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The Lead with Jake Tapper

CDC Makes It Official: Teens 16-17 Can Get Pfizer Booster; Weekly Claims For Unemployment Benefits Hit 52-Year Low; GOP Rep Cheney: Jan 6 Committee Has Interviewed Nearly 300 Witnesses; Rep. Elaina Luria (D-VA) Is Interviewed About The January 6 Investigation; Trump Loses Key Legal Fight To Keep Jan. 6 Documents Secret; British Government Facing 3 Investigations Into "Illegal" Christmas Parties. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired December 09, 2021 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Like a manager?

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BLACKWELL: THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: An early Christmas present for some kids.

THE LEAD starts right now.

Breaking today in the fight against COVID, the FDA this afternoon giving the okay for 16 and 17-year-olds to get a booster shot as most parents still seemingly have concerns about their kids getting shot number one.

Strong jobs numbers we haven't seen since the year man landed on the moon for the first time but why aren't the hard numbers matching the hard times so many are feeling. And she was in the car when the police officer pulled the trigger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daunte, say something. Please like just talk to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Daunte Wright's girlfriend takes the stand today.

Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We begin today with the health lead. It is official, 16 and 17-year-

olds can now get Pfizer's COVID vaccine booster. Late this afternoon, the CDC director gave the final thumbs up, insisting that those minors not only can but should get a third shot. This is a significant move as more data reveals just how effective boosters are against the virus and the new Omicron variant. Out of the 200 million Americans who have been fully vaccinated, only about 49 million have gotten their booster shot. That's about a quarter of those eligible.

As CNN's Alexandra Field reports for us now, President Biden is right now meeting with his coronavirus team discussing the threat from the Omicron variant and discussing how to get more Americans boosted as cases, hospitalizations, and deaths nationwide are tragically going back up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: After the winter, you are either vaccinated, recovering from COVID, or dead.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT ( voice-over): Those words said first about Germany now playing out in the United States with COVID cases again surging across the country and hitting the unvaccinated the hardest.

DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER CDC ACTING DIRECTOR: Right now, we are still losing more than a thousand people a day. A thousand people a day dying from COVID and it's not from Omicron. It's from the Delta variant. And it's important that people get vaccinated.

FIELD: Delta is ravaging the Northeast and more than half of all new hospitalizations in the past month have come from the Midwest, especially Michigan and Ohio, which together account for one-quarter of those hospitalizations.

JOEL BOTLER, MAINE MEDICAL CENTER CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: There is really no more room at this point and we are doing everything possible to increase that capacity.

FIELD: Maine seeing its own spike now reaching its record high for hospitalizations and calling up its National Guard to help alleviate the strain on the health care system. New York is also activating its National Guard amid worry about the weeks ahead.

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: We expect to see other areas of the country also light up in the next several weeks.

FIELD: New studies out of Israel show booster shots could be critical. A third shot of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine resulting in ten times fewer infections and reducing deaths by more than 90 percent according to those studies. Early data from Pfizer also showing that boosters increase produce protection against the Omicron variant by about 25 times.

TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Omicron including its global spread and large number of mutations suggest it could have a major impact on the course of the pandemic.

FIELD: As it stands now, just about one-quarter of vaccinated Americans are boosted. Access to boosters is expanding now to people as young as 16 in the U.S. but new data shows there's a long way to go convincing parents to get even a first shot for their kids with some citing safety concerns and lack of information. About 3 in 10 parents now say they will definitely not vaccinate their children, that according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation Survey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (on camera): Jake, we are hearing more and more every day now about the importance of boosters, the definition of fully vaccinated hasn't changed. Dr. Fauci says that's a matter of when not if. But we are already seeing some important steps in that direction. Five colleges and universities including Notre Dame and Syracuse University already announcing that they are requiring COVID boosters -- Jake.

TAPPER: Alexandra Field, thanks so much.

Joining us now to discuss, CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, more and more studies are confirming that boosters help prevent severe infection and yet only about one-quarter of vaccinated Americans have gotten their booster -- you got yours. I got my booster. Tell viewers why they should get them, too.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, part of this may be changing in terms of the definitions Alexandra was just mentioning, this idea that ultimately, fully vaccinated might mean three shots. I think that would make a big difference. Why should they get it?

Well, you know, we are getting more and more data. Israel has always sort of given us data a few weeks if not a couple of months in advance. So if you take a look at the impact of boosters has been now, up until quite recently, so coming up until the beginning of December, boosters started there at the end of August. Numbers were going up.

Now, admittedly, Israel was already doing a pretty good job. Though the numbers were going up they were still relatively small. But you see what happened with boosters over the next few months after that. That's cases. If you look at deaths over all, you also saw a significant impact of boosters.

Again, overall, their numbers lower than many other parts of the world, but when they started adding in boosters, the numbers came significantly down. That is something people should pay attention to for sure.

And, Jake, I will tell you, it does appear people are paying attention more than they have been. About 25 percent of the country that's eligible for boosters has gotten them. But you do have a significant percentage that now say they'd be willing to get it. You know, 37 percent I think say they would now for sure. Nineteen percent probably will.

And then there is always the 10 to 20, in this case 18 percent, the bottom two lines that are always hesitant. They were hesitant about vaccines in the first place and some of those same people are now hesitant about boosters.

TAPPER: Sanjay, now that 16 and 17-year-olds are authorized to get the booster shot, not only authorized but encouraged to do so, do we know what age group might be next and how soon that will happen?

GUPTA: It will be 12 to 15-year-olds next because that's how they look at the data. Twelve to 15-year-olds got their EUA for vaccines back on May 10th. So this would be the next population that will be looked at.

They're going to say, look, how are they doing with existing vaccines? Is there evidence that the vaccine effectiveness is starting to wane? Are there people getting sick in that age group who despite being vaccinated are starting to develop severe illness?

If those things are true that will probably really direct the FDA's decision on this. What was interesting, Jake, is there was no advisory committee meeting for this emergency use authorization for boosting 16 to 17-year-olds. The FDA just decided to do it based on previous evidence and what they are seeing with the pandemic.

We may see the same thing with 12 to 15-year-olds over the next several weeks.

TAPPER: How about for the Moderna and J&J vaccines when it comes to boosters for teens?

GUPTA: Well, so the thing is that Moderna and J&J were only authorized so far for adults. So, you know, with the Pfizer vaccine, you know, younger people could get it. So, the next step for Moderna and J&J will be to get the first shots, two for Moderna, one for J&J, get those authorized first for young people and then some point down the road they could potentially get a booster.

TAPPER: Sanjay, COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are trending up nationwide tragically. More than half of all new hospitalizations over the past month have been in Midwestern states, especially in Michigan and Ohio which together account for nearly one- quarter of the new hospitalizations over the past month. Why? Why this region?

GUPTA: Well, I mean, part of it is you do see these regional sort of differences throughout the pandemic. Certain parts of the country get hit particularly hard. Other places not so much. Then it flips. I mean, we can look at what happened in the south versus the Midwest over the next several months.

Living in the South, that is the orange line, things got quite -- there was a lot of cases increasing sort of in the early fall, Midwest not as bad. Now it is sort of changed a bit.

I think there are a couple reasons. You still have a large, unvaccinated population in Michigan, more than 40 percent. I think close to 45 percent still unvaccinated so a lot of people who don't probably have vaccine adduced vaccine induced immunity. It is getting colder, people are going indoors more, more chances for the virus to spread.

The screen you see now is really an important one in terms of the story that's happening in Michigan with hospitalizations. The vast majority of people in the hospital in the ICU on ventilators, 88 percent of them are unvaccinated COVID-19 patients. So, that's really a concerning number and that obviously can overwhelm hospital systems. They have a harder time taking care of patients that aren't even COVID patients.

TAPPER: The UK health and security agency says Omicron variant is displaying a significant growth advantage over delta and it expects omicron in the UK to account for 50 percent of all new COVID cases in the next three to four weeks. If we know the early data says Omicron is more mild than Delta, is this really as much of a concern as people might have had maybe from two or three weeks ago?

[16:10:11]

GUPTA: If that holds up to be true, Jake, I think that will lower the concern to some extent. But there are two important caveats. As you well know: it takes a few weeks to see the severity of illness because of the lag times. People may get exposed, may take several days, even a couple of weeks before they would be diagnosed. It could take sometime after that for them to develop symptoms.

We are two weeks into, Jake, in terms of really first identifying Omicron. It may take a couple more weeks to see. Are there sick patients out there who are developing illness now, severe illness, that may show up in the hospital over the next couple weeks? We don't know.

Numbers in South Africa, the hospitalization rates kind of went up and now they are coming back down a bit. So that was potentially good news. So, I think we're going to need a little more time on that as well as figuring out is this likely to overtake Delta?

TAPPER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much.

Coming up, oh, baby. Not even a new addition to the family can distract from the growing list of alleged scandals knocking on Boris Johnson's door.

Plus, the U.S. economy just did something it has not done since the 1960s. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:25] TAPPER: And we're back with our money lead. More good news in the United States' economic recovery today. The Labor Department announcing the number of people filing for unemployment benefits hit a 52-year low last week, which President Biden celebrated as, quote, further evidence that our jobs recovery is one of the strongest ever.

The new data comes on the heels of the U.S. largest bank predicting a full economic recovery in 2022.

Meanwhile, as CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports, Biden also focused on another major theme of his presidency today, preserving democracy not just in the U.S. but around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The White House touting another promising economic sign.

BRIAN DEESE, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: People are better positioned today to deal with these challenges which are real and tough.

COLLINS: Jobless numbers hitting a 52-year low, according to the Labor Department. President Biden keeping his focus abroad, hoping to rally the world's democracies with a two-day summit at the White House.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A government of the people by the people for the people can at times be fragile. But it also is inherently resilient.

COLLINS: Biden bringing together over a hundred nations virtually. But the guest list is raising questions about the definition of democracy. Some including Pakistan, Philippines, and Poland hardly seem to qualify, while other with similar records of repression were left off the list.

BIDEN: Yes, democracy is hard. We all know that.

COLLINS: Biden facing unsurprising backlash from the likes of Russia and China especially after infuriating Beijing with an invitation to Taiwan.

BIDEN: Democracy needs champions.

COLLINS: Biden also speaking with the Ukrainian President Zelensky today following his tense conversation with President Putin, amid fears of a Russian invasion and as the final element of a $60 million U.S. security package arriving in Ukraine.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: President Biden was also intending to discuss deep concerns with Russia's build up on Ukraine's borders.

COLLINS: In between calls with world leaders, the president paying tribute on Capitol Hill to the late Republican Senator Bob Dole who died Sunday at the age of 98.

BIDNE: He did have great wit. They once asked him why in God's name did he vote to continue to fund Amtrak. He said because if he didn't, Biden would stay overnight and cause more trouble. I commuted every day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (on camera): And, Jake, we're learning a few more details about how long the call went between Biden and the Ukrainian president. It lasted just over an hour.

The White House did not reveal any requests the Ukrainians made. We are expecting a full read out from the White House and should note they still say they don't believe Putin has made a decision about whether to invade Ukraine.

TAPPER: Kaitlan Collins again, thank you so much.

Let's discuss this with CNN's global economics analyst Rana Foroohar.

Rana, so weekly claims for unemployment benefits hit a 52-year low today. How big a deal is this? Do you think this is a sign of things to come?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: I do. You know, labor has power right now. That is the first time in about a half century, too. The labor market is incredibly tight. We've talked about that before.

And it's getting tighter at the holiday season, particularly in the retail sector. Anything that has to do with getting presents to your house, supply chains, those are going to be tight.

Companies are trying to hang on to workers that they have. This is going to be I think good news for labor markets and thus for consumption, because, of course, America, our economy is 70 percent consumer spending.

TAPPER: JPMorgan Chase is predicting a return to normal next year. Its chief global market strategist wrote to clients, quote, our view is 2022 will be the year of a full global recovery, an end of the global pandemic, and return to normal conditions we had prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, unquote.

Do you share that optimism? Or is it too early for that?

FOROOHAR: You know, you never want to say never when it comes to COVID, but I think that if we don't hear anything more worrisome about the new variant then, yeah. I would agree with that. The fact you are seeing Pfizer come out and say if you've got three shots, you've got pretty good protection, that's great news. That's exactly what the market wanted to hear. It has always been all about the virus.

Now, you know, we have this staying at home thing down. We're going to have to be doing a little bit more of it probably certainly overseas they will but we know how to do it now. So, unless we hear something else that really blows the story out of the water I think it is going to be a good year.

TAPPER: Another positive economic sign, the cost of gasoline continues to drop. The average price per gallon in November was $3.39, the Biden administration now predicting that will fall to $3.01 in January.

We should note that is still well above prices a year ago.

[16:20:04]

So when do you think looking at inflation writ large, gasoline, groceries, everything else will return to pre-pandemic price levels?

FOROOHAR: You know, we might see cheeringly at the holiday season a little bit of a price decline in part because of the point I made earlier, that we're going to be staying home because of the variant. There is, you know, I'm seeing parties canceled. Some of the offices that wanted to bring people back are saying, no. Let's wait until January, let's wait until the end of the first quarter.

So, that's going to make travel and tourism decline. That means energy prices will go down. Gas prices will go down.

I think companies are really getting their act together on supply chains and as long as we don't see more major delays there, that is going to be good news for inflation. It means some of the bottlenecks might decrease.

TAPPER: You alluded to this earlier. How much of the economic recovery depend on what we learn about the omicron variant or the potential for new variants to emerge?

FOROOHAR: It's all about the virus. It's always been all about the virus for the last two years. As long as we don't get any more bad news, we're going to be in a good situation I think for the first quarter at least.

TAPPER: Rana Foroohar, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Texts, e-mails, phone conversations, what Trump's former chief of staff turned over to the January 6 committee before he sued them.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:25:58]

TAPPER: In our politics lead, Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming today is revealing the January 6th Committee has now interviewed nearly 300 witnesses in its investigation into the Capitol insurrection.

Cheney also tweeted, quote: Do not be misled. President Trump is trying to hide what happened on January 6 and to delay and obstruct. We will not let that happen. The truth will come out. A source is also telling CNN the context of the text messages, e-

mails, and phone conversations voluntarily handed over by Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows,

CNN's Jamie Gangel is learning these new details.

And, Jamie, the panel is getting a real glimpse into who knew what in real time as the Capitol was under attack.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And this is important because they want to know what Donald Trump was doing in real time. So for context, Meadows handed over more than 6,000 pages of documents, including e-mails, texts, phone calls from his personal phone and e-mail and we are told in those e-mails and texts are real time exchanges with a wide variety of people while he was sitting in the White House with Donald Trump.

We are told that in the texts and e-mails, there is information about what Donald Trump is doing and what he is not doing. And this was all voluntary, no claim of privilege. I think it is fair to say Donald Trump is not going to be happy about these texts and e-mails.

TAPPER: And we're also learning that interviews with the committee have really picked up in recent weeks.

GANGEL: Absolutely. So, we've heard about all the people who are defying the committee, all of the Trump loyalists. But a source close to the committee has told me that behind the scenes there are sort of two tracks here, what is going on in public and what is going on in private. So, we know that Congresswoman Liz Cheney said today that they have interviewed nearly 300 witnesses. And that they have many witnesses coming in every week, sometimes multiple a day, and today was such a day.

Who did we see come in today? We had Chris Krebs, the cyber security chief, Kash Patel chief of staff to then acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller. We had, I'm missing one.

TAPPER: Ali Alexander.

GANGEL: Ali Alexander, who was a rally organizer. And, finally, a very important person who has been I would say dodging the committee and that's John Eastman the conservative lawyer who came up with this far fetched memo which Trump was using to try to pressure Pence to delay the vote.

We don't know what he said. Some of the meetings are still going on. But they're showing up.

TAPPER: And we've heard some from committee members about their work talking publicly about it. But you're learning there is also a lot happening behind the scenes.

GANGEL: Absolutely. So, in addition to what we've seen today, I am told they are getting so many people coming in to cooperate that they can barely keep up with it in a certain way. Some of these people are coming in voluntarily.

We thought there were about 40 subpoenas out there. I was told by this source that there are many, many more subpoenas and that some people are coming in with what they call a friendly subpoena. Something to give them cover to say, I had to go in.

TAPPER: Interesting. Jamie Gangel, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Let's bring in the Democratic Congresswoman Elaine Luria of Virginia. She's on the Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack. Thanks so much for joining us.

Let's start with Mark Meadows and the sheer number of e-mails and texts and cell phone records he turned over before he turned around and then refused to cooperate.

At this point, do you even need his deposition given all the information he willingly turned over?

REP. ELAINE LURIA (D-VA): Well, what I would say, Jake, is there is a huge amount of information. And if I were in Mark Meadows' shoes I think it would benefit him greatly to be able to show up, explain it, explain the context, explain the interrelated nature of these communications and what was happening as these were sent.

So, it's definitely information that will be valuable to the committee. But we've already gotten to work analyzing the huge amount of information and piece it together with what we have heard from other witnesses who as you have mentioned earlier, there have been hundreds who have come before the committee now in addition to thousands and thousands of documents.

TAPPER: What do the 6,000 pages of documents reveal? What's the most surprising thing that's in there?

LURIA: Well, Jake, at this point, I am not going to speak on specifics within those documents, but I'll say that they came from the person who was closest to the president, who understood his thinking during these events and can tell us what he knew, what he didn't know, what he did, what he didn't do during that time. So, they're definitely some of the most valuable as far as painting that picture that the committee has received to date.

TAPPER: So, Meadows is now suing the committee. Last night, he talked about the documents he handed over. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MEADOWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I think what they will find is that no one in the White House has any advance knowledge of anything that was going to happen on that particular day in terms of a breach of security on January 6th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now, we know Meadows gave your committee a January 5th e-mail which mentions having the National Guard on stand by. At this point, have you seen any evidence that Trump or anyone affiliated with Trump at the White House or outside the White House knew the violence at the Capitol was possible?

LURIA: Well, Jake, I was in D.C. that day. Many of us were in D.C. that day. We understand the National Guard was in place to control traffic so that the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police could be free and readily available for duties around the Capitol.

You know, we had seen other protests like this earlier in the year turn violent. So, I think all of us knew. We didn't have our staffs come in full that day. I had one key staff member with me.

So, there had been a proven potential for these types of demonstrations to turn violent. So it was obvious to many that something like this could go in this direction, but certainly not to the extent we saw on January 6th and certainly not the breach of the Capitol and certainly not the attempt to stop the proceedings of the government.

But, you know, we've talked to hundreds of other witnesses as well. I'll tell you that Mark Meadows may have his opinion but there are many others in communications even in the data that he gave us in the texts and e-mails that are painting a very full picture of what people knew ahead of January 6th.

TAPPER: So, there's -- you know, obviously, you're correct that there was always the potential for it to get violent. I guess what I'm wondering is, have you seen any evidence that was the point of it, that they knew and wanted that anybody affiliated with Trump or the White House or the campaign or any of these groups associated with Trump that they wanted people to come and the express purpose was to send them into the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes, including under the threat of violence that that was why they did it not just that violence could have broken out but that was the whole point of it?

LURIA: Well, you know, Jake, I'll reflect back to kind of the hashtag and nomenclature used for the stop the steal. Over months and months and months there was a repeated drum beat of, you know, saying although not true that the election was stolen. We have to stop the steal.

We know the president's own remarks given on the stage just down the street from here right before the events of January 6th.

So, that's what the committee is trying to piece together. I'm not going to give any predetermined result of all of the information that we are collecting and we'll synthesize over the course of the investigation. That you are going to the key point, that is what we are looking for, is to try to understand truly if that's the case, to find the evidence, to hear from witnesses, and to hear from people who if they were involved in that exact type of attempt to disrupt the government.

TAPPER: Congresswoman Luria, indulge me if you will, stand by. We have some breaking news that you want to hear and I want your reaction to former President Trump has just suffered a major loss in his battle to keep documents from his presidency secret from the House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.

Let's get straight to CNN's Jessica Schneider.

Jessica, tell us what you're learning.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's exactly right, Jake. This is the second court loss for the former president in his efforts to block the congressional committee investigating January 6th from getting those White House records. The D.C. appellate court here has ruled against the former president, saying that he cannot in fact block those records from being handed over from the National Archives to the committee. This was a three-judge panel that actually heard these arguments just one week ago.

[16:35:01]

It was November 30th. They're issuing a pretty quick ruling here. This is a 68-page decision.

They're saying that the former president loses in his arguments but crucially here, they're not going to allow these records to be automatically released. They are giving the former president's legal team 14 days now to appeal to the Supreme Court, which no doubt they will likely do. We still haven't heard any comment from the former president's legal team here.

But I just want to read one part. It says that the president has -- the former president actually -- has failed to establish a likelihood of success given the fact that President Biden carefully reasoned and determined that the claim of executive privilege was not in the interest of the United States.

And, Jake, that is the big issue here that the former president has repeatedly lost on. The fact that President Biden has not asserted executive privilege over these documents, the former president trying to argue that his rights to assert the executive privilege should take precedent over the current president. But the appeals court here, this three-judge panel saying that, no. President Biden gets to make the determination. He has said those records should be handed over. And that is the determination from the court today.

But, of course, this fight will likely go to the Supreme Court. So, it's probably not over just yet.

TAPPER: Indeed. Jessica Schneider, thanks so much.

Congresswoman Luria, let me bring you back.

So, you're on the January 6th committee. I think the odds that President Trump and former President Trump is going to appeal this to the U.S. Supreme Court, I think there's no question he will do, that he will definitely do this. Are you concerned about this case going to the Supreme Court where there is a conservative super majority of a sort?

LURIA: Jake, I think this decision shows exactly what President Biden said from the beginning that this is truly in the national interest and that overrides everything else for these documents to be made available to this very important investigation. So, you know, as we move forward, I can't predict the actions of the court, but I think what we would be likely to see from the Supreme Court is that all of the judicial rulings leading up to this point have substantiated that these documents are necessary and that President Trump, he is the former president. He doesn't have a right to executive privilege over these documents.

That resides with the current sitting president who has made the decision these documents are releasable to the committee for the work for a legislative purpose and I expect to see that continue to be upheld. But, of course, President Trump -- former President Trump is using every delay tactic in the book, and intimidation tactic.

As you've seen, Mark Meadows has now withdrawn his cooperation from the committee, he sued the committee, yet he's provided us thousands of pages of documents. So, it appears that President Trump's sort of hold on this and attempt to keep this information from getting out is waning quickly. And the committee is getting so much information. We've heard from almost 300 witnesses.

TAPPER: Yeah, and some of those witnesses are individuals who probably know a lot. We mentioned earlier Jamie Gangel mentioned Ali Alexander, who was the head of the, quote-unquote, Stop the Steal organization or at least associated with it. Kash Patel.

Are any of these very, very strong pro-Trump partisans behind the scenes cooperating exactly as you want them to?

LURIA: The answer is yes. There are hundreds of people, some whose names are known well because they are in the news, some who were very close to the same people who are well known, who saw a lot, who heard a lot, who understand all of the events of that day and the things leading up to January 6th who are doing their constitutional duty. They're subpoenaed to appear before Congress to provide information for the good of the American people and are doing just that and they're doing it without hesitation.

And it's the very few, rare number that you can see us moving forward with to hold in contempt and there's a lot of people who have seen others be held in contempt, and they've come back to the committee and said, I don't want to be that guy. That's not me. I'm an honorable American. I want to share the information that I need to share with the U.S. Congress.

TAPPER: All right. Democratic Congresswoman Elaine Luria of Virginia, thank you so much for your time.

Coming up next, emotional testimony in the trial of the former cop accused of killing Daunte Wright as Wright's girlfriend who was there that day takes the stand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAYNA ALBRECHT PAYTON, DAUNTE WRIGIHT'S GIRLFRIEND: Just put my hands (INAUDIBLE), I just tried to hold him and just tried to scream his name.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:43:54]

TAPPER: In our national lead, a second day of emotional testimony in the trial of the former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, claiming she mistook her gun for her Taser.

CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is live for us outside the Minneapolis courthouse.

And, Adrienne, today prosecutors called Wright's girlfriend who was in the car with him during the shooting. What did she have to say?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jake, painful testimony from the woman who was dating Wright although brief. She said they had only been dating about three weeks. She took us inside the vehicle Wright was driving. That white Buick.

We heard what happened from her lens. She talked about what she saw, what she heard, and she described how she tried to render aid. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAYTON: It was a video call, (INAUDIBLE) to see what happened. I was delirious. I was just grieving. They just shot him. They shot him. Then I pointed the camera on him and I'm so sorry I did that.

[16:45:02]

I'm sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's okay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: And she is also describing the moment Wright's mother called her via FaceTime and she showed Wright's mother her son slumped over in the vehicle. She was pretty distraught throughout and regretful for sharing the news with Wright's mother in the manner in which she did -- Jake.

TAPPER: Adrienne, one of the other officers on the scene during the shooting testified today. What did that officer say to the jury?

BROADDUS: That's an officer with the Brooklyn Center Police Department. He talked about the training that you need to become a field officer, that type of training Potter was doing that day. He also said he responded to the initial call placed by Officer Lucky and he says when he was showing up he saw the vehicle Wright was driving collide with another vehicle but he had no idea there was an officer involved shooting.

So when he saw the vehicle collide he stopped his car, got out with his gun drawn, yelling at Wright, who was unresponsive in the other vehicle, and his girlfriend who you just heard from, telling them to exit the vehicle. She responded, saying she can't.

We also saw body camera video and hear how he learned Wright had been shot. I want to mention another officer from a neighboring district who responded just testified. He knew there was a shooting but he didn't know it was an officer involved shooting -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Adrienne Broaddus in Minneapolis, Minnesota, thanks so much.

He's making a list and checking it twice. But right now, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson somehow keeps landing on the naughty list.

Stay with us.

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[16:51:33]

TAPPER: In our world lead, a rather dodgy week for the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with two new investigations into government staff Christmas parties held during the countrywide lockdown last year. As he coincidentally just announced new COVID lockdown measures to stem the spread of the Omicron variant. And just to put a perfect little bow on it, the prime minister's conservative party was just slapped with a fine for improper disclosure around the renovation of Boris Johnson's apartment.

Joining us from outside 10 Downing Street is CNN's Europe editor, Nina Dos Santos.

Nina, do we know if Johnson attended these parties?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN EUROPE EDITOR: Hi, Jake.

Well, we know the three parties are being investigated and we believe that one of them back at the end of November that was held here at the prime minister's offices and official residences on Downing Street was not only attended by Boris Johnson but he actually made a speech at it.

Now, these gatherings weren't happening this time when we've got another wave of COVID taking place, although Christmas parties are technically still permitted even though just this week, the government revised upwards the COVID restrictions once more. They were happening this time last year.

And that was a really important moment in time because COVID was yet again raging across the capital city. Hundreds of people were losing lives and repeatedly over this period, many government advisers took to the airways and to social media to stress that it was illegal and people should not gather and mix together from different households.

Nevertheless, there is a scandal brewing about whether or not people actually did that in most powerful address in the country behind me.

Now, there is a sense of anger outside of Downing Street among the broader populace in London, that this is essentially a question of hypocrisy that people have to deal with a completely different set of rules from the powerful who actually draft those rules. So, many questions still for Boris Johnson that will continue over the next days to come, Jake.

TAPPER: And this is obviously one of the most consequential weeks of Boris Johnson's life and not just the scandals. There is a new addition to his family?

DOS SANTOS: That's right. This time perhaps a more joyous reason for Boris Johnson to have sleepless nights. A baby girl was born to him and his third wife Carrie Johnson earlier today. Mother and baby are said to be doing well. We haven't seen a picture of the infant yet, although we've seen Boris Johnson arriving at the hospital to potentially meet his new child.

We believe that this is his seventh child. He was probably also there for the birth as well. According to a government spokesperson, he will be wanting to spend a bit more time with the new addition to his family, his seventh child so far. He has had a few marriages previously and has grown up children from those, too.

But will this detract from the scandal? It is unlikely that that's the case. You'll be relieved to hear though, that although it is legal this year, the Downing Street Christmas party has been canceled for now -- Jake.

TAPPER: Nina Dos Santos from London, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Some breaking news. Another major legal loss for President Trump and how it could shed light on understanding his role in the insurrection.

Stay with us.

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[16:59:11]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We start with breaking news. Former President Donald Trump suffering a major loss in court moments ago in his battle to try to keep documents from his presidency secret from the House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. The fight now likely heading to the U.S. Supreme Court. Let's get straight to CNN justice correspondent Jessica Schneider.

And, Jessica, what did these judges, these appellate court judges say about the former president's argument?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they basically said that the former president can't assert the privilege because the current president doesn't assert the privilege. And here really the current president's privilege takes precedence over a former president.

And that was the same argument and the same opinion that we heard from the lower court at the district level.