state department is rejecting steve bannon s sudden willingness to testify before the january 6th committee days before his criminal contempt trial is set to begin. bannon produced a letter from donald trump, trump saying he is waiving executive privilege so bannon can testify. here s the thing, the committee and most legal analysts say no privilege existed in this case to begin with. what s more, federal prosecutors argue, trump never invoked executive privilege here. so, this doj court filing also reveals that former president trump s attorney justin clark was interviewed by fbi investigators two weeks ago. let s go to washington, whitney wild is there for the latest on what we can expect in the committee hearing tomorrow. the oath keepers front and center. absolutely. this will be a very robust hearing and this hearing will focus on how the violent mob came together and the role of extremist groups in that deadly insurrection. to connect trump allies to militia groups, s
teachers at the end of may. and new details about what the 77 minutes of school hallway surveillance video shows. plus, a new covid variant spreading at an alarming rate throughout the united states, and this one is not deterred even by recent infections. so how do the vaccines hold up against it? welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start with our politics lead and members of the january 6th select house committee now publicly suggesting they will use tomorrow s hearing to draw direct links between the extremist groups who stormed the u.s. capitol and have been charged with seditious conspiracy and people inside donald trump s orbit. we are going to be connecting the dots during these hearings between these groups and those who were trying in government circles to overturn the election. what we heard cassidy hutchinson testify along the lines of trump telling mark meadows, the chief of staff, to talk to roger stone and others, mike flynn, and stone and flynn ha
bannon s change of heart, his trial will go on. also late today, what we learned about tomorrow s january 6th hearing who will testify now? and the other key witness we re expected to hear from. rachel scott with new reporting. the war in ukraine. and tonight, the white house now warning it believes iran is getting ready to help russia. what they re expected to send to fight the ukrainians. james longman standing by, reporting from ukraine. japan in mourning over the assassination of former prime minister shinzo abe. and what we ve now learned tonight about the alleged gunman. bob wood. dick: is there. here at home tonight, the urgent manhunt under way for the armed suspect wanted for shootings at several 7-elevens today. elon musk terminating his deal to buy twitter. what musk said about it all. and american strong tonight. the plane stuck on the tarmac and the spontaneous performance. you have to see this. good evening and it s great to be back with all of you
january 6th investigation. steve bannon, a powerful player in the trump white house, now says he s willing to testify. the reaction from committee members and what we re learning about the key testimony of former white house counsel pat cipollone. the omicron subvariants are surging. nearly three-quarters of the u.s population now live in areas with medium or high risk for covid. what we re learning about a new variant now identified in the u.s. new york city once again urging people to mask up, and when the next generation of omicron targeted vaccines might be available. the fire scare for a spirit airlines flight. flames and smoke billowing from the landing gear moments after touching down in atlanta. passengers told to stay in their seats. the deadly strike in ukraine. civilians trapped in the rubble of their apartment buildings. the urgent search for survivors. new details on the investigation into the assassination of former japanese prime minister shinzo abe,
when you re telling people that a presidential election is being stolen, you can t be shocked when people believe you and then become violent. at some point, they have to take responsibility. you know, you know, the thing is, mika first of all, donald trump is saying that it s smart. yeah, so smart that while he is sitting there lying to them and grifting and getting hundreds of millions of dollars from people lying, saying, give me money and we ll fight the election, and it all goes to him. first of all, not smart there. also, unfortunately, there were a lot of people that went up to the capitol because they believed donald trump. they believed his lies. yeah. they re sitting in prison right now. he s just sitting back at mar-a-lago, living his life, loving it. family vacations around the world, on beaches. flying all around on his private, well, you know, 757, whatever it is. flying from one country club to another. and they re sitting in jail, yeah. you ll no