08/02/2017 100 Days

In the next hour, MPs are expected to approve

legislation that would give the British Prime Minister formal

power to withdraw the UK from the European Union.

We'll be live in the House of Commons as MPs

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is stopped from speaking

for critcising the conduct of the President's pick

Mr Sessions has used the power of his office...

But she goes on to Facebook to read a letter criticising

the controversial past of Jeff Sessions.

The President accuses the Democrats of obstruction but is even more

incensed that the courts continue to block his travel ban.

I don't ever want to call a court biased so I won't call it biased,

and we haven't had a decision yet, but courts seem to be so political.

Being a Trump supporter on a liberal campus.

I'm Katty Kay in Washington, Christian Fraser's in London.

Britain is about to take another decisive step towards Brexit.

Yes, in the next hour, MPs will be voting on a bill that

will give the Prime Minister the power to trigger Article 50 -

the formal notice to quit the European Union.

This is the scene in the lower House of Commons at the moment.

I think the PM will be pretty pleased with the way it has gone.

Theresa May has seen off a rebellion from her own MPs,

who were threatening to support an opposition amendment.

So, when it comes to the final vote this evening, the vote to send it

on its way to the Lords, we expect the bill to go

I have been speaking to the Conservative Member

of Parliament Anna Soubry, who campaigned for the UK

48% of people in the UK voted to remain and so did a large number of

MPs and people watching, particularly those outside the

country, might be surprised you caved in so easily. Nobody has caved

in. I have voted in effect in everything I believed in but I made

a solid promise to the people in my constituency and the country at

large because I was very much involved in the pro-EU Remain

campaign that I would take the decision, the result of the

referendum, and I would even though I don't agree with it, is the it

will not be good for my country, I made that promise and I have to be

true to it. If you voted for the referendum, you have got to see it

through, even if you do not like the result and you cannot go against the

promise you gave to the people, even if you do not like the result. They

have decided and therefore we have to execute the decision they made.

It would seem the Prime Minister 's home and dry in delivering Brexit.

She has got the support of MPs of both sides of the divide so Members

of Parliament for the Labour Party and the Conservative Party have very

much come together to honour the result in accordance with the

promise they gave people. What is happening in the rest of Britain is

that many people who voted Remain say, we just want to get on with

this now, and that is happening. There has not been the drift away

from the decision that was made back in June, so for me, we have just got

to bite the bullet, get on with it and get the very best we can as we

lead the European Union. A lot of the amendment to boating on the

night is whether to give or ensure the rights of European citizens here

in the UK on the might of the referendum. The Prime Minister

sympathetic to that but it all seems to be pointing to that amendment

being defeated. It is actually an amendment that should not be to this

bill. This bill as a vehicle that delivers the EU referendum to 's

result. The Prime Minister has made it clear that this will be her

priority, to make sure we do the right thing by EU citizens, and I

trust her on that. It will be her priority, I am confident she will

get a deal, and if she doesn't, there is nothing to stop her from

saying, we will do the right thing, even if our colleagues in the EU

feel they cannot reciprocate those arrangements, and I absolutely trust

and taken the whole word. It is more than just sympathy, she believes in

it and knows it is the right thing to do. There was one concession made

by the negotiation, but if you vote against it, then what? The Prime

Minister has always said, if we get a deal or when we get a deal, I am a

bit more cautious because I understand the realities of the task

ahead, but the's assume we get a deal, but will vote on that deal,

she said last night the Article 50 bit, there will be one of the road,

and the new arrangement and new deal, there will be another vote,

and it will take place at the same time as the European Parliament. I

do not think it is a great concession because what happens if

we do not get any deal? This place must then determine what happens and

that must be on the basis of all options and I will continue to make

that case. I will ask you for a primer on Parliamentary procedure

because I'm a bit confused. Smarter people than me are also a bit

confused. We had that vote last week, it will then went through all

those committees, so tonight, we are putting an amendment is not

necessarily in numerical order, and then vote on the bill again? Yeah...

When the bill goes to Parliament, it gets three readings in each house.

Last week, we got the full reading, and then these MPs got a debate on

it, and then you get a second reading followed by a vote, and at

that point, they could've killed stone dead. Last week, we told you

it was an important though, and it was. After that, we have had hours

of debate in committees and the house this week, and lots of

amendment had been put forward, and tonight they will vote on nine of

those amendments. When that is all done and dusted, we will have the

third reading and a boat which will send it on to the House of Lords.

Then it goes to the Lords and sales through? It should sell through but

the Lords at an unelected body and it would be something, in fact it

would cause a constitutional crisis, if the Lords were in some way to

defy the will of the people, so I would expect it to go through but

will they tried amendments on it? The government does not have a

majority in the House of Lords and there are a lot of Liberal Democrats

peers in the Lords. Even if they do, it is likely to come back and it

will be defeated so to my's vote will send this bill a long way

towards becoming law. I knew I should not have asked that second

question! 30 years ago, the US Attorney

for Alabama, Jeff Sessions, appeared before a Senate Committee,

nominated to serve During that hearing,

a string of allegations were brought forward that almost

destroyed his career. Before the committee,

Sessions testified he couldn't remember labelling a white lawyer

in his home state a disgrace for representing black clients

though, according to the record, he didn't contest

the allegation either. Amid the accusations of racism,

his nomination was rejected. Now, 30 years on, Jeff Sessions

is Donald Trump's pick for the highest legal office

in the land, US Attorney General. The Democrats are trying

to block it and, last night, the Senator for Massachusetts,

Elizabeth Warren, went to the floor to read a letter

from Martin Luther King's widow, Corretta - a letter sent in 1986

to the Judiciary Committee opposing Mr Sessions sought to punish older

black civil rights activists, advisers and colleagues

of my husband who had been key figures in the civil rights

movement in the 1960s. Senators appear in the motives

and conduct of our colleague Senator Warren said,

Senator Sessions has used the awesome power of his office

to chill the free exercise I call the Senator order under

the provision to rule. The Senate Majority Leader,

Mitch McConnell, had stepped in with an objection

and a little-known rule that forbids Senators from tarnishing

the reputation of their colleagues. Not to be defeated, Senator Warren

left the chamber to read the letter to 2 million people

on Facebook Live. I do not believe Jefferson Sessions

possesses the requisite judgment, competence and sensitivity

to the rights guaranteed by the federal civil rights laws

to qualify for appointment Based on his record,

I believe his confirmation would have a devastating effect,

not only on the judicial system in Alabama, but also on the progress

we have made everywhere towards fulfilling my husband's

dream that he envisioned We talked yesterday, Katty,

about the controversial pick, Betsy DeVos, who was confirmed

as Secretary for Education, but only after the intervention

of the Vice President, More trouble this time

with Jeff Sessions. The question is starting to be the

Democrats, do they overplay their hand? Is there a point at which the

public will say, will you hold up one of these nominations? They do

not have the votes to stop Jeff Sessions getting through, and can

they carry on like this before the public gets slightly annoyed with

the process? Americans want things to get done and they think Donald

Trump is right that this has been a slow process. But she got 2 million

viewers on Facebook, I ... So has it backfired? Probably in terms of

Elizabeth Warren's popularity. I would love to see her fund-raising

figures today. You think it has backfired on her? No, what I am

saying it has been helpful to her because I suspect she has raised a

whole lot of money out of this. There may be a broader sense in the

country that people want things done and they want this Cabinet appointed

but I suspect Elizabeth Warren, a liberal, who has lots of liberal

supporters and donors. Might have backfired for Mitch McConnell? Let's

asks a Republican strategist. With me now is Republican political

strategist and former advisor to George W Bush,

Ron Christie. I think this might have backfired

for Elizabeth Warren. She said the 46% of people in Massachusetts want

someone is to represent them in the Senate other than her so I think she

did this as a ploy to get attention, to get money and try to get her

campaign in the Senate back contract but ultimately, trying to impugn

that a senator is a racist was a bad move for her. Let's take the case of

Jeff Sessions. He has this contentious history, he was not 30

years ago deemed fit to be appointed as a federal judge because of that

history and allegations of racism. Yes, but these were only

allegations. There was never concrete proof that he was defeated

by the committee never made it to the vote. Jeff Sessions supporters

will say this is all about politics, what is the worst things you can say

to a southern white politician? They are racist. At that time, it is why

he was defeated. You think there was nothing there about what he has said

about the KKK, in who he has defended? I have known him for

several years. I just do not believe these allegations to be true. Do I

believe the comment can be taken out of context? Absolutely. But do I

believe he is racist? Know, and I think Democrats need to be very

careful that they are obstructing everything Trump is trying to do. It

is interesting to say that because we have tweaked here from Martin

Luther King's daughter and she does not feel the same way that you do.

She has been saying on Twitter today that Miss Warren kept the spirit of

the Senate alive and that she raised important issues to black people in

the deep South. I would say to that she is entitled to her own opinion

but here in the United States Senate we have rules and laws said you

cannot insult, put down or make a bad reference to a fellow United

States Senator. Did he say these things or did he do racist things?

That is very much in dispute I think. Senators have criticised and

impugned each other in the past. CIA boss Mike Pompeo is due

to visit Turkey on Thursday. It's his first overseas

visit as director of It follows a phone call

between Mr Trump and Turkey's President Trump reiterated US

support with Turkey, saying Ankara The two leaders agreed to work

together to fight the so-called One of Russia's most prominent

opposition leaders, Alexei Navalny, has been found of guilty

of embezzlement in a retrial. In delivering his verdict,

the judge said Mr Navalny had organised the theft

of other people's property. The conviction bars him

from running in next year's Mexicans are warming

to their president's tough stance on Mr Trump and the country's

refusal to pay for a border wall. As the President welcomed

back Mexicans who'd been deported from the US,

one survey showed 64% of voters approved of Enrique Pena Nieto's

decision not to meet However, the Mexican president's

overall popularity has sunk to a four-year low,

according to the same poll. It's been a tough old week

for French Presidential The main centre-right candidate

is facing further allegations about payments to his wife,

Penelope. One newspaper alleges her husband

paid her nearly $48,000 of taxpayers' money in redundancy

payments - not once but twice. Mr Fillon's dismissed

the reports as lies. Following the dramatic events

in the Senate on Tuesday, during which the Vice President had

to step in to vote on Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary,

Donald Trump has taken to Twitter again to voice his frustration

The President said, "It is a disgrace that my full

Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay

in the history of our country. So how hard is it going to be

for the new administration BBC Newsnight's diplomatic editor,

Mark Urban, has been taking a look. You can come here, promising

to drain the swamp or dethrone the establishment, but this city has

a way of protecting its interests, slowing down those

who challenge its ways. So the Trump administration's

process of nominating a Cabinet This level of obstruction at

the beginning of an administration is really record-setting

in a very unfortunate way. While the Senate have blamed

the Democrats for the go slow, they don't have the numbers to wreck

Trump's agenda. Rather, it's doubts among

Republicans that could pose the most Keen to impress the people who voted

for him, President Trump has signed some highly significant

and emotive executive orders. But you can't run the country

by those alone, particularly when it comes to spending money

or changing existing laws. For that, you need to go up

the hill and get people Thousands of people work on the Hill

in office is so widely spread the place has its own subway. Things

here travel at the speed legislators can work at. Many legislators have

discovered this. John Thierry has been a hill inside the best part of

30 years for the Republican majority just two in the Senate, he sees

risks for the White House. The numbers of the Senate especially,

they have tremendous power, and you will see that especially for some

Republicans who do not like Donald Trump will trust him, they will step

up and say what they feel. So there is no obedience with this Congress,

there never has been, especially with this President, there never

will be. The combination of Democrats is keen port Trump voting

with the small number of dissident republicans can pose or number

problems for the President. To avoid them, he must stick to policies were

he in congressional Republicans are on the same page. I believe on the

need for bilateral agreements with the UK or Japan, there will be

partnerships we can work with him on tax reform. We believe our tax code

is overly complex, there are over 70,000 pages on our tax code, people

want a simpler, fairer and flatter tax code. That is something we

should be focused on. Among those on powerful Senate committees, already

key figures will challenge Trump an issues such as the handling of his

immigrant ban or his professed admiration for Vladimir Putin. You

worried by what the President has been saying? There have been a lot

of things said that I would not say but I think that, as time moves on,

there will be a much more coming together on those issues. The

administration is just getting going my senses that, in the very near

future, things will be in the middle-of-the-road. Nominations,

health care or Russian sanctions, Trump's campaign pledges are already

being modified by people on the hill. As the President starts to

spend money, that will intensify. You and I were talking about this

before and it is still the unknown question about this presidency. Will

this end up being a normal presidency or will it be a train

wreck? I would not call it a train wreck... I do not think we will see

business as usual with this White House. Donald Trump views himself as

a businessman, he expects results, and he will continue to shake the

debt until he gets what he wants. The question is, how will he work

with Congress? Cani work with lawmakers within his party but also

with Democrats to find a way to get legislation to his desk. What is

your hunch so far? I think he will. We heard congressmen talk about tax

reform and secondly I think we will get a criminal justice reform

package. Congressmen think the sentencing of people for certain

crimes is out of whack and we need to fix it. I guess when people talk

about the idea that could go off the rails, something could go wrong,

what they're talking about is whether this is an administration

that can handle the erratic nature of the principal, the President

himself. However much the staff tries to normalise things, Donald

Trump almost gets on his own way. When I worked for President Bush, we

did not have Twitter back then. There is no way President Bush would

have used that! UC has started trying to take Twitter away in the

more they remove it from him, the more he sensed twits out. The

challenges, how do his stuff closest advisers rein him in and get focused

on important issues? There is a story going around today that want

to replace the communication of Sean Spicer. He might have a strategy for

the week, which is completely untied by a tweet that the President has

sent out. He can never really get on the front foot. He can't. The press

secretary has a tough enough job just dealing with the national and

international press in the briefing room and around Washington, DC. The

White House communication directors are looking at what will happen next

week, next month, in six months' time. And if you cannot have someone

who is dedicated to that job, the White House would just roll from

crisis to crisis. They need to replace Sean Spicer with a dedicated

communications director who has a better sense of what the messages.

What do you make of these newspaper headlines, that there is chaos

within the administration? There are all sorts of leaks coming out at the

moment. When I worked in the White House, any time we saw a leak, it

either meant someone had an axe to grind or someone was upset with the

way things were going. If you want to say something, put your name

behind it, I think the White House is in a very difficult time, I was

there one day one with President George W Bush. It takes several

weeks to figure out your bearings, how to work with Congress, so from

my perspective, the Trump administration is starting out

fairly well. Just before we move on,

I want to show you some pictures that came in just before we went

on air of Donald Trump meeting There is Mr Trump 's sitting

slightly awkwardly behind the desk and the CEO of Intel standing really

awkwardly right behind him. What he's trying to do, talking about

jobs moving to Arizona, $7 billion investment, 33,000 jobs, I think,

once again... This image. They look a little nervous. You can see them

shifting a little nervously. You think?

You're watching 100 Days from BBC News.

Still to come for viewers on the BBC News Channel and BBC

World News: Protective dad or persuasive president?

Mr Trump's weighed into a dispute between his daughter

And what's life like for Conservatives on campus?

We hear from young Republicans about how they're getting

That's still to come on 100 Days from BBC News.

Sunshine at a premium for the remainder of this week, cloud looks

likely to dominate right across the country, filtering from the east. It

will make you feel increasingly cold with easterly wind and the showers

we see. The fall as sleet and snow. Because of this area of high

pressure across Scandinavia and the winds coming round from the East, it

comes across the cold North Sea, that will make it feel

disappointing, particularly on exposed East coasts. Eventually,

that cold air pushes further westwards. The potential for showers

as well through the night to across eastern Scotland, eastern England,

down the coastline. Showers of rain further inland, a bit of sleet and

wet snow mixed in there. Is he stretches to watch out for.

Elsewhere, a cold start the many and quite a lot of cloud around as well.

And easterly wind driving the cloud across the country, maybe Western

fringes hanging on a bit of sunshine. But not the glorious

sunshine do you have seen today. Always the risk of some showers

running in of the North Sea coast. Those showers again will be

primarily of rain and sleet. Further inland, we will see sleet and snow

falling from time to time. Look at the temperatures, 2-3d at the very

best. A cold, disappointing, grey day even without the showers, a lot

of low cloud, struggling temperatures, the best we can offer

is six or seven, but generally, more uniform at 2-4d. As we move out of

Thursday night into Friday morning, some of those showers push further

inland and there will be accumulation of sleet and snow to

the course of the night and into Friday morning, particularly across

the higher ground of Scotland and North East England. Friday the cold

of the day when you factor in the wind and the cloud around, 2-3d more

widely across the country. Subtle we move into the weekend, high pressure

seeks its way further south, that means a subtle change in wind

direction. Nothing too drastic but less cold, best best of the

brightness in the West. In the next hour MP's

are expected to approve legislation that would give

the British Prime Minister formal power to withdraw the UK

from the European Union. I been un-friended by probably half

the girls in my sorrow to. what's life like under a Trump

presidency? We're going to take

you straight back to the floor They have been going through the

lobby for various amendments. Nine votes this evening

on various amendments put Most of them being defeated. Asking

the government to take the Good Friday agreement into account was

defeated by a majority of 39. It does cause problems, this bill, for

devolved parliaments. But the government is going to negotiate on

behalf of the entire UK. There will be a third reading of the bill.

And then the big vote of the evening.

At which point MP's must decide whether to send it on to the Lords.

Earlier, the Conservative MP Peter Bone, who campaigned to Leave,

Many people I talked to on the doorstep say why haven't you

triggered Article 50? That's what the vote on the 23rd of June was

about. I think Mrs May's approach was right, now is the time to get it

through Parliament and hopefully early next month she can fire

Article 50, sent the letter across and then we will never have any

chance of being in the EU. That's the question you keep asking me

every week, when are you going to get on with it? What's all this

Parliamentary process. Let's bring in our colleague, Ben

Brown who's in Westminster for us. In the cold on the green, suffering

for us tonight. How many more votes to go? Three more amendments to go,

essentially changes to this bill, this European Union notification of

withdrawal bill, that's its full title. So, it's about 15 minutes per

amendment, a bit less, maybe. So we are in a substantive vote on the

bill in a roundabout half an hour's time. We are expecting that again

really to be a pretty comfortable majority for the government. All of

these amendments have been pretty safely batted away by the government

by majorities of around 50. For example one proposed by the Liberal

Democrat party and their leader Tim Farren saying there should be a

second referendum on whatever deal the British Prime Minister

negotiates, again, that one pretty easily treated. We think there will

be a comfortable majority on the big vote in half an hour's time. One of

the big questions is of the opposition Labour Party who have

decided to vote for this bill because they believe that the

democratic will, the democratic mandate of the people. But a number

of Labour MPs are going to oppose the bill, oppose their party

leadership. We'll be looking to see how many Labour MPs disobeyed their

party leader Jeremy Corbyn. It's interesting, this evening it looks

again, yet again we have an example of a Parliamentary system Pavin

presidential system and in the US a presidential system behaving like a

Parliamentary system. The Democrats seem to be determined to say no to

everything when they are supposed to, mice, and in the UK with these

votes we have people who opposed leaving voting with the government.

It's pretty conjugated, isn't it? There are a lot of members of the

British Parliament who are in constituencies which voted to remain

and some of them feel obliged because their constituency voted to

remain to vote against beginning this formal process to leave. But

others think, well, the democratic will of the entire United Kingdom

expressed in the referendum was to leave, 17.4 million people voted to

leave and therefore they should go with the will of the majority. Also

you are talking about the government, the parliament, don't

forget the reason that members of the British Parliament are voting at

all is because the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land just

over the road here at Westminster, they ruled that it had to be a vote

in the British Parliament that would trigger Article 50 to begin the

whole process of leaving the EU. OK then, thank you very much. Back with

you later. Interesting that the EU used to divide the Conservative

Party, now it divides the opposition, how times have changed.

Katty, when the referendum on EU membership took place last year -

it created a real divide in this country - families -

mine included were divided, friendships were put

Never discuss politics at the dinner table they say,

but for many it was the only topic of discussion for weeks.

Right, and there's something similar happening here as well Christian -

between those who call themselves Republican and those who don't.

So we've been speaking to some Conservative university students

about how they're coping in their liberal surroundings.

People would look at me like I had a million heads when I talk about

these extremely conservative positions. People outside my dorm

come up to me and say, your Diego, right? You're a Republican, why?

I've been un-friended and un-liked by probably about half of the girls.

People in my freshman class won't look at me any more. I get asked a

lot, how can you be Jewish and Republican, Hispanic and Republican,

is that being a traitor to your race, religion and gender? In the

liberal point of view, if you are not in favour of their beliefs you

are racist, homophobic, sexist, etc. I don't really feel like calling

myself a conservative any time soon with Trump in office. I'm called a

racist by people I don't even know. Anybody who has remotely

conservative opinion is off the rails, is not normal. There's this

feeling of censorship, almost, on the college campus. Diego, you are

Mexican, how can you do this to your people? I did attend the

inauguration and I attended with pride in my heart for my country

that I love. Going back on campus I was immediately stared at, boys were

pointing at me, people were laughing at me. It gets lonely when people

can't understand and it's just easier to withdraw myself than to

try to explain. I have kind of even up in the social sphere. It's

painful. I think this nation is in crisis of sorts. Feel hopeless

sometimes. People are very quick to yell.

You can see just how hard it is to be a conservative amongst students

at the moment. Here's a question -

what do US courts and Nordstrom Well today they are both

in the sights of Mr Trump. We'll tell you about

the fashion retailer in a moment but let's return first

to his ongoing battle with the courts - specifically

the San Francisco appeals court, which is still considering

whether or not to reinstate a travel ban on people from seven

Muslim-majority countries. Here's what Mr Trump told

a gathering of US police chiefs I don't ever want to call a core to

biased so I won't call it biased. And we haven't had a decision yet.

But courts seem to be so political and it would be so great for our

justice system if they would be able to read the statement and do what's

right and that has to do with the security of our country which is so

important. Right now we are at risk because of what happened. General

Kelly is an extremely talented man and a very good man, now secretary

Kelly, homeland security. We are doing our job, he's a great man. We

are doing our job and one of the reasons you probably heard that we

did it so quickly in fact I said let's give a one-month notice and

then law enforcement and General Kelly was so great because he said

we totally knew about it, we knew about everything. We do things well,

we do things right. But the law enforcement people said to me you

can't give notice because if you give notice that you're to be really

tough in one month from now or one week from now I suggested one month

and said what about a week, they said no, you can't do that because

then people are going to pour in before the toughness comes. Do you

people agree? You know more about law than anybody, law enforcement.

So I wanted to give, like, a month. I said what about a week? They said,

then you're going to have a whole pile of people, perhaps, perhaps,

with very evil intentions coming in before the restrictions. So there it

is, folks. It's as plain as you can have it. I didn't and I was a good

student, I understand things, I comprehend very well, OK? Better

than I think almost anybody. What worries me about what he's

saying there, and I'm trying to take this impartially, but he's talking

about conversations within the inner sanctum of the White House, so he's

telling people about what a judge from Boston told him or another

judge from the other side of the country. Surely if people are coming

in to share their private thoughts, strategic thoughts with him, they

are going to think twice? Well, Donald Trump talks through Twitter

and through the press in direct conversation so much that I think a

lot of what is happening in the White House in private is getting

out into the public. It's not that unusual, Barack Obama did it, for

presidents to disagree with what the courts have done. What is unusual is

what he did just there which is to suggest, and he pulled himself back

slightly, that courts are not politically unbiased, that they have

their biases. And he did that when he said the so-called judge, or to

impugn the professionalism of the courts. That we haven't heard before

and I think that is worrying. What you make of these tweets on

Nordstom? This is the tweet. Give us the background and why this

is important. In a way it is this temperament issue, should he be

weighing in on this when the president has said he's meant to be

separating his business from his government? Ivanka Trump has this

brand and she has now been dropped from several places. And there is

the president weighing in in support of his daughter. The trouble is,

he's the president and just after he sent out the tweet, Nordstom's share

price dipped, so what the president tweets has an impact on the markets,

and that is something people are going to watch. Nancy Pelosi, leader

of the Democrats in the house has already said it was inappropriate.

We have to leave it there. That is 100 Days from BBC News -

do jump onto our Facebook page where my colleague Laura Trevelyan

will be taking your questions with our North America

reporter, Anthony Zurcher. We'd love to hear comments

and share your thoughts - so do take a look -

for now though, from me Christian Fraser in London

and Katty Kay in Washington,