A major milestone. Meryl streep responding after rose mcgowan slams her over the Harvey Weinstein scandal. What the actress is saying about mcgowans claims she knew about weinsteins behavior and did nothing. Those stories, plus, was a rat responsible for the massive blackout at the Atlanta Airport . Jesus was here. Rare access to some of jerusalems holiest sites, as the world gets ready to celebrate his birth. And you know the grinch is stealing christmas. The little boy who called 911 because he thought the grinch was stealing his christmas. A story that will make your heart grow three sizes today, tuesday, december 19th, 2017. From nbc news, this is today, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everybody. Thats a pretty shot. A tuesday morning. Getting close to christmas. Boy, what a scene outside seattle, that train that could have been even worse. Its hard to believe that is the first time it had been on the tracks there and that happened on day one. Our top story. And the new information we have on the Train Derailment in washington state. We now know, it was going 80 Miles Per Hour at the time, in a 30mileperhour zone. Gadi schwartz has the latest for us from the scene. Gadi, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, savannah. There were 80 passengers onboard, along with 5 crew members, when this train derailed. Three people were killed, dozens more hurt, some of them critically. And now, we know that the train was traveling at 80 Miles Per Hour, on a stretch of track when it should have been going only 30. Oh, my god. That train is derailed over the freeway. Reporter this morning, new questions as to what caused the catastrophic crash of amtrak train 501. Oh, my god. Yo. Reporter the recorders from the rear of the train. The train was going 80 Miles Per Hour in a 30mileperhour zone, as it tack took a curve and threw off the rails. Our mission is to understand why it happened and to recommend changes to prevent another tragedy from happening again. Emergency. Emergency. We are on the ground. Reporter amtrak 501, which runs from seattle to portland, left its first stop at 6 00 a. M. It was nearly halfway through its trip, passing through populated areas, when it derailed south of dupont at 7 33 a. M. Everything was fine. And then, suddenly out of the clear blue, there was no warning of any kind. Next thing you know, part of my body was underneath the car, on the gravel. Reporter some cars crashing down on busy hour. Ive never seen this many injured people outal once. Reporter the priority, question the crew about the tracks condition and any obstructions and take a closer look at the trains black boxes, which could reveal if the engineer ever hit the brakes. The train was riding on newly upgraded tracks, part of a 180 million amtrak project, designed to provide Faster Service for commuters. This stretch of track had not been equipped with positive train control, a system that keeps trains from crashing. In 2013, local mayor don anderson sued to halt the project over safety concerns, issuing this warning just two weeks ago. Come back when there is an accident and try to justify not putting in those safety enhancements. Reporter now, the worst fears realized as the trains maiden run turns into tragedy. As you can see back out here live this morning, this crash has still shut down the southbound lanes of seattle to portland. As for that critical safety feature, the positive train control. Were told that is supposed to be installed next year. Gadi, thank you very much. For more on the investigation, lets turn to tom costello. You covered so many of the train crashes. Give us the priorities for investigators right now. Reporter the First Priority is going to be interviewing the engineer. That will happen within a few days. And investigators will want to know if he was fully in control of that train. Why did the train fail to slow from 80 down to 30 Miles Per Hour into the curve. Did he see the posted signs . Were the brakes working . Or was he distracted in some way . Theyll be looking at his phone to see if he was using it just before the crash. Amtrak prohibits engineers from looking at their phones when theyre running the train. They will be taking blood and urine samples to see if there was any drug or train and the condition of the track. Did he notice anything unusual about the track on this inaugural run. They have the trains black boxes. That will give them a full readout on the speed, on the braking, how the train was reform performing. They are moving fast to preserve what they call perishable evidence. Anything on the scene that could be damaged by the weather or others out there, as well. They need to document every inch of the crash scene, the cars, the track, the signals, all of that. Theyll be interviewing other crew members, passengers and witnesses, and looking at the trains onboard cameras, outward facing and inward facing. After the philadelphia crash that killed eight and injured more than 200, amtrak moved fast to put the inward facing cameras in the locomotives. And lastly, you mentioned positive train control. Ntsb has been adamant on this. Lives. Theyll look at the reasons why it was not yet active on this stretch of track, which is, by the way, run by sound transit. Why was it delayed . And of course, it may be at another example of where ptc could have made the difference. All right, tom. A lot to unpack there. We move to politics and what could be a monumental day for the president. After days of talk and debate, lawmakers are set to vote on the republicans tax bill. This is the most dramatic overhaul of the tax code in decades. Kasie hunt has the latest. Kasie, good morning. Reporter good morning to you. President trump and his Republican Party are expecting a triumphant day here on capitol hill. The president said he wanted a tax bill before christmas. And this morning, it looks like he will be getting what he asked for. This morning, republicans are on the brink of their first major legislative victory under President Trump. With the house expected to pass a sweeping code later today. The senate, soon to follow. We will get it on the president s desk, for him to sign into law before christmas, as we pledged. Reporter republicans have the votes they need, even without senator john mccain, who is recovering in arizona from complications in cancer treatment. What does the plan mean for your taxes . Most americans will receive a tax cut. With lower individual rates for each income level. For families, a bigger child tax credit. The corporate rate slashed from 35 to 21 . The republican bill has Major Political risks the it repeals the obamacare mandate, requiring people to buy health insurance, which can cause premiums to spike. And the bill caps the amount of state, local and pratt toperty that you can deduct at 10,000. And republicans could be paying a political price, with a new poll showing nearly half plan. Vote no on this bill. Reporter on capitol hill, lastminute protests outside congressional offices and from democrats. The bill, in short, is a cynical onetwo gut punch to the middle class. Reporter all this as Congress Faces another deadline. Lawmakers must pass a spending bill by friday or risk a government shutdown. Lawmakers on both sides say that wont happen. But with House Republicans demanding a full year of higher defense spending and Senate Democrats insisting on higher domestic spending to match, its risky brinksmanship, with less than a week until christmas. Republicans are now talking about also including as much as 80 billion in this funding bill for Disaster Relief funding for those hurricanes. But that could complicate everything further. And there are some on capitol hill who are increasingly nervous about how theyre going to avoid a shutdown right before christmas. Who are the winners and who are the losers . Stephanie ruehl is here to make sense of all this. Good morning. Good morning. Everyone says the big winner in this whole thing, you put corporations on top. Without a doubt. This is a bet on trickingdown economics. Republicans are betting, if you give corporations a break, they will hire more people, give them higher wages and build factories. By lowering corporations tax rates, in the high 30s and down to 21 , thats a huge break. Who else is going to benefit from that . Wall street. Wall street is getting a break because all along we heard, carried interest, which is another hookup. Trump said all along the trail he will get rid of the loophole that pads the pockets of hedge fund managers. Thats going to be in there. And a third tax preparers. This was supposed to simplify everything. Those tax preparers, those accountants are going to be working overtime because this its a tax cut. If it was tax reform, you would be closing the loopholes and simplifying it. Without simplifying it, those loopholes exist. When they do, that will benefit the rich. The rich guy in the company can afford to have someone scratch this, change that and hook them up. If you have to do your own taxes, its harder. And the third, i would say, really gets hooked up, he doesnt like to say it. Is President Trump and his family. Thats because theyre in the real estate business. If youre in the commercial real estate business, you get to consider that passthrough business a partnership. You pay only 29 in taxes. It is somewhat disinjennous to say this is not going to help me. His soninlaw and 13 republican senators in real estate, its a big win for them. Lets talk about the losers. Every tax bracket is getting a tax cut. You put individuals on your losers. Individual es are getting a cut. But its a temporary cut. If youre going to increase the deficit, which we are, by 1. 5 trillion, you have to pay for that somewhere. Individual cuts expire in 2025. Come 2026, we hope that gets renewed. But it might not. A lot matters what state you live in. You can make one income in one state and another state gets hammered. High tax states, highincome states, new york, new jersey, california, youre out of luck. Your property tax, you cannot deduct it. Thats a negative. But thats meant to subsidize some of the lower earning states. Its complicated. Glad to have you break it down. Hope trickledown works. A lot more to get to. Lingering problems for holiday travelers. The Atlanta Airport is getting power outage that paralyzed the biggest airport on sunday. Kerry sanders is there for us. Good morning. Reporter good morning. The lines are slightly longer than normal because of that residual backup. For those who got caught up in this delay, it has been a miserable two days. This morning, a third day of headaches for fliers across the country, after an epic tenhour blackout after atlantas hartsfield airport, leaving passengers in a dark holiday mood. I feel like were in the third world. I dont want anymore delta cookies or pretzels. I was starving. I didnt eat for six hours. Reporter the worlds Busiest Airport back in business. But its not quite business as usual. Monday, 559 delays and 408 cancellations. Are the problems over with . We feel comfortable that they are. But were taking measures to make sure that things like this dont happen ag meltdown of the air traffic system was sparked by an electrical spark, deep underground, causing a fire that burned through primary and backup power lines in atlanta. Network service is probably our most reliable service. We have rarely does it actually have a fault like this. Reporter but some have a gnawing feeling they know what caused it. Was this a rat chewing through some cables . I dont want to rule that out. But thats the next step for us, to get to the root of what caused it. Reporter what they have not found, at least not yet, that dirty rat. Savannah . Hoda may be giving some of the delta cookies and leave the wires alone. Kerry, thank you very much. Meantime, the Winter Olympics are less than two months away. And this morning, south koreas president is opening up to nbc news about what he is willing to do to ease tensions with north korea. Richard engel is in seoul this morning. Good morning. Reporter good morning. They will be here before they know it. The Winter Olympics. This time, in south korea. This morning, i spoke with the south korean president. He said, the venues are all ready. And he hopes, perhaps the games could ease tension with north korea. For months, north Korean Missile tests and threats of nuclear war have spread fear across the Korean Peninsula and beyond. But this morning, while inaugurating a new bullet train that will take visitors to olympic venues this february, south koreas president said he wants the upcoming Olympic Games to reflect their ancient spirit. What message are you sending through these games . Through the pyeongchang olympics, the Korean People will be able to spread a message of peace. Even though on moay the computer virus earlier this year, infecting 350 computers in 150 countries, president moon extended an open hand to the nations athletes. But no answer yet. Given the track record, north korea is likely to make the decision to participate in the olympics at the very last minute, he said. North koreans are generally banned from traveling to the south, when a soldier tried to defect, running over the border last month. He was shot. President moon said hes willing to consider dramatic steps to reduce tensions ahead of the olympics. Even curtailing frequent military exercises with the united states, which infuriate the north korean regime. It is possible for south korea and the u. S. To review the possibility of postponing the exercises. I have made a suggestion to the u. S. And the u. S. Is reviewing it. However, all this depends on how north korea behaves, he said. The south korean president said that foreign visitors should not have security concerns. And he does not believe north korea will try to disrupt the games. Back to you. All right, richard. Thank you very much. Al is here. Go al is here with a first check of the weather including some storms that could affect holiday travel. Say it aint so. Id like to. Unfortunately, not going to. Were looking at more rain in the Pacific Northwest. This is the storm system that is going to traverse the country, cause big problems. Looking at rain and mountain snows there. So as we move on into today, the Pacific Northwest has the storms going on. Heavy rain. Mountain snow. Then we move into thursday. The storm emerges on the east side of the rockies. Snow for denver on thursday. Minneapolis going to be affecting. I94 and 80 as well. We make our way into friday. Its a mess for the midwest. Along i70, i40, memphis, also in nashville, cincinnati, chicagos airport, detroit were going to be watching down to dallas and then as we move into saturday, the east gets into the act. Boston, jfk, laguardia, charlotte on into atlanta, heavy rain, strong winds all along this front. So well see big, big delays on saturday as we move into sunday as well. Were going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. Good morning. Im storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell. Washington. A pleasant way to get the day going. 41 degrees in town. Actually warmer the further north you go. Temperatures near 50 up close to the pennsylvania border where the clouds have been thicker. With the skies have been clear overnight. Temperatures across the Central Virginia or down below freezing this morning. But everybody gets a sunny day to day. Temperatures will gradually get near 60 degrees. Cloudy and cooler for tomorrow and rain on saturday. And thats is your latest weather. Al, thanks so much. Coming up, oscar winner meryl streep responds to criticism shes facing from rose mcgown in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Then as millions of christians prepare for christmas, well take you inside some of the bibles holiest sites. First, this is today on nbc. Coming up, an nbc news exclusive. Coming up, three womenh misconduct. Plus, on a new rosen report, the dangerous flaw with the new amazon key service. Why you may not be able to see everything after all. Ill tell the world, ill sing a song its a better place since you came along since you came along your touch is sunlight through the trees your kisses are the ocean breeze everythings alright when youre with me and i hold my favorite thing i hold the love that you bring but it feels like ive opened my eyes again and the colors are golden and bright again theres a song in my heart, i feel like i belong the things that matter most happen one morning and one cup at a time. In this home. We count our blessings. Uh, this one. Both when theres a little and a lot. There you go. What matters most is made at home. Now with more icing. Fortified. Tored. Replenished. Emerge everyday with emergenc packed with b vitamins, antioxidants, electrolytes plus more vitamin c than 10 oranges. Why not feel this good everyday . Emerge and see. This holiday, the best gift you can give, is your time. Volunteer at neighbhorhoodofgood. Com. State farm. Nick is a logistical mastermind. When it comes to moving packages on a global scale, nobody does it better. Hes also an avid cookie connoisseur. Dig in, big guy. But when it comes to mortgages, hes. Less confident. Fortunately for nick, theres Rocket Mortgage by quicken loans. Its simple, so he can understand the details and get approved in as few as eight minutes. Apply simply. Understand fully. Mortgage confidently. Rocket mortgage by quicken loans. 7 26 is your time on this tuesday, december 19th 2017. Good morning to you. D. C. Police are searching for the gunman that killed a teenager at a Community Center basketball court. The shooting happened last night on roose place at the Frederick DouglasCommunity Center. People said the teen was on the court when someone rob and shot him. He died at the scene. The victims name has not been released. In other news this morning, school