justice. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin with new evidence that at least one trump ally attempted to influence the january 6 committee s star witness, fearing what cassidy hutchinson would reveal to the panel and to the nation. cnn congressional correspondent ryan nobles is working the story. reporter: new information tonight about the january 6th committee s star witness, cassidy hutchinson. sources tell cnn that hutchinson was one of two examples that vice chair liz cheney used to show trump allies were putting pressure on former staff members to stay loyal to the president. our committee commonly acts witnesses connected to mr. trump s administration or campaign whether they have been contacted by any of their former colleagues or anyone else who attempted to influence or impact their testimony. reporter: witness intimidation among a growing list of potential crime
steps of getting himself separate from that and telling people while it was wrong, making clear that he wanted no part of it and had no part of it. so if he hasn t, he s going to be invoking the fifth amendment in some of this if he gets pressed. otherwise, he ll probably try to negotiate so that those issues don t even come up and he can give the committee what they need, but it s going to be hard on trump if he tells the truth. if cipollone does agree to an interview, how much is he actually shielded by what s called executive privilege, and how much can he actually limit the topics? well, executive privilege only covers the conversations that he had with the president. for example, his conversations with cassidy that she testified to, those are not covered at all. the committee can explore why he told her such and such and when he told her and the
progressives and say that. i was going to say he gets to look at progressives and say, hey, i tried but look at this senator and that senator, they re the holdup not me. it s the equivalent of saying the problem is russia, russia, russia. the problem is somebody else. and the numbers in this new poll are pretty devastating as far as the president and democrats are concerned. is the country headed in the right direction or the wrong direction. among all adult americans, 85% now say the country is headed in the wrong direction. 92% of republicans, 78%, david, of democrats think the country is headed in the wrong direction. if you speak with political consultants and advisers here in washington over the years, they always say going into an election they look at this number, right direction versus wrong direction even more than do you approve or disapprove. which isn t good for the president either by the way. you can t find a good poll number for this white house. but 78% of democrats
to get this done or do you hope that democrats increase their numbers. that seems like a tricky proposition. it s not clear beyond calling for it what the president is willing to do. audi, how hungry are democrats to actually see president biden try, try to fight for abortion rights? well, i think it s not just about abortion rights, it s about the idea of if you re asking your activist base to get out and vote, right, just please vote any time something goes wrong. there s some activists who are starting to hear that cry and think it s the equivalent of saying thoughts and prayers in another scenario, when in fact they want to see action. if you re asking them to vote for you in the midterm elections because you can take action but then when you are in power you don t ever seem to take the actions that they re interested in, that s when you start to see disillusionment and disinterest.
look like? well, it depends on how limited it is, wolf. it s hard for me to comprehend how there could be topics that they could cover which he would agree are not privileged. they wouldn t be that worthwhile. so a lot of negotiation has probably gone on. personally if i was representing him, i d be seeking some kind of immunity for him. he s got a tough argument in terms of privilege. he s talked about it before. he s been interviewed by him and there are statements he made to people which arguably could waive the privilege. but the big problem is there s no time to fight over it. that s what the concern is. so the committee in some ways really has to bargain with him over the parameters of it because they can t afford the time to take it to court and litigate the issue. elliot, how much is cipollone potentially limited as far as executive privilege to this legal issue? executive privilege being a privilege over the conversations that happened with the president or others in the