ray la hood just finished testifying there and we're expecting him to come out and speak in front of podium and talk to reporters after this meeting, of course. he's talking about the major problems going on at toyota and he had pretty strong words earlier today for toyota and for people out there driving tote as. >> certainly a bold statement. ? trish, is he piling o i've got to ask that. >> is he piling on? >> you, the taxpayer owns general motors s there some finagling going on here? >> i don't know about that. i mean, i do think the statement was incredibly bold. i know if i were someone who owned a toyota i would certainly be rattled by what he was saying. i think it does sort of ratchet this situation up. >> yeah. but, i mean, the suspicions that you raised, of course, there are a lot of people who would think that. it's certainly a very serious problem. it's something to watch. that will do it for us. >> i would think that. >> here on "the call." i'm melissa francis. >> i'm trish regan. >> i'm larry kudlow. see you on "the kudlow report" at 7:00 p.m. eastern and now the big st

transportation secretary ray la hood made news yesterday, sending the stock into a tailspin with these comments, saying americans should stop driving recalled toyotas. la hood then went outside of the meeting and tried to recall those words. roll this now. >> my advice is if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it, take it to the toyota dealer, because they believe they have the fix for it. >> so what i said in there was obviously a misstatement what i meant to say, what i thought i said, was if you own one of these cars, or if you're in doubt, take it to the dealer and they're going to fix it. bill: that was a bit of a rough day. toyota's stock made a bit of a rebound, but still closed down 6 percent, that carmaker helped by its quarterly profit report which beat analyst estimates. meanwhile, ford has reason to brag through all of this, and a bit later on what you need to know about that. martha: all right. as you know, today is the national prayer breakfast and president obama has just stepped to the podium to speak to this group in its national annual tradition. let's li

in this conflicting advice came from transportation secretary ray la hood. first of all he is on capitol hill testifying before a house subcommittee there and he had this pretty stark advice for anybody who owns one of these affected toyota vehicles. listen. >> my advice is, if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it, take it to toyota dealer because they believe they have the fix for it. >> and then after some outcry, he attempted to reel that back in. mr. la hood issuing a statement which reads: i want to encourage owners of any recalled toyota models to contact their local dealer and get their vehicles fixed as soon as possible. the national highway traffic safety administration will continue to hold toyota's feet to the fire to make sure that they are doing everything they have promised to make their vehicles safe. we will continue to investigate all possible causes of these safety issues. but, in that statement, shep, no mention of don't drive those vehicles. he clearly stepped back from that. >> shepard: right. toyota, by the way, told many

some very tough questions for ray la hood, the secretary of transportation. here is a little sample of that. >> do you believe that there is two cozy of a relationship between nhtsa and the industry? and the second part of that question. >> no, absolutely not! >> why would toyota go hire former nhtsa employees if not to engender a cozy relationship? >> there is not a cozy relationship. in the last three years we have recalled 23 million cars. >> at times the secretary of transportation, shep, in my opinion sounded a little defensive about some the questions. >> shepard: yeah. is there a sense for whether this helped or hurt toyota in the end? >> well, i'm of the opinion, shep, that the american people really like him when they hear somebody saying i made a mistake and i'm sorry. that has happened here today. that may help. there are civil investigations there are criminal investigations, and there are continuing congressional investigations. there is still some tough days ahead for toyota. >> shepard: akio toyoda is the great grandson of the company's founder

this is transportation secretary ray la hood, answering questions. he's also on the hot seat because there are questions not only about toyota mal functions but why the feds didn't catch it earlier, why it wasn't taken care of earlier, and whether toyota effectively strong armed the feds out of its business in a way that endangered consumers. we're going to keep an eye on all of it for you and bring the news as it happens in a dramatic day on capitol hill. >>> and fox news alert, we're just getting new details on that colorado shooting. we told you it would happen, the hero teacher who stopped the gunman after two shots as he opened fire on middle schoolers, now telling some of his story. let's take a listen. >> basically, i, whenever we had had these drills, whenever we had worked with students, i said basically if something happens and there's something that i can do about it, i want to try and do something about it. right? and i said i hope that i'm capable of doing something about it. and so what was going through my mind was that i promised. >>

let's look at shares of toyota they've been under extreme pressure in the last half hour, following ray la hood. the stock down more than $5, more than 6% on the day and they started tanking after these comments from the transportation secretary when he was asked what advice he would give those toyota owners who have recalled cars. >> my advice is if anyone owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it, take it to the toyota dealer because they believe they have the fix for it. >> the transportation secretary la hood also says he would like to meet with the ceo of toyota. he also believes they need to keep the pressure on the company to show, quote, how serious we are, the we being the transportation department, how serious we are about what's happening with toyota. all of this as toyota shops around the country prepare to start repairing these vehicles perhaps as soon as this weekend. secretary secretary lahood was also asked about whether or not electronics are a part of the problem at toyota, and here's what he had to say. >> we've also had complaints about the electronics. we will be investig

ray. >> thank you. >> the gentlemen yields back? i now recognize the gentlemen from maryland. representative cummings. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman and mr. la hoode you here. one of the things that we find ourselves in quite a deelementsa here. on the one hand we want to be careful about what we are doing here. we do have one of the main trading partners, japan involved. we have a safety of citizens. many constituents who spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to buy an automobile. they have a right to expect to be safe. to that end there was very telling testimony before the commerce committee. we know you were there and heard about it where the president of toyota sales usa when asked about the issue whether it's a sticky pedal or the mat problem, whether recalls in regard to those issues would solve the problem, he was not sure. are you familiar? >> yes, sir. i was there and i heard his testimony. >> as i sat here and listened to you and you talked about -- you said go to the website and you said if they were people having certain problems, they should go to the dealership. then i heard you in answer to the chairman's question -- i don't t

ray lahood also testified before congress. he defended himself against lawmakers who criticized him for not taking action fast enough on faulty toyota cars. jennifer westhoven has more on la hood'sestimony in just a few moments here. >> the plan to fire every teacher at one high school is moving forward. they approved the filings to get the test scores up. some of the students are against the firings. >> we are the ones that make up high school and without them here it's, like, no point. it's pointless. it's not going to make a change. it's not going to help the students want to learn. >> this morning's rhode island education commissioner told our sister network that some teachers might be able to get their jobs back. >> dr. gallo, the superintendent of this school district wants to bring those excellent teachers back and she has the ability and the model that she selected to bring back up to 50% of the staff here at the school, and so there will be a number of teachers who will be able to stay at the school and we hope that they will. >> the u.s. education secretary supports the district's decision so do some of the paints. the teacher's union calls the move drastic and math sc