. 75% of the benefits go to 5% of earners. of course, over time, that's going to continue to help the highest earners opposed to middle class earners. >> a guarantee for the top and a hope for the middle. >> this tax cut, as pretty much all analysts have shown, was designed to help business and corporations. it delivers the benefits to business corporations and the wealthy people who own them. there are some benefits for the middle class. they expire in a few years. the business tax cuts are permanent. these are things that the public

has absorbed. if you look at the polls, it is not a popular bill. this is consistent with the president and the earlier things you were saying. his theme in his campaign in 2016 was, i alone can fix it. he comes on stage and acts as if every good thing happening in america is a result of him becoming president at the expense not only of president obama but also of previous presidents. blaming all trade deals on predecessors making stupid arrangements with other countries. this is something that's just not consistent with reality. it is consistent with his view of himself. when you say he's a master salesman, i think we have to point out, he is below 40% approval. he is a master salesman for a segment of the american population that buy what he's saying. most people do not. >> business sentiment, small and big business, is all up. >> correct. >> they feel more positive with president obama -- excuse me -- president trump's agenda.

>> absolutely. >> let's talk tax cuts, austin. president trump last night he enacted the biggest tax cuts and reform in american history. that's just not the case. >> not true. >> even if you adjust for inflation, it is the fourth biggest cut. two under obama. that means the last eight years were bigger. let's talk about that falsehood, number one. number two, in retrospect, do you think obama should have been selling what he did a little harder? >> two different questions. obviously, the state of the union, if you look at the history of the state of the union, i would say it's not necessarily the most objective presentation. every president is going to want to color it, you know, in their own favor. that's fine. i'm not surprised they'd look at nominal dollars and say, it is the biggest in nominal dollars ever. if you go back and look at the obama tax cuts, it displays what was sad about this tax cut.

that is, obama, for far less money, gave a far larger tax cut for ordinary american workers. it was about $2,000 tax cut for the ordinary american worker. that's bigger than the middle class part of this tax cut you could have had if what you cared about was the middle class. you could have done it for 1/5th the cost and given more to the middle class. nay specifically didn't want to do that. >> the other thing to point out is that on those 2.4 million new jobs, the rate of job creation has slowed in the first year of president trump from the last year of president obama. >> could be that we're almost to full employment. >> that's expected. the point is, everything good that has happened is not because of president trump. we have a mature recovery, getting near full employment and wage growth hasn't accelerated under president trump. it might. we'll see what happens with business investment in 2018.

if you say business confidence is high, and we are seeing an increase in business investment. many of the trends he was talking about have been going on for years. >> we got that. we had that chart which indicates it. >> donald trump takes office with the lowest unemployment rate that a new president inherits in 49 years. i'm not faulting donald trump. he's not wrong. the economy is going very well. that is the one that he inherited. it was going pretty well. i think everyone knows that. he just doesn't want to say it. >> full circle, it would just be easier if we didn't have to fact check the stuff that donald trump said that wasn't true. then we could actually concentrate on telling you the market is up. unemployment is down. there is job creation. there are wage increases. we don't have to tell you the other stuff we have to correct. >> we should remind you, while the market is up and it is up 20%, global markets are up. the u.s. markets did not even

out perform the rest of the world. >> the dollar is going down. if you thought the u.s. was the outlier in a positive way, the dollar should be going up. >> on the other hand, austin, they did end your war on beautiful, clean coal that we talked about last night. >> that's right. >> neither economic nor environmentally sound. we should point out one other thing. there was a coal mine in the state of pennsylvania that opened this year under president trump's watch. it was president obama who cleared that. it was approved during his administration. there is a great story to tell. we invite this president to do just that and tell it. >> austin, john, good to see you both. thank you for being with us. catch john as host of cnbc's "speak easy" podcast. i'm all about podcasts these days. >> itunes and spotify. >> way hipper than we are. ali just wants a theme song. >> i remember seeing a subway ad in new york years ago when they were pushing clean coal.

it is 99.9% clear. i'm not even 99.9% clean when i get out of the shower. sorry about the mental image. >> and i'm next to him every day. >> deodorandeodorant. democrats booed another part of donald trump's speech, immigration. it's not true you can bring in all your family as an immigrant. i'm trying to get my third cousin fourth time removed to come from kenya. >> fact checking. >> you can fact check my claim about my cousin. >> three responses, three messages. we'll get a deeper reaction to the americans are dreamers comment from the president. first, msnbc held a watch party for a bipartisan group of trump voters last night. here's some of what they thought about his speech. >> i liked it very much. i wish i could see that trump every day. >> for me, it was a lot of his inflection, his passion. >> he was saying bipartisan,

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served our nation reminds us of why we salute our flag. why we put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of allegiance. and why we proudly stand for the national anthem. for decades, open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities. the third pillar ends the visa lottery, a program that randomly hands out green cards without any regard for skill, merit or the safety of american people. in recent weeks, two terrorist attacks in new york were made possible by the visa lottery and chain migration. i just signed, prior to walking in, an order directing secretary mattis to re-examine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention

facilities in guantanamo bay. my duty and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber is to defend americans because americans are dreamers, too. >> everybody is a dreamer. welcome back to "velshi & ruhle," live in washington, d.c. that, of course, was president trump, taking plenty of opportunities in his first state of the union address to tell his base just what they wanted to hear. >> but is everything he said true? our panel is here to break it down. we have rick tyler, and eugene scott, political reporter for the woe"washington post," and vivian, contributor for nbc news. the immigration issue is close to my heart as an immigrant. i want to ask about the visa lottery, what president trump calls the visa lottery. we know it is the diversity

lottery program. the visas only go to individuals with either a high school degree or work experience in skilled jobs. i just got to bust this myth. nobody gets into this country not highly vetted unless you come in absolutely illegally. you come in through a visa program in america. like any program, you have to be vetted. >> people are doubting it because you're here. >> i might be. the problem here, rick, is the united states, like every other developed nation, has a low replacement rate. not enough people are born. you have to get immigrants in. at some point, republicans know this as well as democrats do. why does the president continue to harp on this anti-immigrant message? the visa lottery is actually not the problem. >> it isn't the problem. i think the president does it for political reasons. look, if the president means by a merit-based system -- we often talk about phds or technical. it's not always true. merit is based on skills we need, the jobs we need. >> you might need construction workers. >> yes. >> agriculture workers.

>> people can make a good living in the trades from hvac to plumbing -- >> health care workers. >> exactly. there's not enough people replacing those types of jobs. we should look at that. if the president is ever going to get to 4%, 5%, and he always says 6% growth, we better bring more immigrants s in. you can't do this. >> great point. gdp growth in the economy is output and labor. if you don't have enough labor, you don't get that. steven miller needs to be reminded, if you cut legal immigration in half, you won't get to the 5% or 6%. >> if you talk about us being the greatest country in the world, which i believe we are, our numbers are just below canada and mexico. i want to fact check this claim that the president makes that immigrants can bring in unlimited distant relatives. that's just not true. >> no, it's false. essentially, what the program currently states that you can sponsor relatives as long as they're immediate relatives. a spouse, a child, a parent.

distant relatives like cousins, for example, you cannot sponsor them under the current program. in fact, the way the visa system works right now is there actually is a cap on the number of people you can sponsor so you don't have this sort of chain migration that the president mentioned during his speech. if you remember, he did mention it during his speech in this context. it eil -- illicited boos from t crowd. >> if you bring a parent in and they can bring a sibling, you'll get to unlimited migration. i think it is practically true, not literally true. >> when you say the president is doing this for political reasons, what is the motivation? 1.8 million dreamers's future are in question. >> i believe the republican party could be the natural home for hispanics. the republican party does a terrible job at courting hispanics. so if you get a certain number

of hispanics to vote for a particular candidate, you get the population, so that's the democratic party investing in the future. republican party hasn't done that. >> eugene, where does this go with respect to the dreamers? i see on the horizon another possible continuing resolution in congress. i see another possible shutdown. i don't see resolution to this issue of the dreamers. >> there was nothing presented last night that would give dreamers confidence that the president was willing to put forward a bill of love, which he proposed earlier this month. there was great concern because he doubled down on rhetoric that we saw him put forward the day he announced his presidential campaign. i think a lot of times, people forget that president trump took the hard line on immigration the day he called mexican immigrants murders and rapists. >> right. and he talked about ms-13. >> the reality, as we discussed, is many immigrants come here

with jobs and work experience. >> during the three days of shutdown, republicans quickly put out the ad that said, democrats care more about illegal immigrants than they do about six children. then a compromise was made. are democrats overplaying their hand, making dreamers their core issue that they don't want to budge on? we saw them booing last night, and i understand, but there are a lot of issues on the table. >> you have to remember the politics at stake. because in most -- most of the dreamers live in democratic districts. this is important to them and their constituents. broadly, they promised voters this was going to be something that they fought for. this is what they're trying to do. unfortunately, what you have, and eugene touched upon it, is that the president is trying to equate this issue with crime statistics and the vulnerability of our society right now. unfortunately, that's also not quite true, especially when you put it into context. the president didn't even bring up gun violence yesterday.

we've seen it, how many school shootings in the last weeks alo alone? >> he mentioned las vegas. >> we're talking about the school shootings. >> kentucky, he was slow to move and comment on. it's not the democrats making the dreamers their core issue. i think it is republican phrasing of their argument. if we remember, democratic lawmakers said, during the dut sho -- shutdown, they want to bring attention to the opioid epidemic, funding for defense and they wanted disaster relief for puerto rico and hurricane problems, obviously. i think what happens is, they've had a difficult time communicating to people on the other side of the aisle that this is more than about dreamers for them. >> it is kind of interesting because the president did continue to imply that immigration programs make the country less safe, citing recent terror attack in new york and linked it to the visa.

duke university put out a statist statistic. the chances of an american being killed by an extremist, 1 in 3 million. chances of an american being killed by a muslim extremist, 1 in 19 million. >> the president gets people angry and fearful, helping him in terms of popularity. >> i don't know if it is helping him with people outside of his base. it keeps people on the trump train on board. if you want to win 2020, state of the union speeches are used to bring more people on the team. >> i don't think trump cares. he loves who loves him. >> rick, your final thought on this? >> i think it is tragic that immigration, the people who are actually affected by immigration, get stuck. democrats have failed on immigration, too. barack obama had the democrat majority and they could have moved on immigration. they didn't. they get stuck in the middle of this. this is sadly so solvable. >> really is. thanks, everybody.

>> great conversation. we'll leave it there. rick, eugene and vivian. you might not know it but president trump had a hot mic moment after the speech. it is all about the controversial republican memo that claims the fbi overstepped its bounds in the russia investigation. >> what he said next. stay with us. a very special edition, a d.c. edition, of "velshi & ruhle." how do you chase what you love with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis? do what i did. ask your doctor about humira. it's proven to help relieve pain and protect joints from further irreversible damage in many adults. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms.

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welcome back to "velshi & ruhle." we are following breaking news right now. nbc news just learned special counsel robert mueller wants to question mark caralo. >> he resigned last july, shortly after helping craft don junior's response to the june 16th trump tower meeting that is sort of central to this investigation. >> remember, we talk about it all the time, the cover-up possibly being worse than the crime. shortly after president trump's state of the union address, there was a lot to cover last night. he was caught on tape on a hot mic talking to south carolina republican congressman jeff dunkin while leaving the house floor. you take it from here.

we really have a hard time in washington. >> the screen has gone black. something has happened. it is because of the music. >> we have a hard time in washington. >> the music confuses us. all right. the president was heard discussing what appears to be the fisa memo prepared by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. republicans say the memo shows the department of justice and fbi abused their authority to spy on the trump campaign. democrats say the memo is actually factually inaccurate. they say its release undermines the special counsel's investigation. >> release the memo? >> oh, yeah, 100%. don't worry. can you imagine that? >> all right. the president's hot mic comments contrast the statement from the white house press secretary yesterday that was given to our colleague, hallie jackson. quote, contrary to a published report, there are no current plans to release the house

intelligence committee's memo. the president has not seen or been briefed on the memo or reviewed its contents. when we went to the speech last night, that's what we thought. >> yeah. okay. i want to bring in to react to this, nbc national security reporter ken, and former deputy assistant attorney general, tom dupree. tom, to you first. i said to ali in the commercial break, the hill tweeted out, 30 minute ago, christopher wray, who the president appointed, does want this memo released because there are inaccuracies. there's lies in it. the president wants to put it out. >> well, i think it is going to be interesting the next 72 hours. this is a window of opportunity now for chris wray and others at the justice department to address those inaccuracies, fix them, if possible. it is possible we could see a modified version, redacted version of the memo, in order to correct it. i suspect the next few days, we'll see a push from the fbi and justice department to doo what they can, if possible, to

cleanse the memo from disclosing unauthorized sources or get it to a point where they can live with the release. i think the white house decided this is going to come out and it's going to happen. >> when the president says 100%, he wants it. >> ken, unlike a piece of evidence, a document, this memo is a narrative. it is an opinion on the part of the republicans. to tom's point, it can be edited and changed. they can shrub it of all the stuff the justice department doesn't want to come out. it's not evidence, right? >> it's talking points. four pages based on hundreds of pages of underlying material. we're in uncharted waters. the justice department normally doesn't share with the hill the fruits of an investigation. it's not part of the oversight process. somehow, they've gotten hold of this highly classified stuff. they've written a memo that we know from our own reporting, senior officials at the justice department and fbi have concerns about. it is misleading.

>> it's not just the white house. paul ryan says, release the memo. but the l.a. times says, paul ryan says release the memo but it is a completely separate matter from robert mueller's investigation. >> in your experience, how can both of those be true? >> it is a fine line. i think there is truth -- >> fine line. >> there is some truth, that they are getting slightly different ones. one is the basis of listening in to carter page. the other is the russia investigation writ large. there is a line. i think in the public mind, it will be difficult to distinguish. i think what people are going to take away from this memo, if and when it is released, is that there is at least some evidence of potentially political judgments clouding this whole russia thing. that is going to be the take away. that's why the white house wants to release this. it will be difficult for this people to draw the distinction. >> ken, if one willingly had their ear plugs in the last few days and isn't sure what the crux of this discussion is, we've been talking about a memo

and who says it is right and who says it is wrong. carter page. who is an american who said on msnbc many times that he's made trips to russia and all sorts of things. what's the role of carter page in this? >> a few years ago, he popped up in an fbi espionage case. he wasn't named. we've confirmed that he was targeted by the russian intelligence services for recruitment. he was already on the fbi's radar. it would not have taken much for the fbi to get a warrant to put him under surveillance as a suspected russian agent. what we know from the fact pattern, they were able to convince a judge that they had evidence to believe carter page was a suspected russian agent. they put him under surveillance. what this memo suggests is that is the wrong decision. they violated his civil liberties. it was based on the christopher steele dossier.

we have breaking news. the train carrying members of congress to the gop release just had some kind of accident. it said most people seem okay, but there also appear to be some injuries. we don't have -- we're not on the scene yet, but our colleague, kasie hunt, who covers the hill, is on the phone with us. kasie, are you there? >> reporter: hi, steph. yeah. i am driving on my way down to west virginia to cover this republican retreat. we have heard at nbc that the train that was carrying members of congress, they all met at union station this morning, took an amtrak train down to west virginia, was in an accident with a garbage truck. there was at least one person, according to one of our sources, who was taken off the train to be treated for injuries. this person was apparently standing up on the train. there was, according to this source, a loud boom. laptops went flying. it was an incident that rattled a lot of people. we have on the phone now

congressman carlof florida, republican on the train. they are stopped by charlottesville. congressman, can you take us through what just happened? >> kasie, good morning. thankfully, it does appear that most people are okay here. some minor injuries. we hope that the driver of the truck, and if there were passengers, are okay. we're on the train, and there's limited visibility. we do hear helicopters overhead. but, yes, we were on our way to west virginia, and there was a sudden impact. a loud noise. everyone was jolted. my wife, who was in front of me, her cell phone went flying. it was just uncomfortable for a few minutes. as we started realizing that everyone was okay, i think people started feeling a little better. those who were not on the train,

if they were hurt, we know little at this time. >> one of my sources said the garbage truck driver didn't appear to be injured but we don't have word on that. did anyone appear to be hurt on the outside? >> a couple colleagues say they saw the driver emerge from the vehicle, and he seemed to be okay. he was waiving, apparently. i personally cannot confirm that. for now, there's no news on how we're going to proceed. the train has stopped. i'm not sure we'll be able to remain on this train. it's a little bit of an uncertain situation. thankfully, it appears that everyone, a least on the train, is okay, and it could have been a lot worse. we're grateful. >> congressman, can you give us a sense of what this is like inside the train? who is on it? i know, obviously, you're a member of the house of

representatives, but sounds like your family members were there. are there members of the senate? are there staffers with you? who is traveling? also, did you feel -- or can you see any damage to the train or to what the train hit? >> we do not know if the train has received any damage. there is a significant contingent of capitol police with us here. i can see them outside the train now. they appear to be inspecting it. the train is almost entirely, i think, entirely occupied by members of congress, spouses and there are children on the train, as well. some staff. mostly members of congress and their spouses. so there is a great deal of consternation. we did not know what was going on immediately afterwards. now it appears that everything will be okay. hopefully, we will make our way to west virginia at some point.

>> congressman, i'm going to turn you over to stephanie ruhle, who is in the anchor chair. i'm not sure if you have any other questions for the congressman? >> congressman, it is ali velshi. thanks to you, kasie. congressman, we are seeing tweets that members and spouses, some have medical training. are you seeing anybody being administered to? do you have any sense of what the most serious injuries might be like? >> well, ali, thankfully, the attending physician of the capitol is here. he is walking up and down the train, making sure that everyone is okay. i have seen cuts and bruises. my understanding is one person did suffer some kind of significant injury. i'm not aware of who that is or what exactly happened. >> this was a regular amtrak train, so there's a lot of other people on that train besides members of congress and their families and people who are going to be participating in this retreat?

>> steph, i apologize. i don't want to interrupt you. they charter a special train from union station. it is an amtrak train but special train used to carry members of congress to an event like this. this isn't something where members of the general public are involved. >> got it. thank you. kasie, thanks for that. congressm congressman said, there are some injuries. hopefully they are not serious. this is the train that was headed to charlottesville, west virginia, having hit a truck of some sort on the way to a retreat that congressional republican congressmen, members of the house and senate were going to. >> a member of the train said, while everyone seems to be okay, members and spouses who are doctors and nurses are assisting those who need care right now. >> we'll stay with this story as it develops. as we hear of anything more. the hope that we have, and the

congressman has helped us fieel that way, that maybe there isn't anything very serious about it. we'll continue to check. we're going to stay with the story. we'll take a break on msnbc and be right back. 1, 2, 3, push! easy! easy! easy! (horn honking) alright! alright! we've all got places to go! we've all got places to go! washington crossing the delaware turnpike? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money sean saved by switching to geico. big man with a horn. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

we're following breaking news about a train. amtrak train chartered by congress, carrying republican members of congress and senators to west virginia. charlottesville, west virginia, for a retreat that has apparently had an accident.

it apparently hit a truck on the way. >> garbage truck. >> on the way to west virginia. we're getting several tweets from members of congress who say they're okay. they're on the train. i saw one -- we spoke, first of all, to the congressman from florida, speaking to kasie hunt, who says he is okay. he does see there are some injuries on the train. pete sessions has tweeted that, my staff members -- karen, my staff members and i are on the train to the conference. karen is his wife. we are all safe. other tweets, representative byrne saying, the train carrying gop members to our retreat had a collision. rebecca and i are both okay. security and doctors on board are helping secure the scene and treat injuries. >> we will keep you up on this story as we learn more and as it develops. sending all of those people our hopes and prayers. >> kasie hunt is on the way there, as well, to be on scene. >> she is. republican congressman chris collins of new york joins us

live now. he serves on the house energy committee, also the first member of congress to endorse president trump. first, congressman, have you heard anything about your colleagues there? do you know, does everybody appear to be safe? >> i just learned from listening in on your show. i was not able to attend the retreat. i had some district events that had to take priority. i flew back home very early this morning so was not on that train. certainly, my thoughts are with my fellow members and their spouses. a lot of them also bring their kids with them. it's two or three days. a chance for the members and their spouses and kids to get to know each other. we did it last year in hershey, pennsylvania. i was able to attend. i'm home this weekend doing district events. i'm not there, but i'm glad to hear everyone appears to be okay, or very, very minor injuries. >> that's what we hope. thank you, sir.

let's talk about some of the political things we've been dealing with today. last year, you had said that the firing of robert mueller would be, quote, a disaster. given everything we've been hearing about the president getting into it with the fbi and the justice department, do you feel -- still feel that way? >> well, i'm someone that wants to see this run its course. i believe it is winding down, as we've all seen the list of folks mueller has been interviewing. it would appear he's winding down. we've heard comments from the tweets between the two fbi agents or the texting and so forth, where one of them, who was not somebody who liked trump at all, was saying, we don't think there is a there there, which is what most of us believe. it needs to run its course. s i think it is coming to a conclusion. we've had three or four house committees investigating, as well as the mueller investigation.

let's all let it kind of play out here over the next month or so. i think it is coming to a conclusion. >> i want to update folks on the crash. the train was on its way to charlottesville -- west virginia. the accident occurred around charlottesville. i want to clarify. we're not talking about west virginia at the moment. that's where they were going. >> right now, the train is in sho charlottesville. back to robert mueller -- oh, that is a picture right now. that is the garbage truck. remember, the accident was a collision between a garbage truck and the privately chartered amtrak train carrying members of the gop. actually, congressman, if you could hold tight, i want to bring in our colleague, garrett haake on capitol hill, covering the story. do you have an update? >> reporter: hey, stephanie. i'm in west virginia, the final destination for this train, where lawmakers were supposed to be arriving the next couple hours. just watching the coverage come

in, you've got lawmakers essentially acting as their own reporters and their own medics on this train. i've seen a number of lawmakers, republicans, members of the house in particular, tweeting that they and being treated on the scene. you're looking at the picture provided to us by a lawmaker on the train. the truck will get the worst end of this in a truck versus amtrak collision. we are a few hours down the line from where the lawmakers were expected to arrive in a few hours. there is a large operation here waiting for them to arrive. i was actually driving back up here to our camera position and saw that area has increased in activity significantly. all reports from the lawmakers who are on this train now acting largely as their own reporters are that the injuries at least to the lawmakers on the train

appear to be minor describing a scene that was chaotic and things flying around in the train but not the situation where significant injuries are being reported, at least not yet, stephanie. >> when you look at that picture, we don't know how serious it is at the moment. that was a trash truck so there's a lot of trash there. it looks serious because there's stuff all over the place. from the people we heard from on the train, they are okay. it doesn't mean everybody is okay, but those folks are saying they're okay. congressman don bacon said i'm on the train but i'm okay. we're hearing from people who are checking in with their staffs or tweeting members of congress to say they're okay. it does seem serious f. a train hits a truck you're going to feel that on a train. >> indeed it does. it's amazing when you think about there they are coming together. members of congress, their

spouses acting as the on site first aid. there was someone that did have injuries. it's good to know as we're following twitter, we're hearing from more and more members of the gop saying we are safe. it's concerning, though, we just heard from chris collins it's not just these members of congress but their spouses and in some cases their children. it is a multiday retreat, so you hate to hear stories like this. when you look at the truck, my goodness, that driver -- >> we did hear somebody saying they saw the driver and he seemed to be okay, which is great. >> in the case of a garbage truck there may not be just a driver. there's usually a driver and a few other guys working on the truck. we don't know how many people were on the truck. that's not a good image. >> congressman pittinger has tweeted i'm on the train and i'm okay. praying for others involved. we did hear from congressman r

carbello of florida there's a doctor who deals with members of congress who is on the train and there may be other medical people on the train so that's helpful. the train was on its way to a retreat where garrett is in west virginia. this accident seems to have happened in charlottesville, virginia. we're just trying to get numbers. they're headed for where garrett is. we're trying to get numbers. it's an amtrak train but not a passenger train. it has been chartered for the use of members of congress and senators to go out to this retreat should they wish to travel together and head out there. not everybody is there. some members of congress had other work to do. chris collins had to be in new york with his constituency. casey hunt is on the way to the location of the crash to sort of get firsthand information on it. what you're looking at on the left is a picture that was sent

in by somebody there showing this trash truck. sort of hard to make it out but that is the trash truck that was apparently hit by the amtrak train. it appears if you look at the right side that picture is being taken from possibly inside the train and obviously it's a trash truck. not easy to see the extent of the damages are. curbelo said he sees minor injuries, cuts and bruises. the person we heard is injured, and we don't have any detail on this, might have been standing and that might have been the issue the person was standing and the train hits a truck, comes to a stop, people go flying. we're now getting pictures in. >> these are from congressman curbelo he took on the train. we noted earlier it's actual members of congress or their own doctor helping people, you can see there is official first aid,

fire, and rescue staff there to help. we should point out -- >> these are coming from congressman curbelo. >> i want to share the names of some of the people who already alerted us via twitter they're save. martha mcsally sent out a tweet. please join me in praying for the health of those injured. representative kevin kramer who said chris and i are on the train. we're okay. praying for the drivers of the truck involved. representative bruce westerman, i'm on the train in virginia. i'm fine. he says no one on the train was injured, as far as i know. please keep the three people on the truck and their families in your prayers. so this is the first we've heard from representative bruce westerman, ali and i just asked the question. it's a garbage truck so you usually see a driver and at least a few staff members. here we hear from this congressman saying there were three people on the truck.

let's bring in tom costello. >> tom? >> reporter: good afternoon. let me give you a sense, obviously, very early in terms of figuring out the extent of the injuries and damage. i got off the phone with the ntsb. they would respond in the event of a significant injury -- or significant issue, i should say, in an accident. they are aware, of course, of what's going on. they have not yet mobilized a go team. that could come and i frankly would expect it to come. also talked to the federal railroad administration. they, too, say they are gathering information and they may well, i would expect them to respond as well. they are learning of this as the information comes across largely from us, from cable tv and immediate news sources. amtrak at this moment is not yet giving us a sense of what has transpired but we are -- actually, as i say that, just

now an e-mail from amtrak, let me read it to you. an amtrak train came into contact with a vehicle that was on the tracks at 11:20 a.m. eastern time at crow's head, virginia. no injuries to passengers or crew members, this from amtrak. local law enforcement investigating the incident. the train originated in washington, d.c. updates will be provided, as you would expect. not a whole heck of a lot from amtrak. they on this press release do not report any injuries. i know we have some reporting to suggest there may be. >> and we're getting word from paul ryan's office that he is not injured. we're seeing a lot of tweets here from people saying that either they know from their representative they're not injured or representatives themselves, steve womack, saying i'm safe. bobby rush saying i'm safe. senator mike rounds say there appear to be no serious injuries among train passengers, tom. what we don't know is what the situation is with the folks on the truck.

martha mcsally tweeted to say prayers -- she numbered -- she said there were three people on the truck. we don't have that information independently confirmed as far as you know, right, tom? >> reporter: that's right. and can i make the point that picture on the right looks horrific. i think what we're looking at is a lot of trash. and so this does not appear to be the debris from the train. the train appears to be sitting upright on the tracks, and what we seem to be looking at is the trash from that truck. and if it sideswiped the truck, you have trash everywhere. but this does not appear to be anything from the train itself. and there's a better view of the trash and the train -- pardon me, the trash and the remains of the truck there. >> that is another image. i'm going to go down the list of congress people or their teams we've heard from via twitter who have alerted everyone they're okay. chris stewart, martha robbie, fred upton, bruce westerman, kevin kramer, alex mooney, martha mcsally, congressman

grathman. they're going to west virginia to the very well known large resort in the greenbrier, the biggest retreat in the state of west virginia, they're stopped after this accident in charlottesville, virginia. >> we have robert pittinger saying he's okay. steve scalise is not on that train, but we are getting -- here is the good news. a lot of tweets and messages from people's offices who say they're okay. and they're saying people around them seem to be okay and that people on the train seem to be okay. what we don't know is what is happening on the ground and the people involved in the truck. we have had a reference, one reference we're not able to confirm, to the fact there were three people involved in that. so we definitely don't want to be making light of a situation. we are getting a lot of word people on the train are okay. but as garrett said the worst part about this is going to be

whatever happened in that truck, the trash truck that you are seeing on the right side of your screen. we're going to hand over our coverage to our colleague, andrea mitchell. thank you so much. we have breaking news, obviously. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we begin with that breaking news. the train carrying house and senate republicans to a republican retreat in west virginia involved in an accident outside of charlottesville, russia. casey hunt joins us now with a full report and new information. casey? >> reporter: hi, andrea are en route to the area where we are told this train has collided with this garbage truck outside of a town. this focus right now is on the people who were in the truck, the driver and potentially a passenger. trying to find out what exactly their condition is and whether they may have been injured and how serious the injuries might