[Christi Paul, Cnn Anchor:] Thanks for spending part of your morning with us.
[Victor Blackwell, Cnn Anchor:] The next hour of your NEW DAY starts right now.
[Announcer:] This is CNN breaking news.
[Paul:] Saturday morning, 7:00 a.m., we are so glad to have your company. I'm Christi Paul.
[Blackwell:] I'm Victor Blackwell. This is NEW DAY SATURDAY. And we're following breaking news out of New Jersey this morning where "30 Rock" actor and "SNL" alum, Tracy Morgan, was involved in a major accident there, an auto accident.
[Paul:] And we're getting word this hour that the star is in critical condition. He was struck apparently in a six-car pileup along the New Jersey turnpike. CNN national reporter Nick Valencia working the latest developments for us. We have heard, Nick, that there was one fatality. Does that still hold?
[Nick Valencia, Cnn Correspondent:] That still holds and this is all preliminary investigation. We don't know too many details. The story is still unfolding. We got a lot of detail earlier last hour from local police. What we do know is actor Tracy Morgan from "SNL" fame was involved in a six-car accident on the New Jersey turnpike at about 1:00 a.m. It happened, you know it involved, I should say, two tractor trailers and an SUV. As Christi was mentioning, one person confirmed killed, four others in critical condition taken to the hospital. Morgan was performing last night at the Dover Downs Casino in Delaware. We're scouring social media, so many people tweeting their prayers for Tracy Morgan, hoping that this situation materializes into him being released from the hospital but right now we do know that comedian Tracy Morgan is in critical condition after being involved in a six-car accident at about 1:00 a.m. on the New Jersey turnpike guys.
[Blackwell:] But we also we have one of the officials, is that from the OK.
[Paul:] OK.
[Blackwell:] Let's listen to one of the officials who can give us a little more about the crash.
[Sgt. Gregory Williams, New Jersey State Police:] Six-vehicle accident, two tractor trailers involved. Comedianactor Tracy Morgan was involved. He is in intensive care at Robert Woods Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick. Looks like two tractor trailers, a limo bus, SUV. The limo bus overturned. Tracy Morgan was in the limo bus, but he is alive, he is in intensive care at Robert Woods Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick. Preliminary right now, possibly just one fatality.
[Valencia:] If you look at video and pictures from the scene, they're being put on social media from a local reporter who is there, it looks very ominous, guys.
[Blackwell:] Yes.
[Valencia:] It's an angled wreckage. An overturned limo bus. Several passengers in that car. Look at that video just there, just very, very upsetting video for the fans of Tracy Morgan. He was on "Saturday Night Live," a funny man there, also on "30 Rock." He made a lot of people laugh. He's a very famous comedian, of course.
[Blackwell:] He has an inspiring story.
[Valencia:] Yes. Very inspiring story.
[Blackwell:] And he uses it as part of his stand up, which is hilarious. We'll continue to follow the story. Nick, I know you're all on top of this.
[Valencia:] I'll go dig for more information.
[Paul:] Thank you so much.
[Blackwell:] And what we get, we'll bring it to you. We're also learning some new details, pretty startling details actually about Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's nearly five years in captivity.
[Paul:] Yes. A senior U.S. officials tells CNN that the soldier was kept in a cage after he tried to escape his Taliban captors. Now President Obama meanwhile is firmly defending his release of five high-level Taliban detainees for Bergdahl, in exchange for him. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, though, say they want more answers from the White House about this.
[Blackwell:] CNN's Erin McPike has the latest now on President Obama's defense of this controversial prisoner swap.
[Erin Mcpike, Cnn Correspondent:] President Obama returns to Washington from a whirlwind European tour, facing a growing storm over last week's dramatic release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. A key question in this NBC News interview, why didn't he tell Congress beforehand?
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States Of America:] We saw an opportunity and we took it, and I make no apologies for it. The main concern was that we had to act fast in a delicate situation that required no publicity.
[Mcpike:] Sources say the Taliban didn't threaten to kill Bergdahl as administration officials suggested to senators, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are skeptical, including Democrat Dianne Feinstein who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. She told Bloomberg News.
[Sen. Dianne Feinstein , California:] I don't think there was a credible threat, but I don't know. I have no information that there was.
[Mcpike:] What's more, lawmakers from both parties don't buy the administration's initial explanation that Bergdahl's health was urgently deteriorating. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is under pressure to release the proof of life video of Bergdahl from last December that the White House showed senators to make that case. Despite the shifting stories and growing political backlash, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the president, telling ABC News.
[Hillary Clinton, Former Secretary Of State:] If you look at what the factors were going into the decision, of course, there are competing interests and values. I mean, one of our values is we bring everybody home off the battle field, the best we can. It doesn't matter how they ended up in a prisoner of war situation.
[Mcpike:] But even General Jim Jones, one of President Obama's former national security advisers, has questioned the deal, telling
[Cnn. Gen. Jim Jones , Former National Security Adviser:] I come down on the side that you don't negotiate with terrorists. I think that's a rock solid principle and I think once you show that there's weakness there, that you open the door for possibly other bad things to happen.
[Paul:] CNN's Erin McPike joining us now live from Washington. Good morning to you, Erin. We know that President Obama says he'd do this swap over again for Bergdahl despite the political firestorm it's causing on Capitol Hill. What are you hearing? What are the rumblings there?
[Mcpike:] Well, Christi, that's right. And the White House was expecting a controversy over the decision to make this exchange. What they didn't expect were these attacks on Bergdahl. And so now finding that they have to fight back a lot harder than they expected to.
[Blackwell:] So senators got a classified briefing last week on the Bergdahl case. They say that they are many of them are not satisfied with the answers coming out of the White House. But what can they expect as we go into next week?
[Mcpike:] Well, actually Victor, this is going to move to the House. And five administration officials will be briefing House members on Monday afternoon and then on Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee is going to be holding a meeting and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will be testifying there.
[Blackwell:] All right. Erin McPike, at the White House for us. Erin, thank you so much.
[Paul:] So ahead, some fellow soldiers say that Bowe Bergdahl is a deserter, that his comrades died looking for him. Others say look, this is a rush to judgment and Bergdahl should have the opportunity to defend himself. We're going to look at whether he could face some charges and that full conversation, that's ahead right here on CNN NEW DAY. So stay close.
[Blackwell:] Republicans are lashing out at the Obama administration for swapping five Gitmo detainees for Sgt. Bergdahl. But some of them were not so angry when Bergdahl was released by the Taliban last weekend.
[Paul:] So on Sunday, National Security adviser Susan Rice praised Bergdahl in the hours after he was released. Listen to this.
[Susan Rice, National Security Adviser:] He's going to be safely reunited with his family. He served the United States with honor and distinction.
[Paul:] Yesterday, though, you heard a different stance from her. She kind of twisted it up a little bit when she spoke to CNN's Jim Acosta. Here's this.
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Senior White House Correspondent:] Let me ask you about some comments you made last Sunday on one of the Sunday talk shows. You said that Bergdahl served with honor and distinction. It's come out since then that some of fellow soldiers say he was a deserter, he may have wandered off post there in Afghanistan. Did you misspeak? Did you get that wrong?
[Rice:] Jim, I realize there's been a lot of discussion and controversy around this. But what I was referring to was the fact that this was a young man who volunteered to serve his country in uniform at a time of war. That is itself a very honorable thing. And
[Acosta:] But honor and distinction?
[Rice:] Jim, really, I mean, this is a young man whose circumstances we are still going to learn about. He is, as all Americans, innocent until proven guilty.
[Paul:] A little later we're talking to a political analyst who says this is all, you know, in his opinion, he's seeing a lot of hypocrisy.
[Blackwell:] Yes.
[Paul:] So we're going to continue to discuss this.
[Blackwell:] Especially with the tweets that were deleted. You know, there were several members of Congress who were praising the work done to bring him home, and then a day or two or three later, they deleted those tweets.
[Paul:] But you wonder, is that really hypocrisy or is that the evolution of new knowledge that comes about?
[Blackwell:] We'll have that.
[Paul:] We'll have that conversation.
[Blackwell:] In a conversation.
[Paul:] And tweet us or, you know, get to us on Facebook and let us know what you think if there's anything specific you want to know about it. Now let's talk about the economy because the government says hey, we are in a recovery. For a lot of people, the American dream, though, feels like it's just slipping out of their grasp. We are going to look at what does that mean now, the American dream, and can it really be achieved?
[Blackwell:] Plus the longest drought in Racing Glory could end today, in just a few hours. We're going to look ahead to the Belmont Stakes and the horse that is looking to make history with a rare Triple Crown win.