17/05/2017 100 Days+

Hello and welcome to One Hundred Days Plus.

The White House is plunged deeper into crisis, but the President says

The latest controversy surrounds whether Donald Trump asked

the former FBI director to drop an investigation.

That latest report has White House on the defensive again,

but the President says he is the one who is being targeted.

No politician in history, and I say this with surety,

has been treated worse or more unfairly.

On Capitol Hill, the calls for a special investigator are growing.

Though some continue to warn against any rush to judgement.

The facts: It is obvious there are some people out

there who want to harm the president, but we have an

obligation to carry out our oversight regardless of which party

Also, here in New York, the financial markets

The US dollar has hit a six month low and the Dow Jones is down more

than 200 points amidst the political turmoil.

And with Washington in an uproar, what do people

Hello, I am Christian Fraser in London.

In the past hour we have had news that James Comey the former FBI

director has been summoned to appear before the Senate

The details of his memo leaked to the New York Times

suggest that in a private meeting within the Oval Office

President Trump had asked Mr Comey to shut down his investigation

into national security advisor, Mike Flynn.

But is that the only memo James Comey wrote?

And does the account of that meeting amount to an obstruction of justice?

It's been a wild week here in Washington and right now

the President isn't even here, he is in Conneticut at the US

Coast Guard Academy where he has been venting some

Look at the way I've been treated lately.

No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been

You can't let the critics and the naysayers

There has been plenty of reaction in Congress today

The Democrats want a special investigator, the Republicans

are increasingly unnerved by what they are hearing.

We need the facts: It is obvious there are some people out

there who want to harm the president, but we have an

obligation to carry out our oversight regardless of which party

And that means, before rushing to judgment,

we get all the pertinent information.

It seems like we are learning disturbing new allegations

about President Trump not just every day, but every hour.

House Republicans have shown repeatedly that they refuse

to conduct credible, robust oversight over this President.

James Comey met with President Trump in February, the day after Gen.

In his written account of that meeting, Mr Comey says the President

asked the Vice President and the Attorney General to leave

the room, and then, according to a transcript of the memo,

"I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go,

James Comey has a reputation for leaving a paper trail

when he feels his investigation is being disrupted.

There are reports today that he wrote other memos,

Let's speak to our Washington Correspondent Jane O'Brien,

who's been on Capitol Hill today and joins us from there now.

No point Jane, what are you hearing's I have to say, that of all

the scandals in the last week or so, this is the one that troubles people

the most. Every single senator I have spoken to today says this is

the one that has basically took them over the edge. And that's why you're

having these growing calls for memos, e-mails, any documentation

that might shed light on what exactly it was that President Trump

said to James Comey behind closed doors. And the also want to hear

from him. Even though James Comey has lost his job as the director of

the FBI, he is still the man to watch. And it's not just Democrats

were calling for this, Republicans, too. Increasing unease amongst very

I spoke to a senator who had this to say.

The administration certainly needs to take stock of what it is doing.

And the President needs to listen to his advisers and better

appreciate the nuances of Government and the

different roles that the three branches of Government play.

Lots of talk today about impeachment. We are certainly

hearing that worried now. And the obstruction of justice. Obviously

the buyer for obstruction and justice is set quite high. And it

would be politicians who would make the decision on that? That's right.

It's very, very difficult to prove intent on a constant obstruction of

justice. Although people who want to see this as that will do so, the

legal requirements are extremely tough. Any action against President

Trump will be a political decision. And that's going to be tough, too,

because of course Congress is controlled by Republicans. You have

an Attorney General ahead in the Justice Department which would take

any decision to prosecute. It's all about folks, it's all about whether

Republicans see enough support is drifting away from President Trump

as to whether any action will be taken. We are a long way away from

that. There has to be an investigation first. Until Congress

know the facts, getting back to those e-mails and memos and the

desire to hear from James Comey in person, were not going to be topping

about impeachment any time soon. That if the story on Capitol Hill.

It is your paper in New York that has broken the story.

It's extraordinary that a new headline is being broken on the

situation everyday. We did know that the issue of leaked anonymous

sources to reporters would yield the reports we are seeing at the moment.

We can talk now to a senior writer from the New York Times. He joins us

and their senior writer Eric Schmitt joins us from Washington.

There is no one in the White House that can control their intelligence

leaks. The president had been briefed on general outlines and the

intelligence that's going on in the fight against Isis. He has been

trying to recruit the Russians to do more in that fight. Somewhere in one

of his briefings he had been told about a very sensitive piece of

intelligence that the Israelis had given him and he apparently bragged

about this. He didn't identify them by name, but they are controlled by

Islamic state and talked about the plot, particularly in a lame plot

and batteries, with enough specificity that intelligence

officials recoiled and got was a very dangerous thing that he had

done. It narrowed down the likely source for the Russians to identify

and possibly disrupt in the future. It jeopardises a very special

relationship that the United States has with Israel. The relationship

that is likely to weather this storm. Presumably inmates for

awkward moments that the president heading abroad to Israel when the

country has warned in the past about how the US handle sensitive

information is Mike absolutely. You can only imagine there have been

calls ahead of time by senior officials in the White House and the

intelligence committee to try and smooth is over before he arrives in

STL in this very important first overseas trip he is making to the

middle east and Europe. Can you tell us a list of about James Comey?

Apparently he took good or bad notes all the time when he felt

uncomfortable when he'd like way that a meeting had gone and many

shared it with those closest to him. Presumably, there are more and memos

out there. Yes, and my colleague who broke the story for the New York

Times identified those in history. This started with a dinner that

James Comey had with President Trump in February. He asked for his

loyalty. James Comey said he couldn't do that, but he would give

his best professional work, but he cant do that. I think it was after

that that James Comey decided he needed to document in very close

tale any meeting or phone call he had with the president and let other

people know so that there was a record of this as he went forward,

because he didn't trust where this might lead.

The reason that cat is not with us in the studio is because she is at

the White House. Tell us what you're doing there? Promise you I am not

just enjoying the sunshine. The trouble is, between where I was and

the camera was, there were a lots of impressive looking men bristling

with guns. I will do a lot for the programme, but jumping the White

House wall is not one of them. Here I have a meeting at later on with

some of the senior White House officials and we will talk about

what the president hopes to achieve on the strip. You are right, this is

a difficult time for the White House. The are starting to get

Republicans who are saying we have to look at the possibility of a

special prosecutor, an independent counsel to look at the issue of

whether or not the president had interfere with the investigation. I

spoke to a very senior Democratic senator this morning his hedge was

frustrated with her Republican colleagues and was saying, "Is when

are you going to do something? " John McCain said to this Democratic

Senator that when the presidents approval ratings dropped by three to

five points, then you will see them start to make movements. I was

reading last night that the chair of the oversight committee is saying

that he is quite ready to subpoenaed these memos if they either. He is

actually one of them who is not standing for the election in 2018.

He owes the president nothing, has nothing to lose, and it seems the

other Republicans are quite prepared within the has friend take the lead.

He said he had his subpoenaed pen ready. He has been speaking out a

lot more since he announced he is not going to run and there are a lot

of Republicans were not happy with what they are hearing coming out of

the White House. We are particularly not happy with all the chaos getting

in the Wear business. All the things that Republicans are under voters

want this way as to do, something on tax reform, infrastructure, jobs

bill, that is not happening, because the White House is so consumed with

the drummer of the day. I spoke to a group of businessmen, many of them

voted for Trump earlier today they said they want action from the White

House and all they are getting is chaos. At some point, as Republicans

are starting to say, a little less trauma would be nice. As Eric was

just saying, here is the president with no military or political

experience, that is what the voters wanted an elected. Someone without

any of the history of Washington, but there was a hope he would start

learning the rules and he doesn't seem to have any appetite for that.

He is sort of blundering. If you were to be really charitable, over

the last two days, he seems to be blundering into things without

taking advice from those closest to him. It's good of you to be

charitable. It doesn't happen very often. I think there is some hope

that this foreign trip could mark a reset. That the president goes

abroad, is contained by the confined to being on foreign soil, a very

organised schedule, having also of his senior staff with him on the

plane, all in the same place where they can coordinate the message

better, and the question I'm going to add them in a few minutes is, how

much tweeting is the president going to do overseas? It is a time when

you traditionally get less criticism from Democrats. Politicians are

loath to criticise the president when he is on foreign soil or they

are on foreign soil. He might see some of that being torn down. The

wheels of the investigation are going to carry on turning and seem

to be turning pretty fast at the moment. Having the president

physically out of the country for the next couple of weeks could be

helpful at this stage. OK, we will let you go to your meeting. Tell us

all about it tomorrow. Well, the news cycle

is pretty unrelenting. Remember, we were talking

on yesterday's programme about the reports Donald Trump had

leaked classified information Information we have since learnt,

came from the Israeli's. Well, today Russia's President

Vladimir Putin weighed Yes, President Putin says

he is happy to provide a transcript of the conversation that took place

between his Foreign Minister He also said the reaction

to the story in the United States was verging on "political

schizophrenia." Our Moscow correspondent,

Steve Rosenberg, has more. Well, you can't help

feeling that the Kremlin is loving all of this,

because as the US Administration staggers from one crisis to another,

all seemingly linked to Moscow, Russia is sitting back and watching

a political rival tear itself apart. So, President Putin's comments today

were full of jokes, they were full of sarcasm, they were

full of put-downs. Among the jokes, he said

that he would have to reprimand his who met Donald Trump

earlier this month, because he said Mr Lavrov had not passed

on the secrets that he had He hadn't passed them on to him,

president Putin, or to the And that was very bad of Mr Lavrov,

said President Putin. The put-downs, well,

there were many of those. He said that there was political

schizophrenia in the United States He said that those people

in America who are spreading anti-Russian sentiment were either

stupid or dangerous and dishonest. He said that those people

in America who are spreading anti-Russian sentiment were either

stupid or dangerous and dishonest. He talked about the internal

political struggle in America. And as for his offer to provide

a transcript of the Lavrov-Trump meeting, provide that to

the Congress and the Senate, I don't think the Kremlin seriously believes

that if Russia was to provide a transcript on Kremlin headed

notepaper that that would make this Now, I think that's just another

attempt to have a dig at America, while these scandals

are swirling around the White House. I think we will file that on nothing

stranger than fiction. For more on this, we are joined now

by former State Department Spokesman I am not altogether sure that Donald

Trump will welcome the intervention of Vladimir Putin. I think Vladimir

Putin is having way too much fun with this at the expense of America.

You have been critical of President Trump before any way that he has

been running things. This week has been quite extraordinary, what do

you make of it? I think in the first 100 days we had pure political

chaos. All of us were looking for learning curve, where President

Trump would begin to understand the Normans of the office. What concerns

me now is that in the second 100 days, we are moving from political

chaos to institutional conflict. Donald Trump came to Washington to

dream the swamp and in many respects now, the swamp is at war with the

president of the United States. If you go back, some elements of the

intelligence community where more than happy to provide details of the

phone conversation between Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador.

Now you have aids loyal to James Comey reading from his memoranda to

the newspapers. It's going to be very, very hard for a White House

that has yet to really get it at interior to be able to drive an

agenda. Right now, they're just reacting to everything. I wanted to

pick up on another point which is that actually, this trip abroad

might give the White House room to breathe, perhaps re-grip. Do you

agree? Certainly, the potential is there. I remember being in the

Clinton White House and the president made a very important trip

to China. He carries it off. Everyone knew that this was

important. It was bringing China into the international system,

getting ready to join the vote dot-mac world trade organisation.

Challenging China about their human rights record. It was a big deal.

The real question here is, can Donald Trump do something like that?

That is the dilemma. He does not seem to want to read. He doesn't

study has brief. He overlooks nuances that are critical to

policies and now he's going into one of the most complex parts of the

world and he doesn't know what he doesn't know. Thank you very much.

Now, on a few occasions on this programme,

we will take the spotlight off the capital and see how this

drama is seen in other parts of the country.

For a week in Washington, it's been terms such as code word

intelligence and congressional committees - all leading to people

But does that really matter if your not in DC?

Scottie Nell Hughes is based in Nashville is a staunch

Donald Trump supporter and has been a frequent contributor to BBC News.

It's good to see you back. Thank you for coming on the programme. A long

way away from Washington, what are the making of the controversy

surrounding Donald Trump? I think it is showing that gossip is not

evidence. The more that you see the drama about the opponents of Donald

Trump, the more the American people get tired of it. We are facing

serious issues right now that Congress should be dealing with.

Everyday mainstream America wishes that they were placing the same

focus on repealing and replacing our Affordable Care Act with something

that we can actually deal with. Here is a president asking the vice

president and the Attorney General to leave the room and he says to the

FBI director, "I hope he can see your way to dropping this

investigation" is. Do you not see that that is a problem? That's

interesting. Thank you for saying the words respectfully. He did not

command. This was the day after general Flynn had been let go by the

president. The timeline is interesting, because it doesn't

work. I think that is why Americans are seeing this as a junior high

drama. The majority of the media, the FBI said they were not going to

investigate Mike Flynn in January. They made that public announcement,

major networks reported it. The FBI said they were not going to

investigate him. President Trump let him go because at the time we got...

He waited a long time to let him go and the very next day, he summoned

in the FBI director. The very next day, he talks to James Comey. He did

not command him. He did not... He said I hope. You let him go. He said

he was a good guy. It was not a command. I think this is going to

show why President Trump ultimately let James Comey go, because if you

have in Italy back and FBI Director who has refused to investigate his

own department for weeks, he also now is refusing... At the time it,

he sat on this memo. If this was such a problem, if he was concerned,

why did he set up on it for four months? Was this a version of

blackmail? Can jump in? Do you think this opens the president up to the

criticism of double standards? Was so much criticism of Hillary Clinton

and her use of private servers to use e-mails which contained

classified information. As a risk now that the same sort of

accusations of Donald Trump not handling classified information

sensitively enough or these memos, do you think there is a risk there?

Think there is definitely a risk. I think there is a double standard

into how it has been treated. The former Secretary of State had a

server and was told not to. The FBI director at the time, James Comey,

said he was not going to look into those e-mails, just like he was not

going to look into the DNC a Mills. You have had the three people in the

room, you are a very high insecurity rankings, respected by both sides of

the aisle, they said there was no risk, no laws were broken, and yet

we are continuing to rely on anonymous sources from a paper that

time and time again has shown there are sources are wrong. You're

putting it more faith in anonymous versus the deputy adviser. Do you

trust names that are willing to stick the reputation or anonymous

people? We'll have to leave it there for now. There was other news today.

Chelsea Manning the army private who leaked thousands of diplomatic

and military documents to Wikileaks, has been released from

Rajini Vaidyanathan is in Kansas for us.

What we know about where Chelsea Manning is now? What are her

movements? We are not clear about where she is. We know she was

released under the cover of darkness about 2am this morning from where

she had been hard for the past seven years. She has been treating a

little bit since her release. She tweeted a photo of the shoes she was

wearing with the caption "Is first steps of freedom.". She also posted

a picture of a piece and she was eating. Her release has been met

with mixed reaction here in the United States. Supporters said you

were the hero and a whistle-blower. They also pointed out that she had

to fight very hard for gender reassignment treatment while she was

in this military prison, because of course, it was after sentencing that

she announced she wanted to live as a woman. There are many people

including Donald Trump retweeted a few months ago that think that

Chelsea Manning is an ungrateful traitor and that she shouldn't have

been released earlier. Thank you very much for that update for the

moment. Still to come - a small but growing

number of Donald Trump's fellow Republicans called on Wednesday

for an independent probe and one And we will play you

a report from Nashville - looking at how the rest

of the country is viewing Good evening. Large parts of England

and Wales had a miserable evening. That Rangers out of