15/05/2017 100 Days+

Welcome to 100 Days. Contenders for the FBI job were interviewed this

weekend, democrats wonder if they were act independent of the

president. The administration knows the Comey firing was not handled

well and they have to do better in future. Could that lead to firing

some of the top staff? Companies and Governments scramble to upgrade

software after 150 countries were hit by a cyberattack. France's new

president gets to grips with the most powerful woman in Europe, but

will be Chancellor warm to the Emmanuel Macron's plans for European

reform? And photos to mark what would have been president Kennedies

100th birthday. Has the firing of James Comey put

America's democratic institutions under threat. That was the view of a

former top US intelligence official. But there was nothing illegal about

the dismissal of Mr Comey. As Mr Comey stated himself, I have long

believed a president can fire an FBI director for any reason, or for no

reason at all. That is certainly the view of the president's supporters,

including the US ambassador to the UN. The president can fire and hire

whoever he wants. That is his right. Whether you agree or not, it is the

truth and he is trying to find his own team and were there better ways?

That is for everyone to decide. America has a system of checks and

balances. But fears were raised this weekend that those may not be

enough. This was the intervention yesterday from the former director

of national intelligence, James Clapper. The developments of the

week are disturbing to me. I think in many ways our institutions are

under assault, both externally and that is the big news here, Russian

interference in our election system. And I think as well, our

institutions are have problems internally. Joining me is Jane

Harman. Do you agree with Mr Clapper's fears, or is he being

alarmist? I agree with them. We have had plenty of note that is

Ransomware is dangerous. We have poor cyberhygiene across the world

and the business model is wrong. Companies that are subject to this

Fay ransom. At this rate it is going to get worse. I want to ask you

about the firing of the FBI chief and that institutions could be under

Flett? -- Threat. The election of Donald Trump reflect a lot of

dissatisfaction with political leadership. The way the firing was

handled, not his right to fire, it seems to me just amplifies the

mistrust and the polls show in America that a majority of people

think it was handled wrong. The clip you played, our ambassador is right

to say he is the CEO and he can hire and fire. But better timing and

better preparation was really it seems to me required here. I just

add two things. President Obama could have fired Mr Comey last

summer. I thought his press conference last summer was quite

extraordinary and out-of-bounds and two more times he behaved close to

our election in an unprofessional way. But Mr Trump had every right to

fire him when he came into office that timing would have been better

respect I think or accepted. A lot of people are talking about a

special prosecutor, it would have to come from the department of justice.

It is an Executive power to name one, it is not something congress

could do. How are the democrats going to keep up the pressure to get

that special prosecutor? It is not clear that it will happen. But I thi

democrats are right, to slow down the confirmation of whoever comes

next. There is some good names in the mix. I know many of them. But

what we need is an FBI director who is totally politically impartial.

The predecessor to James Comey is an example of what he need. He worked

with Comey. It is surprising, ten years ago, to refuse to sign an

order of the Bush 43 White House which they thought exceeded legal

bounds. Somebody like that is the right model and as for special

prosecutors, there is another way congress can go, congress has the

authority to enact a 9/11 type commission with subpoena power that

could look into things. A couple of the people being suggested are

Republicans who serve on Capitol Hill from the Senate and from the

House. Is that a good way to go, do you think for the president at the

moment? Well, I think it matters who they are. People with political

experience might be good in the role. Mike Rogers no longer serves

there, but he was chairman of the intelligence committee and he was a

more junior member when tifs ranking democrat -- when I was the ranking

democrat. I think this idea that has been surfaced by Senator Mike Lee on

the far right of naming possibly the... His name is escaping me, but

the Supreme Court pick of the Obama administration is interesting. That

apparently has some support from Mitch McConnell the Republican

leader. A lot of good people, including women like Fran Townsend.

What matter is will they be impartial? That requires a careful

confirmation hearing by the Senate. Thank you. The Republicans blocked

the judge didn't they when he was the pick for President Obama for the

Supreme Court. You have been speaking to White House people over

the weekend, do you think they understand where this went wrong

last week? Yes, I was surprised at how candid they are about how this

has been a rough week for them and how they handled it badly. At one

point the White House official I was talking to said there is a review of

the staff and the president will look at who is performing and who is

not. That suggests we could be in for a shake-up. But the striking

thing was how they said, we can't use the execution the -- excuse the

decision was made fast to say we couldn't have handled it better.

There should have been better co-ordination and the official said,

if North Korea attacks, they will attack fast as well. They're not

blaming the communications, they're blaming the people who took the

decision? Well, both. I think there has been a lack of co-ordination is

how it was put to me and this review is under way. Because I think that

is the key for the administration, one thing they said, we were not

brought in to be politicians, we are new to this and that is what their

supporters asked for, people who are not old hands at the game. It will

be interesting to see Trump 2.0. And I'm joined by a guest who can talk

about this. We have the prospect of a big shake-up, are you hearing the

same things I'm hear something Yes, in fact what I have heard that is

many surrogates are appearing for Mr Trump on television are getting

calls, saying are you interesting in joining, because the team we have

isn't getting the job done for the president. How senior are the

figures who could be asked to think about getting other jobs. Mr Spicer

might be looking for a new line of twoshg. -- line of work. But the

people one level beneath that, the deputies, the people writing the

press releases and the talking points for officials are not getting

the job done and I think the president is being ill-served. How

much of this is about the president's own insecurities, he was

mad about the leaks, he thinks his intelligence chiefs are undermining

and he has a map apparently trying to convince people he won the

election. How much is it about him and him getting on with it and

instead of his staff? It is always about the president. I can tell you

have been worked for one, you take your tone by the measure of the

commander in chief. We felt confident with President Bush and

the example he gave us. My friends who the White House are troubled

that Mr Trump seems to continue to relitigate the election, as opposed

to continue to do the business of the people. It is wearing on people

and people who comment say, is the president doing his job at home and

abroad. If he finds a bunch of staffers he has to replace them with

people, people like you. I'm glad you're still with us, but if knocked

on your door, would you be tempted? He loves being with us. Of course he

wouldn't be tempted. I love being a BBC analyst. Don't worry. I think

there is an issue here about whether the president's temperament, this

need to relitigate the election is getting in the way of his ability to

get this job done. I think that is the question that I have heard from

people inside and outside the administration. It has to be

addressed. No question about it. This demonstrates he does not have

people who he surrounds himself with who can say, Mr President, no. We

had Karen Hughes who has the ability to go into the Oval Office and say,

Mr President, that is a bad idea, you're tired, you're not doing what

you should be doing and the president listened. I think Mr Trump

needs people who can come in and who know how to govern. It is not as

much fun in the White House as in the studio. Now that sieber attack.

-- cyberattack. The global attack known as WannaCry. Microsoft warned

the Governments of the world should treat the attack as a wake up call.

They're critical of the way governments store information. With

me is our security correspondent. Some strong words from the Microsoft

president. This worm, this programme, it was there in the NSA

files and if it is in the files, at some point it could get leaked. I

think what is surprising is the NSA didn't expect it to be get leaked.

But that is a problem for them and their security wasn't good enough.

Perhaps a contractor got it out and it got to a group of hackers who

tried to sell it and whoever created this took that and adapted it with

another couple of bits of code, not sophisticated, but devious and now

Microsoft are blaming MSA. People are saying, Microsoft, you built the

system... And charged a lot for virus protection. People say,

governments, shouldn't they protect institutions. How farm is it the --

far is the responsibility of institutions to close up the

vulnerabilities. So there is a lot of blame to go around. I think this

issue of whether the intelligence agencies have got the ambulance

between offence and defence right is an issue. We have seen it in the

last couple of years since the Snowden leaks and this will heighten

the attention on that. It seems this time there was a serious impact in

the UK. But there does seem to have been a bullet dodged and not very

many people paid the ransom. What do cyberofficial mean when they say it

could be the beginning. Two things worry them. One, is that this

particular type of malicious software could reversioned and

somebody could get around the fixes and does a similar attack and is

harder to stop. I think there is a further problem that this is just

exposed how much of our infrastructure is online. We knew

that already. But how much of it is not properly patched and is

vulnerable to not necessarily the most sophisticated attack. This

Israel not like the attack the US is alleged to have taken against Iran.

This is something very basic. If someone could do that, not necessary

lay -- necessary lay state, but have this impact, that is worrying,

because of what it tells us about the vulnerabilities. Must run that

virus-checker tonight. Please do. The US has accused the Syrian

Government of installing a crematorium in a military prison to

disposed of thousands of murdered prisoners. Jane O'Brien joins us,

this comes from a junior staff person at the state department. How

credible is it? Well a lot of evidence they have cited could be

described as circumstantial. They haven't said there is a crematorium

there. They're saying that a number of intelligence reports and

satellite imagery taken over several years show development, building

development that would be in line with a crematorium. So they have

seen things like air conditioning units being installed, a chimney,

heat extraction. And there was a patch of snow melt on the roof

indicating there was heat coming from the building. Thank you. Two of

the biggest economy inure, France and Germany have an outsized

influence on Europe, but it has been quite a tricky relationship. Perhaps

today, markets the start of a new era. France's new president,

Emmanuel Macron has travelled to Berlin to meet the Chancellor. On

the surface this some broad agreement. TRANSLATION: We have

exchanged our views today and we have agreed that we are going to

continue to work closely together. TRANSLATION: With our respective

teams we will be able to work for projects eve the medium term and

have a common road map for the European Union and the eurozone.

These are very important subjects as we have seen oversest -- seen over

the last few years. Emmanuel Macron has some ideas not popular in

Germany. Let's talk to Jenny Hill in Berlin. I guess some of the reforms

won't go down well with the Chancellor? Exactly so. They have

raised eyebrows here there has been talk about the so-called euro bonds.

The electorate is unlikely to support the idea of German money

going to sort out the debts of countries whose economies are

performing less well. There were always going to be differences. But

I think obviously for the cameras too, but there was a real sense of

warmth in the welcome that Emmanuel Macron received at the Chancellor.

Unusually for such a meetings, there was a crowd outside singing and danc

dancing. A friendly beginning. But as Angela Merkel commented, there is

magic in every beginning. What you sense is despite talk of agreement

on road maps for Europe, there are a lot of differences to overcome.

There have been over recent years through the eurozone crisis, because

Germany keeps its eyes on the bottom line and of course France have had a

more liberal attitude to money and they would be happy to weaken the

euro. They have got to get over that first? Yes I think do things are now

significant here. One of course after the Brexit decision, Germany

has lost the political ally that filled in for France once the two

economies started to diverge so widely. So there is a feeling in

Berlin it would be good for Germany to have France back on side.

Secondly, Brexit has changed everything. There is a real feel or

there has been a fear that the EU would start to crumble. If it is

possible to revive that old historical French/German axis that

underpins much of the European project, that is a way forward. So

the meeting was significant, both leaders said that they're happy to

look at treaty change in order to create the further integration. We

are starting to see perhaps the beginning of the future of the EU

without Britain. Thank you. I wanted to remind you not of the future, but

the past. You saw Francois Hollande being sworn into office. Emmanuel

Macron has the sun shining on him. He is so lucky. Yes he is with the

weather. I remember the inauguration in 2012 and there was a moment

Francois Hollande went up the street and went to the arch detree op of

and he was wet through. He went to the airport to make the trip to

Berlin and his flight was hit by lightning and he had to land again

at the airfield and pick another plane. But look... That was just the

beginning. This is much warmer. What I want to pick out, look at this, so

there is the handed on shoulder. I will give you one back. There is a

one upmanship and then you go. Look at this... One after the other. It

is a sort of... One upmanship of the way leaders do it and what they must

do with their hands. Thought what, what does Donald Trump do? Sometimes

he doesn't shake hands. Sometimes he doesn't let go. This goes on for

about 15 second and he pulls him in. I have seen him do this with the

vice-president. There is the tug and he clearly trying to release his

hand and it goes on and at the end of this you see him turn away to the

Japanese cameras. I think you spent your time last week becoming a body

language expert. Yes I do. More serious issues. North Korea fired a

missile and it suggests the country is getting closer to being able to

reach the US mainland. This missile is capable of carrying a large scale

nuclear warhead and it had a longer range than anything they have

tested. The range is 4,500 kilometres. Of course he has done

this when there is chaos in Washington. So the timing is

interesting. Yes, the couple of things here, first that the message

being sent to Donald Trump that you try and get tough on North Korea, we

are not going to be easy to deal with. China starting a trade summit

and a message to the Chinese and Russia, because this landed 60 mimes

from Russia. The question people are looking at is what was the

reenindustry like. -- reenindustry like. -- re-entry like. Interesting.

We discussed earlier a White House shake-up. Perhaps no one would miss

Sean Spicer more than Saturday Night Live. They have been at it again.

The White House spokesman featured, played by a comedian. I'm filling in

for Sean, he is in the naval reserve and he can't be here. I'm sure can I

see him hiding in those bushes. The naval exercise, he is trying to

blend in with his surroundings. Can you to this full-time. I would also

light too ask that question. Your articulate and charming and Sean is

bullish... That is cruel. He takes his podium and is driving through

New York trying to find Trump Tower. Saying is did you ever put me in a

position of not telling the truth. She is so good. The idea of him

hiding in the bush, that is because he was hiding on the day James Comey

was sacked. You missed this, a lot happened last week, James Comey was

fired and Sean Spicer had a wonder around the white House garden

bushes. Now you're watching 100 Days. Good to have you back. Viewers

in the UK can get up-to-date with the events in the general election

in the election Wrap in a moment. That is all on the BBC News

channelment still to come the secret side of JFK.

Today we saw the first spell of rain over quite a large area for quite

some time. We would do again