:00:07. > :00:08.Hello and welcome to One Hundred Days Plus.
:00:09. > :00:11.The White House is plunged deeper into crisis, but the President says
:00:12. > :00:19.The latest controversy surrounds whether Donald Trump asked
:00:20. > :00:22.the former FBI director to drop an investigation.
:00:23. > :00:24.That latest report has White House on the defensive again,
:00:25. > :00:35.but the President says he is the one who is being targeted.
:00:36. > :00:37.No politician in history, and I say this with surety,
:00:38. > :00:42.has been treated worse or more unfairly.
:00:43. > :00:45.On Capitol Hill, the calls for a special investigator are growing.
:00:46. > :00:59.Though some continue to warn against any rush to judgement.
:01:00. > :01:01.The facts: It is obvious there are some people out
:01:02. > :01:04.there who want to harm the president, but we have an
:01:05. > :01:06.obligation to carry out our oversight regardless of which party
:01:07. > :01:10.Also, here in New York, the financial markets
:01:11. > :01:14.The US dollar has hit a six month low and the Dow Jones is down more
:01:15. > :01:16.than 200 points amidst the political turmoil.
:01:17. > :01:18.And with Washington in an uproar, what do people
:01:19. > :01:31.Hello, I am Christian Fraser in London.
:01:32. > :01:38.In the past hour we have had news that James Comey the former FBI
:01:39. > :01:40.director has been summoned to appear before the Senate
:01:41. > :01:44.The details of his memo leaked to the New York Times
:01:45. > :01:46.suggest that in a private meeting within the Oval Office
:01:47. > :01:49.President Trump had asked Mr Comey to shut down his investigation
:01:50. > :01:55.into national security advisor, Mike Flynn.
:01:56. > :01:57.But is that the only memo James Comey wrote?
:01:58. > :02:01.And does the account of that meeting amount to an obstruction of justice?
:02:02. > :02:06.It's been a wild week here in Washington and right now
:02:07. > :02:09.the President isn't even here, he is in Conneticut at the US
:02:10. > :02:11.Coast Guard Academy where he has been venting some
:02:12. > :02:25.Look at the way I've been treated lately.
:02:26. > :02:36.No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been
:02:37. > :02:45.You can't let the critics and the naysayers
:02:46. > :02:52.There has been plenty of reaction in Congress today
:02:53. > :02:56.The Democrats want a special investigator, the Republicans
:02:57. > :03:05.are increasingly unnerved by what they are hearing.
:03:06. > :03:08.We need the facts: It is obvious there are some people out
:03:09. > :03:10.there who want to harm the president, but we have an
:03:11. > :03:13.obligation to carry out our oversight regardless of which party
:03:14. > :03:16.And that means, before rushing to judgment,
:03:17. > :03:17.we get all the pertinent information.
:03:18. > :03:19.It seems like we are learning disturbing new allegations
:03:20. > :03:31.about President Trump not just every day, but every hour.
:03:32. > :03:38.House Republicans have shown repeatedly that they refuse
:03:39. > :03:42.to conduct credible, robust oversight over this President.
:03:43. > :03:45.James Comey met with President Trump in February, the day after Gen.
:03:46. > :03:50.In his written account of that meeting, Mr Comey says the President
:03:51. > :03:52.asked the Vice President and the Attorney General to leave
:03:53. > :03:55.the room, and then, according to a transcript of the memo,
:03:56. > :04:02."I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go,
:04:03. > :04:10.James Comey has a reputation for leaving a paper trail
:04:11. > :04:13.when he feels his investigation is being disrupted.
:04:14. > :04:16.There are reports today that he wrote other memos,
:04:17. > :04:20.Let's speak to our Washington Correspondent Jane O'Brien,
:04:21. > :04:29.who's been on Capitol Hill today and joins us from there now.
:04:30. > :04:39.No point Jane, what are you hearing's I have to say, that of all
:04:40. > :04:42.the scandals in the last week or so, this is the one that troubles people
:04:43. > :04:46.the most. Every single senator I have spoken to today says this is
:04:47. > :04:52.the one that has basically took them over the edge. And that's why you're
:04:53. > :04:57.having these growing calls for memos, e-mails, any documentation
:04:58. > :05:00.that might shed light on what exactly it was that President Trump
:05:01. > :05:05.said to James Comey behind closed doors. And the also want to hear
:05:06. > :05:13.from him. Even though James Comey has lost his job as the director of
:05:14. > :05:16.the FBI, he is still the man to watch. And it's not just Democrats
:05:17. > :05:20.were calling for this, Republicans, too. Increasing unease amongst very
:05:21. > :05:24.I spoke to a senator who had this to say.
:05:25. > :05:27.The administration certainly needs to take stock of what it is doing.
:05:28. > :05:29.And the President needs to listen to his advisers and better
:05:30. > :05:31.appreciate the nuances of Government and the
:05:32. > :05:44.different roles that the three branches of Government play.
:05:45. > :05:50.Lots of talk today about impeachment. We are certainly
:05:51. > :05:53.hearing that worried now. And the obstruction of justice. Obviously
:05:54. > :05:58.the buyer for obstruction and justice is set quite high. And it
:05:59. > :06:03.would be politicians who would make the decision on that? That's right.
:06:04. > :06:07.It's very, very difficult to prove intent on a constant obstruction of
:06:08. > :06:10.justice. Although people who want to see this as that will do so, the
:06:11. > :06:15.legal requirements are extremely tough. Any action against President
:06:16. > :06:20.Trump will be a political decision. And that's going to be tough, too,
:06:21. > :06:25.because of course Congress is controlled by Republicans. You have
:06:26. > :06:32.an Attorney General ahead in the Justice Department which would take
:06:33. > :06:39.any decision to prosecute. It's all about folks, it's all about whether
:06:40. > :06:41.Republicans see enough support is drifting away from President Trump
:06:42. > :06:46.as to whether any action will be taken. We are a long way away from
:06:47. > :06:50.that. There has to be an investigation first. Until Congress
:06:51. > :06:53.know the facts, getting back to those e-mails and memos and the
:06:54. > :06:58.desire to hear from James Comey in person, were not going to be topping
:06:59. > :07:04.about impeachment any time soon. That if the story on Capitol Hill.
:07:05. > :07:12.It is your paper in New York that has broken the story.
:07:13. > :07:20.It's extraordinary that a new headline is being broken on the
:07:21. > :07:24.situation everyday. We did know that the issue of leaked anonymous
:07:25. > :07:31.sources to reporters would yield the reports we are seeing at the moment.
:07:32. > :07:33.We can talk now to a senior writer from the New York Times. He joins us
:07:34. > :07:58.and their senior writer Eric Schmitt joins us from Washington.
:07:59. > :08:04.There is no one in the White House that can control their intelligence
:08:05. > :08:08.leaks. The president had been briefed on general outlines and the
:08:09. > :08:12.intelligence that's going on in the fight against Isis. He has been
:08:13. > :08:15.trying to recruit the Russians to do more in that fight. Somewhere in one
:08:16. > :08:19.of his briefings he had been told about a very sensitive piece of
:08:20. > :08:23.intelligence that the Israelis had given him and he apparently bragged
:08:24. > :08:32.about this. He didn't identify them by name, but they are controlled by
:08:33. > :08:37.Islamic state and talked about the plot, particularly in a lame plot
:08:38. > :08:40.and batteries, with enough specificity that intelligence
:08:41. > :08:44.officials recoiled and got was a very dangerous thing that he had
:08:45. > :08:47.done. It narrowed down the likely source for the Russians to identify
:08:48. > :08:52.and possibly disrupt in the future. It jeopardises a very special
:08:53. > :08:57.relationship that the United States has with Israel. The relationship
:08:58. > :09:03.that is likely to weather this storm. Presumably inmates for
:09:04. > :09:07.awkward moments that the president heading abroad to Israel when the
:09:08. > :09:11.country has warned in the past about how the US handle sensitive
:09:12. > :09:16.information is Mike absolutely. You can only imagine there have been
:09:17. > :09:20.calls ahead of time by senior officials in the White House and the
:09:21. > :09:24.intelligence committee to try and smooth is over before he arrives in
:09:25. > :09:30.STL in this very important first overseas trip he is making to the
:09:31. > :09:34.middle east and Europe. Can you tell us a list of about James Comey?
:09:35. > :09:37.Apparently he took good or bad notes all the time when he felt
:09:38. > :09:42.uncomfortable when he'd like way that a meeting had gone and many
:09:43. > :09:49.shared it with those closest to him. Presumably, there are more and memos
:09:50. > :09:53.out there. Yes, and my colleague who broke the story for the New York
:09:54. > :09:58.Times identified those in history. This started with a dinner that
:09:59. > :10:01.James Comey had with President Trump in February. He asked for his
:10:02. > :10:07.loyalty. James Comey said he couldn't do that, but he would give
:10:08. > :10:10.his best professional work, but he cant do that. I think it was after
:10:11. > :10:15.that that James Comey decided he needed to document in very close
:10:16. > :10:18.tale any meeting or phone call he had with the president and let other
:10:19. > :10:24.people know so that there was a record of this as he went forward,
:10:25. > :10:32.because he didn't trust where this might lead.
:10:33. > :10:40.The reason that cat is not with us in the studio is because she is at
:10:41. > :10:48.the White House. Tell us what you're doing there? Promise you I am not
:10:49. > :10:52.just enjoying the sunshine. The trouble is, between where I was and
:10:53. > :10:56.the camera was, there were a lots of impressive looking men bristling
:10:57. > :10:59.with guns. I will do a lot for the programme, but jumping the White
:11:00. > :11:05.House wall is not one of them. Here I have a meeting at later on with
:11:06. > :11:07.some of the senior White House officials and we will talk about
:11:08. > :11:11.what the president hopes to achieve on the strip. You are right, this is
:11:12. > :11:15.a difficult time for the White House. The are starting to get
:11:16. > :11:20.Republicans who are saying we have to look at the possibility of a
:11:21. > :11:23.special prosecutor, an independent counsel to look at the issue of
:11:24. > :11:30.whether or not the president had interfere with the investigation. I
:11:31. > :11:35.spoke to a very senior Democratic senator this morning his hedge was
:11:36. > :11:41.frustrated with her Republican colleagues and was saying, "Is when
:11:42. > :11:46.are you going to do something? " John McCain said to this Democratic
:11:47. > :11:51.Senator that when the presidents approval ratings dropped by three to
:11:52. > :11:57.five points, then you will see them start to make movements. I was
:11:58. > :12:02.reading last night that the chair of the oversight committee is saying
:12:03. > :12:05.that he is quite ready to subpoenaed these memos if they either. He is
:12:06. > :12:10.actually one of them who is not standing for the election in 2018.
:12:11. > :12:14.He owes the president nothing, has nothing to lose, and it seems the
:12:15. > :12:20.other Republicans are quite prepared within the has friend take the lead.
:12:21. > :12:26.He said he had his subpoenaed pen ready. He has been speaking out a
:12:27. > :12:29.lot more since he announced he is not going to run and there are a lot
:12:30. > :12:33.of Republicans were not happy with what they are hearing coming out of
:12:34. > :12:37.the White House. We are particularly not happy with all the chaos getting
:12:38. > :12:40.in the Wear business. All the things that Republicans are under voters
:12:41. > :12:45.want this way as to do, something on tax reform, infrastructure, jobs
:12:46. > :12:50.bill, that is not happening, because the White House is so consumed with
:12:51. > :12:55.the drummer of the day. I spoke to a group of businessmen, many of them
:12:56. > :12:58.voted for Trump earlier today they said they want action from the White
:12:59. > :13:02.House and all they are getting is chaos. At some point, as Republicans
:13:03. > :13:08.are starting to say, a little less trauma would be nice. As Eric was
:13:09. > :13:11.just saying, here is the president with no military or political
:13:12. > :13:18.experience, that is what the voters wanted an elected. Someone without
:13:19. > :13:21.any of the history of Washington, but there was a hope he would start
:13:22. > :13:26.learning the rules and he doesn't seem to have any appetite for that.
:13:27. > :13:31.He is sort of blundering. If you were to be really charitable, over
:13:32. > :13:34.the last two days, he seems to be blundering into things without
:13:35. > :13:37.taking advice from those closest to him. It's good of you to be
:13:38. > :13:44.charitable. It doesn't happen very often. I think there is some hope
:13:45. > :13:50.that this foreign trip could mark a reset. That the president goes
:13:51. > :13:54.abroad, is contained by the confined to being on foreign soil, a very
:13:55. > :13:58.organised schedule, having also of his senior staff with him on the
:13:59. > :14:02.plane, all in the same place where they can coordinate the message
:14:03. > :14:09.better, and the question I'm going to add them in a few minutes is, how
:14:10. > :14:13.much tweeting is the president going to do overseas? It is a time when
:14:14. > :14:16.you traditionally get less criticism from Democrats. Politicians are
:14:17. > :14:20.loath to criticise the president when he is on foreign soil or they
:14:21. > :14:25.are on foreign soil. He might see some of that being torn down. The
:14:26. > :14:28.wheels of the investigation are going to carry on turning and seem
:14:29. > :14:33.to be turning pretty fast at the moment. Having the president
:14:34. > :14:36.physically out of the country for the next couple of weeks could be
:14:37. > :14:40.helpful at this stage. OK, we will let you go to your meeting. Tell us
:14:41. > :14:43.all about it tomorrow. Well, the news cycle
:14:44. > :14:45.is pretty unrelenting. Remember, we were talking
:14:46. > :14:46.on yesterday's programme about the reports Donald Trump had
:14:47. > :14:49.leaked classified information Information we have since learnt,
:14:50. > :14:54.came from the Israeli's. Well, today Russia's President
:14:55. > :14:56.Vladimir Putin weighed Yes, President Putin says
:14:57. > :15:06.he is happy to provide a transcript of the conversation that took place
:15:07. > :15:08.between his Foreign Minister He also said the reaction
:15:09. > :15:17.to the story in the United States was verging on "political
:15:18. > :15:18.schizophrenia." Our Moscow correspondent,
:15:19. > :15:23.Steve Rosenberg, has more. Well, you can't help
:15:24. > :15:28.feeling that the Kremlin is loving all of this,
:15:29. > :15:30.because as the US Administration staggers from one crisis to another,
:15:31. > :15:33.all seemingly linked to Moscow, Russia is sitting back and watching
:15:34. > :15:36.a political rival tear itself apart. So, President Putin's comments today
:15:37. > :15:39.were full of jokes, they were full of sarcasm, they were
:15:40. > :15:43.full of put-downs. Among the jokes, he said
:15:44. > :15:46.that he would have to reprimand his who met Donald Trump
:15:47. > :15:51.earlier this month, because he said Mr Lavrov had not passed
:15:52. > :15:54.on the secrets that he had He hadn't passed them on to him,
:15:55. > :16:01.president Putin, or to the And that was very bad of Mr Lavrov,
:16:02. > :16:05.said President Putin. The put-downs, well,
:16:06. > :16:06.there were many of those. He said that there was political
:16:07. > :16:09.schizophrenia in the United States He said that those people
:16:10. > :16:13.in America who are spreading anti-Russian sentiment were either
:16:14. > :16:15.stupid or dangerous and dishonest. He said that those people
:16:16. > :16:17.in America who are spreading anti-Russian sentiment were either
:16:18. > :16:19.stupid or dangerous and dishonest. He talked about the internal
:16:20. > :16:21.political struggle in America. And as for his offer to provide
:16:22. > :16:24.a transcript of the Lavrov-Trump meeting, provide that to
:16:25. > :16:27.the Congress and the Senate, I don't think the Kremlin seriously believes
:16:28. > :16:30.that if Russia was to provide a transcript on Kremlin headed
:16:31. > :16:32.notepaper that that would make this Now, I think that's just another
:16:33. > :16:40.attempt to have a dig at America, while these scandals
:16:41. > :16:48.are swirling around the White House. I think we will file that on nothing
:16:49. > :16:53.stranger than fiction. For more on this, we are joined now
:16:54. > :16:59.by former State Department Spokesman I am not altogether sure that Donald
:17:00. > :17:06.Trump will welcome the intervention of Vladimir Putin. I think Vladimir
:17:07. > :17:11.Putin is having way too much fun with this at the expense of America.
:17:12. > :17:15.You have been critical of President Trump before any way that he has
:17:16. > :17:21.been running things. This week has been quite extraordinary, what do
:17:22. > :17:25.you make of it? I think in the first 100 days we had pure political
:17:26. > :17:30.chaos. All of us were looking for learning curve, where President
:17:31. > :17:37.Trump would begin to understand the Normans of the office. What concerns
:17:38. > :17:43.me now is that in the second 100 days, we are moving from political
:17:44. > :17:49.chaos to institutional conflict. Donald Trump came to Washington to
:17:50. > :17:53.dream the swamp and in many respects now, the swamp is at war with the
:17:54. > :17:58.president of the United States. If you go back, some elements of the
:17:59. > :18:02.intelligence community where more than happy to provide details of the
:18:03. > :18:06.phone conversation between Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador.
:18:07. > :18:14.Now you have aids loyal to James Comey reading from his memoranda to
:18:15. > :18:22.the newspapers. It's going to be very, very hard for a White House
:18:23. > :18:26.that has yet to really get it at interior to be able to drive an
:18:27. > :18:32.agenda. Right now, they're just reacting to everything. I wanted to
:18:33. > :18:36.pick up on another point which is that actually, this trip abroad
:18:37. > :18:41.might give the White House room to breathe, perhaps re-grip. Do you
:18:42. > :18:46.agree? Certainly, the potential is there. I remember being in the
:18:47. > :18:50.Clinton White House and the president made a very important trip
:18:51. > :18:57.to China. He carries it off. Everyone knew that this was
:18:58. > :19:01.important. It was bringing China into the international system,
:19:02. > :19:06.getting ready to join the vote dot-mac world trade organisation.
:19:07. > :19:11.Challenging China about their human rights record. It was a big deal.
:19:12. > :19:17.The real question here is, can Donald Trump do something like that?
:19:18. > :19:22.That is the dilemma. He does not seem to want to read. He doesn't
:19:23. > :19:26.study has brief. He overlooks nuances that are critical to
:19:27. > :19:29.policies and now he's going into one of the most complex parts of the
:19:30. > :19:34.world and he doesn't know what he doesn't know. Thank you very much.
:19:35. > :19:36.Now, on a few occasions on this programme,
:19:37. > :19:39.we will take the spotlight off the capital and see how this
:19:40. > :19:42.drama is seen in other parts of the country.
:19:43. > :19:45.For a week in Washington, it's been terms such as code word
:19:46. > :19:50.intelligence and congressional committees - all leading to people
:19:51. > :19:54.But does that really matter if your not in DC?
:19:55. > :19:58.Scottie Nell Hughes is based in Nashville is a staunch
:19:59. > :20:03.Donald Trump supporter and has been a frequent contributor to BBC News.
:20:04. > :20:10.It's good to see you back. Thank you for coming on the programme. A long
:20:11. > :20:16.way away from Washington, what are the making of the controversy
:20:17. > :20:24.surrounding Donald Trump? I think it is showing that gossip is not
:20:25. > :20:27.evidence. The more that you see the drama about the opponents of Donald
:20:28. > :20:31.Trump, the more the American people get tired of it. We are facing
:20:32. > :20:35.serious issues right now that Congress should be dealing with.
:20:36. > :20:44.Everyday mainstream America wishes that they were placing the same
:20:45. > :20:50.focus on repealing and replacing our Affordable Care Act with something
:20:51. > :20:53.that we can actually deal with. Here is a president asking the vice
:20:54. > :20:57.president and the Attorney General to leave the room and he says to the
:20:58. > :21:01.FBI director, "I hope he can see your way to dropping this
:21:02. > :21:06.investigation" is. Do you not see that that is a problem? That's
:21:07. > :21:13.interesting. Thank you for saying the words respectfully. He did not
:21:14. > :21:18.command. This was the day after general Flynn had been let go by the
:21:19. > :21:22.president. The timeline is interesting, because it doesn't
:21:23. > :21:27.work. I think that is why Americans are seeing this as a junior high
:21:28. > :21:34.drama. The majority of the media, the FBI said they were not going to
:21:35. > :21:38.investigate Mike Flynn in January. They made that public announcement,
:21:39. > :21:42.major networks reported it. The FBI said they were not going to
:21:43. > :21:49.investigate him. President Trump let him go because at the time we got...
:21:50. > :21:53.He waited a long time to let him go and the very next day, he summoned
:21:54. > :22:00.in the FBI director. The very next day, he talks to James Comey. He did
:22:01. > :22:05.not command him. He did not... He said I hope. You let him go. He said
:22:06. > :22:10.he was a good guy. It was not a command. I think this is going to
:22:11. > :22:15.show why President Trump ultimately let James Comey go, because if you
:22:16. > :22:18.have in Italy back and FBI Director who has refused to investigate his
:22:19. > :22:24.own department for weeks, he also now is refusing... At the time it,
:22:25. > :22:29.he sat on this memo. If this was such a problem, if he was concerned,
:22:30. > :22:36.why did he set up on it for four months? Was this a version of
:22:37. > :22:41.blackmail? Can jump in? Do you think this opens the president up to the
:22:42. > :22:46.criticism of double standards? Was so much criticism of Hillary Clinton
:22:47. > :22:49.and her use of private servers to use e-mails which contained
:22:50. > :22:54.classified information. As a risk now that the same sort of
:22:55. > :22:59.accusations of Donald Trump not handling classified information
:23:00. > :23:03.sensitively enough or these memos, do you think there is a risk there?
:23:04. > :23:10.Think there is definitely a risk. I think there is a double standard
:23:11. > :23:14.into how it has been treated. The former Secretary of State had a
:23:15. > :23:17.server and was told not to. The FBI director at the time, James Comey,
:23:18. > :23:25.said he was not going to look into those e-mails, just like he was not
:23:26. > :23:31.going to look into the DNC a Mills. You have had the three people in the
:23:32. > :23:34.room, you are a very high insecurity rankings, respected by both sides of
:23:35. > :23:39.the aisle, they said there was no risk, no laws were broken, and yet
:23:40. > :23:42.we are continuing to rely on anonymous sources from a paper that
:23:43. > :23:51.time and time again has shown there are sources are wrong. You're
:23:52. > :23:59.putting it more faith in anonymous versus the deputy adviser. Do you
:24:00. > :24:02.trust names that are willing to stick the reputation or anonymous
:24:03. > :24:05.people? We'll have to leave it there for now. There was other news today.
:24:06. > :24:08.Chelsea Manning the army private who leaked thousands of diplomatic
:24:09. > :24:10.and military documents to Wikileaks, has been released from
:24:11. > :24:20.Rajini Vaidyanathan is in Kansas for us.
:24:21. > :24:26.What we know about where Chelsea Manning is now? What are her
:24:27. > :24:30.movements? We are not clear about where she is. We know she was
:24:31. > :24:36.released under the cover of darkness about 2am this morning from where
:24:37. > :24:40.she had been hard for the past seven years. She has been treating a
:24:41. > :24:47.little bit since her release. She tweeted a photo of the shoes she was
:24:48. > :24:53.wearing with the caption "Is first steps of freedom.". She also posted
:24:54. > :24:56.a picture of a piece and she was eating. Her release has been met
:24:57. > :25:00.with mixed reaction here in the United States. Supporters said you
:25:01. > :25:04.were the hero and a whistle-blower. They also pointed out that she had
:25:05. > :25:10.to fight very hard for gender reassignment treatment while she was
:25:11. > :25:14.in this military prison, because of course, it was after sentencing that
:25:15. > :25:19.she announced she wanted to live as a woman. There are many people
:25:20. > :25:23.including Donald Trump retweeted a few months ago that think that
:25:24. > :25:28.Chelsea Manning is an ungrateful traitor and that she shouldn't have
:25:29. > :25:29.been released earlier. Thank you very much for that update for the
:25:30. > :25:33.moment. Still to come - a small but growing
:25:34. > :25:36.number of Donald Trump's fellow Republicans called on Wednesday
:25:37. > :25:39.for an independent probe and one And we will play you
:25:40. > :25:46.a report from Nashville - looking at how the rest
:25:47. > :26:13.of the country is viewing Good evening. Large parts of England
:26:14. > :26:14.and Wales had a miserable evening. That Rangers out of