star peng shuai who disappeared from public view more than two weeks following sexual assault allegations against a former communist party official. the tennis association took action on her behalf. >> reporter: concerns about the safety of peng shuai are ramping up tonight, despite a second call she had with the international olympic committee. ioc said that peng reconfirmed she was safe and well, but didn't provide audio or visual images of the call and women's tennis chairman told cnn he believes the ioc is letting

itself to be played by the chinese government. >> we feel strongly this is being orchestrated. >> reporter: the wta took the strongest stance yet, standing up to china over its treatment of penguin. organization suspending all tournaments in china, potentially costing it hundreds of billions of dollars. >> ioc is being given a master class by the wta on how to basically punch a bully in the nose. >> reporter: the world's number one ranked men's player is back the wta's move. >> i think it's a very bold, very courageous stance from wta. >> reporter: in a since deleted social media post in early november, peng publicly accused former vice premier of coercing her into sex, she was censored by the regime, after international outcry,

chinese state-controlled media released so-called proof of life videos of peng but analysts are concerned about her condition. >> if you don't think she's under psychological pressure from the authorities given embarrassing charges against a senior chinese official, you're crazy. i think it is safe to say she's under very tightly controlled circumstances and does not have the ability to communicate freely with the outside world. >> reporter: experts say one nightmare scenario has to do with the winter olympics beijing is hosting. >> it is increasing the pressure to at least not have diplomatic presence at the beijing olympics. time for don, "don lemon tonight." this is "don lemon tonight," thanks for joining us. a big news night. multiple breaking stories. major vote on capitol hill and

what alec baldwin is saying about the fatal shooting on "rust," speaking out in raw interview, when halyna hutchins was shot and killed. >> i was told i was handed an empty gun. nothing with a charge at all. she goes down. i said to myself, did she faint? >> he's insisting he was not responsible. >> someone is responsible for what happened, i can't say who that is but know it's not me. honest to god, if i felt i was responsible, i might have killed myself if i thought i was responsible and don't say that lightly. >> that's a little bit of it. you'll hear more in just a moment. breaking news, congress averted a government shutdown with hours to go until the

deadline tomorrow, the senate voting to kick the can down the road to mid-february and handing defeat to conservative republicans who tried to force the biden administration to knuckle under over vaccine mandates by threatening to shut down the government. cnn congressional correspondent lauren fox joins us now. good evening to you. who is the latest? >> reporter: with about 26 hours to go, congress was able to avert this government shutdown. like you said, there was last-minute question mark whether or not two conservative senators were going to hold up this process. remember, because they waited until the last minute as congress often does, they had to have unanimous consent agreement, all 100 senators in agreement to expedite the process to make sure the government did not shut down. two senators wanted a vote to defund the president's vaccine

mandates that require people to be vaccinated or get tested regularly before they go to work. they do have the opt out option and something that democrats were pointing out in spades tonight during this debate. that vote was defeated so the mandate still funded as part of the continuing resolution. also now there's going to be aversion of the government shutdown. meaning the government will not shut down tomorrow at midnight. both republican and democratic leaders were on the floor celebrating that fact, arguing it was very important both sides came together to make sure this didn't happen tonight or tomorrow night, don. a very important moment for congress but this is only government funding until february 18th. we get to do the whole thing again in a couple of months. >> february 18th we go through all of this one more time. seems like we just went through it. lauren fox, thank you very much,

i appreciate you joining us. now turn to other breaking news story about alec baldwin and his first formal interview since the shooting of cinematographer on the set of his movie. it is very emotional. lucy has been following this story. an emotional interview, what did we hear? >> it was emotional, don, and a long interview, nearly an hour long. he got upset and emotional when he described meeting the husband of hutchins and her young son left without a mother. he teared up talking about that. but he also talked about in more detail what exactly unfolded in fateful moments before she was killed. the big revelation from alec baldwin this evening, he says he did not pull the trigger. take a listen. >> it wasn't in the script for

the trigger to be pulled. the trigger wasn't pulled, i didn't pull the trigger. >> never pulled the trigger? >> no, no, no, i would not point a gun at somebody and pull the trigger, ever. that's the training i had. you would never. day one of instruction, told me never take the gun and go click, click, click, you damage the firing pin if you do that. don't do that. >> and lucy -- >> in that scene -- >> finish your thought. sorry about that. >> he was practicing a cross draw, pulling the weapon out. and dave halls handed it to him and baldwin said she asked him to point it near her direction, asked whether he should cock the gun, she said yes.

then said he let go of the hammer and according to baldwin, the gun went off. insisting he did not pull the trigger, interesting point for forensics and weapons experts to look at it. he stressed multiple times that he wants answers why a live round ended up on the set but doesn't blame himself. >> he talked about that here. here it is. >> countless people online saying you idiot, don't point gun at anyone. yeah, unless it's empty and you're instructed. she and i had this thing in common. we both thought it was empty. it wasn't. and that's not her responsibility, not my responsibility.

whose responsibility remains to be seen. >> some say you're never supposed to point a gun at anyone on a set no matter what. >> unless the person is the cinematographer directing me where to point the gun for her camera angle. that's exactly what happened. >> and the word "responsibility" came up quite a few times in the interview. one of the other things discussed was whether baldwin should have checked the gun before handling it. he said in his experience it's head armorer whose job it is to do that. when she wasn't on set, he said the assistant director dave halls would hand him. he said it was unlikely he thought he would be charged, but he did talk about hannah gutierrez, the head armorer, who gave him instruction on gun safety. asked whether she was up for the

job, said he assumed she was because she was hired but he's not producer that hires the crew. that could be important point as the investigation continues and question of liability comes up, don. he also made the point, sort of stressing he found it unsettling that two people, the lighting technician and another woman on the set filed civil lawsuits. he thought the husband of halyna hutchins, matthew, should have been able to file a lawsuit first. don. >> just a mess all around. lucy will continue to report on it until we get the answers. thank you very much. joining me now, sharon waxman and dutch merrick, a propmaster. i appreciate both of you joining us. alec baldwin is asking how a live bullet ended up in that gun.

watch this and we'll talk. >> as far as i'm concerned, someone put -- the investigation's going to find that someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn't even supposed to be on the property. this is the thing i hope the sheriff's department doesn't give up on, follow it to ends of the earth. where did that bullet come from? somebody brought live rounds, plural, on to the set of the film and one of them ended up in that gun. if the bullets didn't come on the property, we wouldn't be having this conversation. >> i mean this is still under investigation, sharon, this fatal shooting. but this was a stunning interview. he didn't even know he had shot her, thought she had fainted. what stood out to you? >> that was headline of the story we put out on "the wrap" about this. he thought she had had a heart

attack or she was hit with a dummy bullet. bauding he called it. he didn't realize for 45 minutes that she had been shot. the notion of that just crazy to me, and then -- but also indicates to you just how remote the notion that a live bullet could have made it on a set is. he also said he only found out from the police a couple of hours later that she had died. whole thing feels like to him some through the looking glass kind of experience. but everybody is talking about it, it strikes me, as supernatural experience. where did this bullet come from? somebody did bring it but the armorer said i didn't do it, who would do it. and people pointing fingers saying it couldn't have happened, yet it did happen. one thing i'll point out, we

reported very early on that people had taken the guns off the set during the day and gone shooting at cans in the desert, plinking, and brought the guns back. i have not heard that account knocked down, confirmed, anything. but i don't think anybody really thinks that somebody was out to sabotage, seems to be remote conspiracy theory that's out there, baldwin was asked about that, said much more likely an accident. but seems very strange thing that everyone seems to agree was impossible to happen and yet it happened. >> dutch, you've been watching this, this is your expertise, your field. watching that interview, what did you think? talk to me. >> well, first of all, this story just seems to get more and more bizarre as it unfolds, the

layers are mind-boggling. when he said he pulled the hammer back but didn't pull the trigger, well, how did the hammer come forward? design of the gun, 150-year-old design, a modern reproduction. was it entirely unreliable gun, you pull the hammer back and it just goes forward? i'd like to get a look at that. claim of plinking, no credence has been given to it since it came out. he said the armorer was not in the room when rehearsing the scene. that's most alarming thing to me. as armorer, we stay with the gun. there's a relationship between the armorer and actor and nobody can get in between that relationship. first a.d. can check it for safety and second set of eyes is great to examine the dummy rounds and blanks, but you won't take the gun from the armorer and hand it to the actor.

it's absolutely unheard of in hollywood and entertainment. alec did say there's occasions he hands off to the first a.d., the armorer should be there and be there to arrange the blocking, show him where to point the gun, make sure there's no people where that is, remind him to keep finger off the trigger until he's ready to fire. and why were there dummy rounds in the gun in blocking rehearsal? should have been empty or a rubber gun. >> in the interview, not just from alec but in the handling of the gun, did you see negligence in that? in the process? is that what you're saying? >> it's not for me to judge negligence or not negligence, but standard practice in filmmaking is the armorer has custody of the gun and ammunition at all times.

>> and a chain of custody is what i meant, in the chain of custody, did you see a problem with that? >> yeah. why was the -- in the affidavit i read, it said the first a.d. handed the gun to baldwin on the set. why was that? why was the first a.d. acting as armorer. the armorer reports she was not allowed on the set because of too many bodies. should never be allowed to happen. armorer should be last to hand it off to actor and be there all times when it's in action. >> dutch, you and sharon, stick by, we have more of the observe. alec was criticized for not checking the gun. we'll hear his response and much much more, don't go anywhere, we'll be back after this break. with secret, keep it fresh. available in over 10 amazing scents and aluminum free.

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criticism of not handling the gun himself. >> if your protocol is checking the gun every time, good for you. i probably handled weapons as much as any other actor in films, with an average career. again, shooting or being shot by someone. in that time i had protocol that never let me down. >> why did you choose in 40 years not to check the gun yourself? >> when i was taught by someone, years ago, was if i took a gun and popped a clip out of a gun or manipulated the chamber they would take the gun away and redo it. the prop person said, don't do that, when i was young. would say one thing you need to understand is we don't want the actor to be the last line of defense against a catastrophic breach of safety with the gun. >> it sounds similar to what you were saying, dutch, does it make sense to you? >> yeah. there are actors really fastidious about checking a gun every single time, and others

perhaps stay so in the zone they don't particularly check it and they instill a trust in the armorer they're working with. there's a relationship that we build. as a prop person providing food in a scene, actor needs to know they're not going to get food poisoning from that, they trust the armorer that the gun is safe and they've done the checks and double checks. it's actor's right to check it. absolutely. they may check it all day long. if they choose not to, give me the gun when it's ready and they do the scene, that's perfectly acceptable in my understanding. >> sharon, alec baldwin was asked about cost cutting, if that was a factor. this is what he said. >> when people say cutting costs, i don't say this with any judgment or cynicism, spielberg wants to save money, tom cruise wants to save money. everybody who makes movies has a responsibility to not be reckless and careless with the

money they're given. those are men that make movies that cost $205 million. and i'm making a movie that costs $5 million. >> the question is were costs cut at the expense of safety. >> in my opinion, no, i didn't observe any safety or security issues at all in the time i was there. >> he says costs weren't an issue there but what do you think about that? we've seen media reports that crew members quit over safety concerns and covid protocols prior to shooting. not sure if any of that has been confirmed or true but -- >> it's totally confirmed. people on the production, lane looper, for example, wrote a letter to the producers before they quit the night before the shooting, talked about exactly these things. alec said when he got wind of the complaints, he was in process of offering to give up

some of his own salary so that the crew members could stay in nicer hotels or in hotels, some were sleeping in cars apparently, to cover those costs. but said he didn't know anything about safety issues and that's not the case. in this letter they talk about in addition to housing issues, they talk about safety issues. two instances in which guns went off and shouldn't have gone off. then this happened. so everyone who needs to take responsibility and had jobs in this production, when they go on the record they seem to say everything was great. but that really just doesn't add up, when you look at what was going on, when you look at the emails and texts, the documentation of people who were unhappy on the set. it's possible there were some people on the set perfectly

happy. but there certainly were people who raised concerns about safety and not just about the accommodations that the crew was having to live with. >> dutch, this is your business. you're in los angeles, in hollywood. what has this done -- i'm sure it's reverberated around the industry. what has happened since this accident? >> well, it's shaken us. really shaken us to the core because this is just an example of a really bad actor -- not actor in the acting sense, but someone doing something that's bad. and this production seemed to have cut every corner. alec talks about being frugal with your money, trying to cut costs, but it's clear from the outset this film didn't staff appropriately, didn't offer enough training time for the actors with the guns.

had a brand-new armorer doing two jobs, armoring and propping. hard to tell if alec knew of all the problems on the set or more of a producer in name. but this is an outlier to what we do across the world honestly. we make movies safely. we do tremendous car stunts, car careen out of control, fall off a building, looks like a person is in the car but figured out how to do it safely. firearms are no exception. we literally fire millions of rounds on the shows i work on alone. there are no injuries or deaths. we do this day in and day out. this is anomaly. >> all the westerns and guns fired in movies over the decades. >> 100 years. >> yeah. he said he doesn't feel guilt but he said someone is responsible. what do you think of that? >> i don't believe that. he also said he's not sleeping, has nightmares and dreams about guns going off and never used to happen to him.

i highly doubt he doesn't feel some sense of guilt, even if he knows he didn't consciously take the life of halyna hutchins, but it's got to be a very heavy burden to bear just from a personal, ethical and moral standpoint, completely apart from whatever legal liability he must be facing. also said he didn't care if he never did another movie ever again. that doesn't surprise me that's how he's feeling right now. it is a trauma. you said this, it is a tragedy all the way around. i got to meet matt hutchins last night at an event we hosted. your heart breaks to meet the man. and it just feels like pain and loss for reasons that should never have been. so, i mean, i think alec baldwin

must have many, many mixed emotions about this. >> thank you, sharon, thank you, dutch, i appreciate it. >> yeah. >> thanks so much. the omicron variant now in multiple u.s. states and president biden putting out a new plan how to combat a winter covid surge. we'll be right back. and she'll feel so good about her plan, she can focus on living it. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes are waking up to what's possible... ...with rybelsus®. (♪ ♪) rybelsus® works differently than any other diabetes pill to lower blood sugar... in all 3 of these ways... increases insulin when you need it... decreases sugar... and slows food. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7. people taking rybelsus® lost up to 8 pounds.

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president of the united states, joe biden, laying out nine-point plan to stop a deadly winter covid spike in its tracks. the plan focuses on stricter testing requirements for travelers to the u.s., providing increased access to vaccines,

boosters and at-home testing. >> i want to reiterate, dr. fauci and dr. collins believe if you're worried about the omicron variant, the best thing to do is get fully vaccinated and get the booster when you're eligible. >> his lab work on the first omicron case. he joins us now. thank you for joining us. the first omicron test came to one of the labs where you work at ucsm. you say from what you've seen so far, you're not changing the precautions you take. what are you watching more as we learn more about omicron? >> we're all watching for same things, don, watching to see whether it's more infectious, more severe and whether it evades immunity, we have tidbits of evidence but not enough for a full picture.

reason i said i wasn't changing my behavior as we have a couple of cases here and there, probably more than we're catching, but not a dominant player. today i'm much more concerned about delta, 99.9% of the cases. it's severe enough. i'm still careful when i go inside and wear a mask when i go inside unless i'm sure everybody's vaccinated. if omicron takes off to be 1, 2 or 5% of the cases in the u.s., we have to factor into decision making. >> this comes as the president is facing a tremendous winter surge. last winter saw a horrendous spike after the holidays. do you think this plan will prevent another spike in cases? >> i think it should help some, it's kind of baked in we're going to see a significant spike. still have a lot of people unvaccinated and vaccinated people not getting the boosters yet. and in large parts of the

country, people are over covid, decided not to wear masks anymore and as people go inside because of the colder weather, it's a setup for them to be slammed. we're hearing a lot about omicron. delta is bad enough, i don't think the surges will be what we've seen in the past but still seeing 1,000 deaths a day, still not a good situation, forgetting about omicron for a second. >> i'm glad you said that, people are over covid because just because people are over covid, doesn't mean that covid is over. i'm hearing conspiracy theories that somebody something, something wrong, why does this continue to go. people, because they're tired of it, make up scenarios in their mind that somehow covid is not real. >> yeah. it's going on because it's called science and it's a virus and does what it's going to do. we unfortunately have responded extraordinarily well in terms of

our science, the vaccines and antivirals on the horizon, we've done well in innovating and doing the science but the fact that 40% of americans have chosen not to take a vaccine that is miraculously effective and many people have not yet gotten the booster, people are choosing not to wear masks when they should, it's not just science but science plus sociology and some politics. got to get all of it right and if we get the virus a toehold, it will continue to take off. it is continually surprising us and it will continue tad that. it has a lot of curveballs in store for us. when we say we're done, the virus couldn't care less. >> is it mutating because people are not getting vaccinated so continues to spread and mutate? is that part of it? >> yeah, every time it replicates it gives itself an opportunity to have a little typo.

the vast majority are benign but every now and then, dumb luck on the part of virus, it will figure out a configuration to really set us back. that appears to be what it's done now. and it is because of the number of new cases around the world. we've not successfully vaccinated the number of people we need to in the united states and certainly not around the world, and that gives the virus myriad chances to have new viruses and each one is opportunity for mutation. >> 25% of the eligible u.s. population still hasn't been vaccinated according to the cdc. doctor, more than 30 countries including the u.s. have identified omicron cases. do you think stricter testing for people flying to the u.s. will slow a potential spread? >> by a little bit, maybe by a week or two. the case reported in minnesota was someone who went to new york, didn't travel abroad. it's already here. as we test more, we'll find more cases here. i understand the restrictions,

may give us a little bit of extra wiggle room but on the matter of days or a week, fundamentally it's not the answer. answer is figure out how nasty it is. and it may seem paradoxical, saying the vaccines may not work as well, get vaccinated, but it makes a ton of sense. you need the highest possible level of immunity. means vaccination for most people plus boosters. the variant is 20 or 30% vaccine resistant say, start with immunity from boosters, you're in good shape. if you start with modest immunity from prior infection, you may be in bad trouble as well. >> ask with a caveat, just did international travel for the holidays and i did the home test, sit at a computer and someone on the other side

watching you take the test, and they're not cheap. if you're going into a facility, they're not cheap for the average american family. especially a big family with kids. i'm fortunate enough, i can afford them. they're not cheap. do you think at-home testing would help, maybe a difference here? >> absolutely. and part of the plan the president announced was to have insurance cover them. wish he had figured out a way and his people had figured out way to subsidize them because insurance is a pain. what would be easy is i go into the pharmacy, rather than each costing me ten bucks, it cost me a buck. if i wake up with sniffle, i get it, it's no big deal. it's increasingly important to have the testing available. when the new antivirals come out, wake up with fever or sniffle, want to be tested and if positive call up doctor for

prescription for the oral antiviral. to make that work, testing is first leg of the relay race and it has to be simple as can be. >> dr. wachter, be well. >> thank you. facing one last chance to cooperate with the committee investigating january 6th. he's expected to plead the fifth, will the full house go through with the vote? adam schiff is here, next. we'll look at what you've saved, what you'll need, and help you build a flexible plan for cash flow designed to last. so you can go from saving... to living.

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- san francisco can have criminal justice reform and public safety. but district attorney chesa boudin is failing on both. - the safety of san francisco is dependent upon chesa being recalled as soon as possible. - i didn't support the newsom recall but this is different. - chesa takes a very radical perspective and approach to criminal justice reform, which is having a negative impact on communities of color. - i never in a million years thought that my son, let alone any six-year-old, would be gunned down in the streets of san francisco and not get any justice.

- chesa's failure has resulted in increase in crime against asian americans. - the da's office is in complete turmoil at this point. - for chesa boudin to intervene in so many cases is both bad management and dangerous for the city of san francisco. - we are for criminal justice reform. chesa's not it. recall chesa boudin now. cnn is learning new details tonight about former trump white house chief of staff mark meadows' efforts to pursue bogus claims of election fraud, including the theory that italian satellites were used to change votes. it comes as the committee is giving jeffrey clark one last chance to cooperate with the

investigation. so much to discuss tonight with adam schiff of california. he is also chair of the house intelligence committee. we're so glad to have you here. thank you for joining us. so congressman. jeffrey clark is intending to take the fifth when he meets with your committee on saturday. when he does that -- okay, apparently we don't have the congressman. let's make sure if we have him, technical glitch, i think he's filming this from home tonight. we're going to get it fixed, filming from home via computer. we'll take a break and have congressman adam schiff on the other side of the break. we'll be right back. autoglass . with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ [♪] looking to repair dry, damaged hair

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all right. so we worked it out and we have the congressman back. congressman, you there? >> yes, i sure am. >> okay, good. first question again. so jeffrey clark is intending to take the fifth when he meets with your committee on saturday. when he does that, will the full house still vote to hold him in contempt or not? he is, you know, a justice official. i mean it's remarkable really. >> it is remarkable. this was a senior justice department official who is now telling us that if he were to testify and answer our questions, that it might implicate him in criminal activity. but honestly, we don't know what will happen on saturday because the correspondence we received from mr. clark's lawyer has been a confusing hodgepodge of legal theories. when he last appeared before our committee and refused to answer questions, he didn't do so on the basis of any fifth amendment

concern about self-incrimination. he had a whole range of theories, and then in more recent correspondence, he added to those and complained about the composition of our committee. and now most recently, he's said he has a fifth amendment concern. so we'll ask him the range of questions that are pertinent to our investigation. with some, he may take the fifth. with others, he may use these other, you know, assertions of privilege which we think have no merit. and on the basis of what does happen, we'll make a decision about next steps. >> so this deposition, in person, remote? >> it's in person. there will be an opportunity for members to participate remotely as well, but it will be in person. >> okay. congressman, you've already met with clark's former boss, jeffrey rosen and richard donohoe, and they didn't take the fifth. do you already have information you believe implicates clark in things like election

interference or fraud possibly? >> well, i don't want to comment on that, don, for the reason that i don't want to give mr. clark any -- you know, any false reason on his part to claim the fifth. and so i don't want to speculate about that. but, you know, i will say that the witnesses you mentioned, who were his seniors at the justice department, have testified openly before the senate. we're not confirming, i think, witnesses before our committee, but they did both testify. neither claimed any kind of executive privilege. so the idea that a more junior person at the justice department would have an exclusive privilege claim when one of the seniors did not is, i think, pretty ludicrous. but we will have to see what assertions he makes with respect to what questions. one thing i can tell you is that the fifth amendment does not permit him to refuse to answer questions merely because he wants to cover up for donald trump.

he has to feel that his own activities and answering questions about them would expose him to potential prosecution. >> yeah. look, there's so many names. donohoe, rosen, bannon, clark. i had to look and say, wait a minute. who am a talking about? mark meadows expected to appear for a deposition next week. he says he's going to honor trump's executive privilege claims. will you accept any effort that he makes to claim executive privilege if he does that? >> well, we have reserved judgment. we have essentially not acknowledged any claim of privilege because the privilege -- the holder of that privilege is predominantly joe biden, who has said he's not asserting privilege. what's more, even if there were a privilege to be asserted by a former president over a current president, which i think would never be the case. but even if it were, that privilege gives way when there is a compelling public need, as indeed it did during watergate.

here, what could be more compelling than the need to get to information about an attack on our democracy in which people died and the need to protect the country going forward? but we'll see whether mr. meadows is acting in good faith or whether he, in fact, is using just another stratagem to avoid having to provide incriminating evidence against his former boss. >> look, i'm not sure i've ever seen anyone downplaying information or refuting information in their own book. mark meadows has written this book about his time at the white house. does that undermine his claim that his experience there is protected by executive privilege? i was talking about, you know, when i said that, i was talking about the covid -- you know, the president getting covid. but does that undermine his claim that he's protected by executive privilege when he has written a book about his time working in the white house? >> absolutely. and in particular if he's written anything about january

6th -- and it's hard to imagine him writing a book and not writing about january 6th -- then he clearly is waiving his claim he has to keep confidential his communications with the former president or what happened in the white house. after all, if he can say it in a book, why can't he say it before congress in an investigation? but, don, he's not the first to potentially try. you might remember john bolton refused to testify in the house because he wanted to save it for his book. and only after he realized that he might never -- his book might not see the light of day because the trump white house was trying to refuse to certify that it wasn't classified did he offer to testify before the senate, i think in the hopes that that would pierce the executive branch's ability to suppress his book. >> yeah. congressman, seeing this reporting that med dozen was trying to get government officials to pursue baseless fraud conspiracies. at one point he reached out to the fbi, the pentagon, the

national security council. he also pressured the justice department. those are not conversations with trump. should he be able to answer questions about contacts with those officials because i don't think those would be considered executive privilege. he was reaching out on behalf of the president or at least trying to help the president. this wasn't some conversation he was having with just the president. >> you're absolutely right. those conversations would not be protected and, you know, he may very well try to assert some form of privilege. certainly if the last four years is any guide in both the russia and ukraine investigations, the trump administration asserted all kinds of privileges. in fact, they asserted the right not to answer questions because at some future point they might want to claim the privilege. so you had people like corey lewandowski trying to assert a privilege when he wasn't even working in the white house and about periods of time when the president wasn't even the

president. and so they are no strangers to making completely baseless claims of privilege. we will evaluate what meadows does. is he really cooperating, or is he merely trying a new stratagem to avoid having to answer questions? and then we'll make a decision about what should follow. >> yeah. second time's a charm. we got it all in. thank you, congressman. i appreciate it. >> thank you. you take care. >> you be well as well. president biden announcing new steps to combat covid through the winter months as new omicron cases emerge. a big key to slowing any potential surge, vaccinations. a, what you'll need, and help you build a flexible plan for cash flow designed to last. so you can go from saving... to living.

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