22/06/2017 100 Days+

Hello and welcome to 100 Days + - the British Prime Minster

in takes her Brexit plan to Brussels, but is the EU listening?

The German Chancellor says the focus won't be on Britain at these talks,

but on those who are remaining in the bloc.

So, what hope does Mrs May have of flying the UK flag,

to get the deal she wants on the Irish border, the exit bill

and setting out how we propose to ensure that EU citizens living in

the UK have their rights protected in the United Kingdom.

More high-rise buildings in England are found to have combustible

cladding after the safety check that were ordered in the wake

President Trump announces there are no tapes of his conversations

He launched the speculation weeks ago but now says there are no

recordings of his talks with James Comey.

The battle lines are drawn over health care.

Republican senators roll out their version of the bill.

Democrats say it is a tax break for the rich.

And: Seeking a job in President Trump's cabinet?

People with small bank balances need not apply.

And I love all people, rich and poor.

But in those particular positions I just don't want a poor person.

I'm Christian Fraser in London, Jon Sopel is in Washington.

The European Commission supported Theresa May's decision

They wanted reassurance the Prime Minister had a mandate

for Brexit AND would be there to see it through to the end.

So, the dinner conversation tonight might be somewhat strained.

Over coffee, Mrs May will be explaining to the other 27 leaders

how the UK plans to protect the rights of EU and UK citizens

The commission has already made its counter offer, some weeks ago.

But President of the European Council, Donald Tusk,

stressed Brexit wasn't the only thing on the agenda -

Somebody needs to set up permanent UK corporation in defence. It is a

historic step because such cooperation will allow the move

towards deeper integration in defence. Our aim is for it to be

ambitious and inclusive. So every new countries invited to join.

Terrorism was also high on the agenda with Angela Merkel agenda

announcing a new forum to combat extremist activity on social media.

We'll lets get more on today's developments from Ros Atkins,

We heard they would do these compare and contrast ideas of citizenship,

do we know what the differences are? It is quite hard to get much detail

on this. All of this is being done behind closed doors and you are

mentioning the fact that Theresa May will be doing her briefing towards

the end of a dinner that the 28 leaders will be having. Normally

when you have a dinner party as the meal goes on and a few glasses of

wine are drunk everyone loosens up and chat small. That will not happen

here. Theresa May will be laying out her ideas for EU systems in the UK

and UK citizens in the EU. Everyone will listen, say thank you, and then

she will have to pick up her stuff and leave the room because it is

only once she has gone that the remaining 27 can discuss what they

think of that and how they think about the Brexit negotiations have

gone in their first week. And as she looks around the room she will cease

a new faces. Notably Emmanuelle Macron but also someone else. Both

of them are under the age of 40 and both are seen as two examples of a

new, enthusiastic generation of European leaders who are trying to

invigorate the EU and what it stands for. He spends a lot of the day

getting to know people. He needs to start building relationships in the

EU and that is because he's concerned about the border between

the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the North being within the

UK and what Brexit might do to the border. He wants the border to

remain open in terms of trade and freedom of movement. In terms of

Emmanuel Macron, I was there when he arrived earlier, just a couple of

hundred meters from here, and whatever you think of his politics

he has star power and at home. He was confident, swaggered in, laughed

with the the press, answered questions, and when he decided it

was enough time off he went, looking incredibly at home and confident.

You also mentioning the new defence deal. Emmanuel Macron is a big

supporter of that just as he is a supporter of these new measures to

take on extremism and extremist material being shared online. Thank

you. He's Director of the research group,

UK in a Changing Europe. He's quite an interesting figure

because he is the first non-white premiere in Western Europe, he is

young and he will go into this room feeling quite emboldened because

Ireland has a big stake in what Britain is trying to do. It is

interesting because there is the holder bite about the intra- Irish

border bug busters curious because both sides are on the same size, no

one wants a border, but no one can figure out legally how to not have a

border if we decide to leave the customs union, and it is that the

lawyers will be wrestling with to see if

there is a way around it. We talk about what comes first, the divorce

or the future trade deal, but you can't decide on what sort of border

there will be all no border without talking about the future trade deal

can you? No, but yes because our Government has excluded the

possibility of the customs union. That is a policy decision. They have

said we wanted leave. As long as that is the case it is a headache

for Ireland because you need checks on the border. When it comes to

Theresa May, I was making the point in the introduction that they wanted

her to come back with this mandate. The one thing I picked up on Monday

is they don't know whether she will be there at the end of the process.

I think you can make too much of that. Personally, I always thought

the size of the majority didn't bother at the EU in the sense that

they will negotiate with her, they know their position and that is

quite simple. And I don't think they will negotiate about whether she is

there not, they will negotiate to the end. If she's replaced they will

have to deal with that. The problem the small majority bring all in the

House of Commons. A lot of legislation needs to be passed and

her final deal will go there for a vote and it is there we will see the

small majority. That is clearly the frustration for all the leaders.

There is not only difference within the Conservative Party and the

cavernous but also the Labour Party as well. It's not as if you have an

opposition with one plan. They are all over the place. You are too

young to remember the John Smith period, but you had a situation

where Labour didn't have a position on Europe other than to oppose

everything the Government did. I suspect that will quite quite well

now because they cannot agree amongst themselves but might agree

to oppose the Government. He wouldn't say I was too young! I

wonder, Christian, of course the other EU leaders wanted Britain to

remain. But I wonder whether there were certain transactions that will

be taking place from now on West life has gotten a lot easier without

those recalcitrant Brits in the room. That is possibly true. We were

talking about the defence procurement thing that they agreed,

and that is the sort of thing that some time ago with Britain in the

tent they would not have got through. You can look at other

things Emmanuel Macron has been talking about in recent days. A

future finance minister of the European Union, the Eurozone bill,

anti-dumping regulations, these are things Britain has stood against. He

is saying we are in this not to punish Britain, but let's look at

the opportunities. The irony is, you have heard from the likes of Donald

Tasks today that he hoped Brexit is cancelled and Britain comes back,

but some Federalists think this is the kick that they wanted and

perhaps they can progress to a more deeply integrated EU without the

British. For weeks the President

has kept us waiting. Tantalising the press -

and also the investigators - on whether he had made recordings

of his conversations with former FBI Well, just a short time

ago we got the answer - So why has he prevaricated for so

long? I am about to put that question to read Wilson.

We are joined by Reid Wilson from The Hill.

I loved the cheek of it. He was the one who set the whole hare running

and now it has taken him the best part of five or six weeks to deny

it. And the question is now what was the purpose of suggesting it? One of

his close allies, Newt Gingrich, has suggested it was to rattle dames

Comey who testified before Congress. Is that witness intimidation,

obstruction of justice? There is a special counsel looking into that

and he has hired a number of very highly talented prosecutors with a

lot of experience. It becomes increasingly clear that the

president will have to answer questions about this, probably under

oath, if he sticks with his claim that James Comey was lying before

Congress. Somebody is not telling the truth. That could be a problem.

Does this in anyway get Donald Trump off the hook? It may be in elegant

to admit but maybe it helps him. The hook it gets him off as with the

House of Representatives, which had regret requested any information

about possible tapes by a deadline of tomorrow. Now he has said there

are no tapes so he hears of that short-term hook. But this is a

long-term investigation. Why has it taken him so long? Why didn't he say

when it was obvious immediately that he had set something in motion? This

is not a person who is accustomed to admitting when he is wrong or has

said something that is untrue. Even on things that are easily

verifiable, he has scrambled for some kind of information. And this

notion that there were no tapes so they were trying to keep James Comey

honest, that is some real spare! Stay with us Reid, we've got

another story developing , after weeks working secretly behind

closed doors, Senate Republicans have finally revealed their plan

to replace Obamacare. They had promised a top-to-bottom

revamp of the health bill passed by the House last month -

but there are only The debate over the repeal bill

is shaping up as a titanic political struggle, which will have major

implications for both parties The Republicans can only afford

to lose two senators in this vote. And they don't have long to sort

out their differences. The majority leader Mitch McConnell

wants a vote before lawmakers return Let's pick up on that and what we

have heard. I gather already a number of the more free dumb caucus

right-wing senators have said they are not happy. There are three very

conservative senators in repealing the Affordable Care Act and there

are a number of moderates with real problems because the Affordable Care

Act steered so much money to their states, people like the Senator for

Nevada and Ohio, a number in the rust belt region where the opioid

crisis is killing tens of thousands of people every year, this bill

would defund efforts to fight that. There is a very narrow window that

the majority leader has to get through. He will not get any

Democratic votes and somehow has to marry those moderates with the

ultimate Conservatives. The politics don't look particularly good? When

you look at the polling for it it's actually pretty poor around the

country around the plan. I would suppose that senior Republicans are

looking about polling. They certainly are. The health care

debate has been a larger issue in several of the special elections

here in the US over the last few weeks than even President Trump and

his dismal approval rating. It was health care that crossed Democrats

their majority back in 2010. They really hope it will be health care

that costs the Republicans their majority in 2018 midterms. Great to

have you with us, thank you so much. Well, health care along

with the rest of President Trump's agenda has been overshadowed lately

by the multiple investigations into alleged Russian interference

in the presidential election. But how do the die hard

Trump supporters feel The BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan was in

Cedar Rapids Iowa on Wednesday night for the president's rally -

and no question who they blame. All everyone wants to concentrate

on is this Russia thing. Russia does not bother me

at all, whatsoever. I'm not really worried at all,

to be honest with you. Politics in Washington might be

dominated by the Russian investigation but what do Trump's

supporters here in Iowa, a state the president won in last

year's election, make of it all? No, why would I be

concerned, why would I? What you mean concerned -

concerned about what? He might be under

investigation, because... Investigation doesn't

mean he's guilty. This investigation has been

going on for seven, eight months. We've got pictures

here of various people. We don't like him -

James Comey is a liar. Just when he speaks he is a liar,

because he is involved Leaker, liar, I don't believe him,

I don't believe what he is saying. It seems him and

President Trump both have two opposite viewpoints

about what has happened. The president has not

been under oath yet. No, but he has also said

he will go under oath, and I I don't trust James Comey and it's

not because he went after Trump. I don't like what he did

in the election, period. I don't think it was right

that he said that Hillary was under investigation a week

before the election. Robert Mueller -

what you think of him? I don't know how

tight he is yet with Comey, so I don't know whether or

not he can be trusted or not. They say he is respected

on both sides of the aisle. I don't like that he appointed

Hillary Clinton's friend as special counsel

to the investigation, but I'm not going to bash

somebody just off of that. I think he is a little bit

too connected and he should either resign or be

removed from that position. Well, in my opinion, I think it

needs to be a total outsider. # There ain't no doubt

I love this land #. This man is taking care

of the United States of America. Good to get out of Washington, you

get a different view. What about that rally?

The President was back in campaign mode last night,

buoyed by that Republican win in Georgia this week.

He has been cooped up for too long and this was an opportunity

He defended his administration against the attacks from the press

and he had this to say about the criticism of his cabinet.

And I love all people, rich or poor. But in those particular positions I

just don't want a poor person, does that make sense? Does that make

sense? If you insist, I'll do it, but I like it better this way,

right? I didn't ask, I have it in my

contract that I shouldn't have to do present with polar presenters, I

hope you are wealthy enough! I will have to disappoint you. I can't

believe it. Do you see this on campaign literature? I don't want to

work with poor people. These are all appalling. Blue-collar workers!

That's the huge difference between a lot of British and European politics

compared to the US, they love the fact he is a swaggering billionaire

who seems to have appointed a bunch of other billionaires to his

cabinet. In a way which would be just unthinkable in a lot of other

democracies. But blue-collar Iowa were cheering him last night when he

said I don't want poor people around me. One other thing I wanted to talk

about, we took a lot about the Republicans and Donald Trump but

let's talk about the Democrats, there have a lot of headlines about

Georgia and how the Democrats got it wrong they said they begged it up

and then lost it and that is embarrassing. But this was a

headline in the New York Times. : they came very close in Georgia and

in another special election seat in places that were absolutely safe

Republican. They are not doing terribly, they are doing pretty

well. But they are not making the breakthrough and there is a battle

for the heart and soul of the Democratic party going on with some

people saying we must be more like Bernie Saunders, appealing to young

people, more radical. And there are those old-fashioned centrists who

says we have to rent pond politics from the centre ground and otherwise

we are destined to lose. That battle is unresolved. I want to turn to

more serious issues. Here, the Government is trying

to figure out how many high-rise buildings have combustible cladding,

similar to the type used on Grenfell Tower -

the scene of that terrible fire last Camden Council in North London has

already started removing external cladding from some of its buildings,

after they didn't meet its standard. At least 79 people died

in the Grenfell tragedy - here's what Mrs May said

about the investigation, Mr Speaker, what became clear very

quickly is that the royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea could not

cope and that the chief executive officer has now resigned it is also

why I set up the Grenfell Tower recovery task force

which I set up personally. But this is not just about the steps

we take in the first few weeks, it is about the lasting commitment

that we are making to support the families effected long

after the television cameras have Christopher Miers is

a forensic architect Good to see you. As the Prime

Minister said, we must be careful about speculating on the cause of

the fire because the preliminary findings are not back yet. But she

said earlier today, and there is some confusion over figures, maybe

as many as 600 apartment blocks are fitted with this type of cladding.

How easy is it to get rid of? It is a very practical proposition to

remove it. Only took about 600 blocks it is not necessarily that

they all have the same combustibility as Grenfell. They may

use a rain screen system and may have aluminium composite material.

The risks will be different. It is important that each building owner

does rapidly identify the risks. The cladding is one element but they

need to look at overall construction. We spoke last week

outside Grenfell Tower and you explained how this works and why it

spread from the bottom of the tower almost to the top in the space of an

hour. Go through that again for us. It is very concerning. When one

looks at the photographs it is striking that the speed and the

spread of the fire, the way it consumed the building so quickly,

the way the external wall is made up if there is an outer panel that we

see, that is a sound which, six millimetre composite material with

two layers of aluminium and a core material and it is that core which

there is discussion about right now. Is it combustible, is it

noncombustible? Behind that there is a gap, typically about 50

millimetres or so and that allows air to move, and if that air turns

out to be smoke and hot flame, unless it is suitably stopped off...

It acts like a flu. The flames accelerate behind. Our standards

require there to be intermediate firebreaks, so the fire is stopped

from going up behind those panels. They're behind we have insulation.

Which presumably will form part of the investigation? The thing that

struck me here in Washington is how little discussion there has been

within the US about what happened in the UK. Is that simply because there

are totally different regulations, where I don't think this material

would be used on blocks of flats or apartments here in the US compared

to the UK. Does it raise questions about the standards we have in

Britain not being good enough? I think there are differences but

equally there is shared concern as well because the system we use, we

call it a rain screen system, is very widely used internationally and

the US shares some concerns but not the same degree as the UK. But we

need to look elsewhere around the world. The middle east and do by for

example, there have been a number of tower fires, they have frequently

been connected with aluminium composite material panels of a

similar construction to what is said to have been installed at Grenfell.

Thank you for joining us. The funeral has been held for the

American student who was held in North Korea. His father said his son

was tortured by the regime and sent home in a coma. Senator John McCain

says North Korea is guilty of murder. Let us return to Donald

Trump. Ok Christian, you pointed out

a little of what Mr Trump had to say at that rally in Iowa about poor

people earlier - I am a builder. And we are thinking

of something that is unique, we are talking about the southern border.

Lots of sun, lots of heat. We are thinking of building the wall as a

solo wall so it creates energy. And pays for itself. Pretty good

imagination, right? My idea. My idea! Love it. Is it his idea? Not

strictly speaking. There were other people who submitted plans for the

wall. But in those rallies where he said he was going to pay for it and

the chance went up Mexico it wouldn't have had the same ring if

it had been well, it is going to be self funding because it will have

solar panels. What will it cost? We don't know. Those fine details... I

do that. You're watching 100

Days Plus from BBC News. Still to come for viewers on the BBC

News Channel and BBC World News - two of Prime Minister May's most

senior advisors are gone, how solid We'll put that to her

former media chief. And with a health care battle

before him, Mr Trump's thinking well beyond his first term with eyes

already fixed on another run in 2020 That's still to come on

100 Days +, from BBC News. What a difference a Day makes. In

fact it can make a difference of more than 10 degrees in our

temperatures. Yesterday in the grip of the heatwave we were well up into

the 20s, even the mid-30s but look at the temperatures we have seen

today. A westerly wind brings fresh air across the country. 35 drops to

close to 23 in London. With that change came one or two

thunderstorms. But this was a more typical scene. A fairly quiet day

for many, with some extra cloud and a few glimpses of sunshine. Things

are going to turn a bit more unsettled over the next 24 hours.

Low pressure is approaching. Still fresh air from the Atlantic and as

this weather front slides across Northern Ireland, Scotland into

northern England tonight it will bring cloud, sporadic rain, for the

south and east are largely dry night and for the rest of us a fresh

appeal. Tomorrow morning is quite damp across Northern Ireland and

much of Scotland, though the far east of Scotland Macy's and

brightness. The band of rain by eight o'clock will sit across

northern England and North Wales. The heaviest rain for hills and

coasts. Across into East Anglia and the South East dry start but some

spells of sunshine. Temperatures lower than they have been. As we go

through the day tomorrow, the weather front, the band of rain will

continue to journey slowly southwards but gets stranded across

northern England, Wales, in two parts of the Midlands. The heaviest

rain always for coasts and hills in the West. The North largely dre with

some sunshine. The south largely dry and we all have a cooler, fresh

appeal. Saturday has rain hanging around across the south-east. It

will clear then leaves us with a blustery day, there could be gales

across the North. Some sunny spells, some showers, just 14 degrees in

Glasgow. Sunday, essentially more of the same. Low pressure to the

north-east. And call north-westerly wind. A lot of dry weather and

showers. The next few days, fresher and breezy with rain at times and

still some sunshine as well. Welcome back to 100 Days +

with me Jon Sopel in Washington. As the British Prime Minster

takes her Brexit plan to Brussels, the German Chancellor says the focus

won't be on Britain at these talks, but on those who're

remaining in the bloc. And we speak to the former

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright about

what she calls a chaotic time and the global role

the US must to play. I think that we all are a kind of

looking to see about the evolution of American position and I happen

to believe the world can't exist Just how isolated is

the British Prime Minister? After the Conservative disastrous

showing in the General Election, she was forced to get rid of her

two closest advisers Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill and others have

since left, including yesterday, John Godfrey, who headed up

the No 10 Policy Unit. Who does she need alongside

her to steady the ship? Joey Jones was formely

a media adviser to Mrs May And an firm. She has cut quite an

isolated figure in recent days. Yes, she has. It must be a very lonely

and Nvidia 's place as she finds herself in right at the moment. She

will know that the vast swathe of the Conservative Party blames her,

blames her advisers were principally blames her for the situation in

which they find themselves. I think the key thing to remember is that

she was crystal clear with the parliamentary party, the 1922

committee, she said that she would serve as long as they want her to.

And she knows that she is basically a hostage to the desires of the

Conservative Party. At the moment, they have shown her, in no uncertain

terms, to Harrods might have felt rather cruel to have stripped her as

a ritual exercise in humiliation of key advisers, but to demonstrate

that it is the party which is boss at the moment. She is there for as

for as long as they designate her the Prime Minister because she

doesn't really have the power to dictate terms at the moment.

Obviously, some of it is down to not having her key people around her but

how much of this comes down to political instinct? I was thinking

the other day of the fairly shambolic performance over Grenfell

in the early days. Some of that, she might just thought she wouldn't it

be a bite of the police, go out and get in amongst it. Isn't that just

instinct? I can't imagine what would have been going through the minds of

anyone in Downing Street at that time. As you say, a procession of

people have left after the election. You have to come back to the fact

that the general election, the result would have come as a massive

shock. I think we could see that in the statement she made at midday in

Downing Street, the lunchtime after the election result. She and

everybody around her looked to me as though they were floundering. They

were shell-shocked. They were rudderless. They didn't know which

way to turn and I think, to be honest my this is a band with them,

they couldn't process it? Its shock. Not bandwidth, in terms of having

the amount of people to do with it, but they were blindsided. If you

imagine 24 hours before, the scale of the ambition and the scale of the

expectation as to what they were heading into, which was a complete

political dominance, complete dominance over the UK political

scene, crushing the catlike Labour Party, Lib Dems, forget about them,

and also a renaissance for the reserves a party in Scotland as well

and then they suddenly see the exit polls. That is hard to deal with.

What we saw over that period, I would tend to come back to, was it

will shock and probably a individual or Prime Minister but an

organisation around her that was just struggling to deal with the

magnitude of what had just happened to them. Jerry, good to see you.

Haven't seen you for ages. I wanted to ask you, do you think that the

Conservative Party could have agreed easily on a successor whether

Theresa May would still be there? No, she wouldn't be there on that

basis. I think the reality is that they look at situation which is

unappetising and it is certainly very unappetising from her point of

view because she is, as I say, hostage to the desires of the

Conservative Party at the moment. They don't seem to be reworked, to

be able to work what the best way forward is. If you speak to any

Conservative MP, on whatever wing of the party, the one thing they are

afraid of is a general election. The one thing they are afraid of is that

whoever you install, they won't have that legitimacy, they what have that

mandate and then you will head down the track to another general

election and they do really think that if you head into a general

election, all bets are off. The momentum is with Labour, it is with

Jeremy Corbyn and from their point of view, that is a terrifying

prospect. Much better to have an attempt to steady the ship which is

what they are doing at the moment, roll on a bit and try to take stock

down the track. I must ask you before you go, the general drums are

sounding. You are being bandied around as the next communications

director. Have you been approached? Absolutely not. So, I was actually a

civil servant when I was working with Theresa May and I think that's

the reality of the situation is they will look to somebody who has the

same sense of duty to the party that she has two the Conservative Party

and to the country generally because it's back to the wall is time for

the Tories at the moment. They will need somebody who is willing to go

in there and to suck up a very, very difficult situation and I have at

the foggiest who that might be, frankly. That's good for us, you can

come back and talk to us. Good to see you, Baxter coming in.

The other thing that was striking was this idea that she is a

figurehead now. What he is almost constitutionally defining is the

role of the Queen. It's like Theresa May has no real power any more. Her

Cabinet ministers are the ones who will tell her what to do and she is

just there to be the front person, for Prime Minister's Questions and

going to EU councils in Brussels. But as he said, if you look at the

journey in front of her, if she gets past the Queen's speech next week

which I think she probably will, then there is the repeal bill to

bring EU legislation onto the statute books which needs to get

through, seven other Brexit bills, who would want to take over when

there is that a go at? It is a sobering thing that they are looking

and then also Beijing, Philip Hammond is the Chancellor, his stock

prices up and if he comes and he will have a softer Brexit than we

are looking so maybe we are better ways to reason they're in the hot

seat. Ie Think the only danger is probably, if she gets stuck on one

of these votes, the catlike remainders might come back in and

say we need one of our people in the hot seat. One thing I can't work out

is I thought they were trying to take Brexit out of Parliament. I

thought they would just have this one repeal Bill and then at the end

of the day, you have to have it rubber-stamped. There are now seven

pills about immigration, one about immigration. Who the hell knows what

they are going to do about it? Is Theresa May the person who can take

that forward? And immigration Bill that attracts the best and brightest

but also continues to define immigration along the tens of

thousands that has been her mantra? Idol thing on policy terms that

looks viable. There are some weeks where there is just too much

political news and it takes too long to digester and analyse it all

because... Anyway... Moving from politics at home

to foreign policy abroad. Today, former Secretary

of State Madeleine Albright was at an event here in Washington

speaking about the need for bipartisanship when it came

to national security. That's a word you don't

hear often in US politics lately but she sat down with the BBC

and offered this assessment of the Trump administration

thus far. I think we are in a very chaotic

time and that would have been true no matter what because there

are questions about the world order and I think that as this

administration gets organised, there have been some mixed

signals but what I find interesting is the way that policy

is evolving and some of the people that are part of the decision-making

mechanisms, the members of the National Security Council,

are giving some very strong messages about the fact that

the US is present. That we are going to be active,

and so it is my hope that frankly, there will be more

of a confluence of some of the statements and I think

that the conferences that I have been to,

people are satisfied with the words, but they want to see the actions,

and I think that we all are kind of looking to

see about the evolution of American position and I happen

to believe the world can't exist Returning now the health care battle

under way in Washington. Republicans have introduced

their bill and now both sides Members of President Trump's party

argue that Obamacare is broken Democrats say this will strip away

benefits and protections is Democratic Senator Bob Casey

from Pennsylvania. Senator, so grateful to you. Thank

you for joining us. There was the Donald Trump quote were apparently

he said two Republican senators, the problem with the bill that went

through the house was that it was mean and cold-hearted. Is this

generous and warm-hearted, what you now have in the Senate? I think this

bill in some ways is worse, but in Norway is it better. When you

juxtapose what this bill does with regard to cutting Medicaid, the

problem that takes care her children from urban and rural areas, people

with disabilities, older citizens, when you juxtapose the cuts to

Medicaid tax giveaways to the super-rich, there are a lot of words

to describe it but one word is obscene. It is really outrageous

what they are doing. Go to page 53 and page 86 of the bill, the two

Medicaid, basic Medicaid provisions. One is to put a per capita cap on

Medicaid and one is to allow the states to block around it. Bad

ideas, both will be to devastation for people who happen to be real

income, people that have a devastation, children with

disabilities and of course older citizens trying to get into a

nursing home. It is a bad bill for a lot of reasons but the Medicaid

parts are among the most egregious. Do you think you will be able to

stop it? I still think we have a chance to stop it and that is what

we should do. Use every minute, every hour for the next six days or

so, six or seven days. One week from now, we could be voting on this bill

and I think it is just beginning to dawn on people across the country

how badly built this is, but we have time and there are a lot of people

that are speaking out in their communities. They are not just

coming to Washington, they are contacting their senators. This will

come down to one or two or three United States senators. That is the

whole ball game here and we have, I hope, to persuade three Republican

United States senators to do the right thing. The interesting thing

that you say is that we have had former Republican senator is kind of

from the right of the party saying that it doesn't dismantle Obama care

enough and then you hear voices as well from the kind of moderate wing

of the Republican party, Senator Collins in Maine and others in the

van as saying actually, maybe it goes too far. What do you think is

going to happen in the intervening week if it does come to a vote next

week? I am not sure what will happen, but as long as we get 30

votes to stop this bill, I will be very satisfied. There are some who

don't think it goes far enough but I don't know how you reach the

conclusion because what this bill does to medicate has never happened.

It is a 50-year-old programme, a good programme. Children get very

good health care in Medicaid. People admit disabilities you could never

pay for even a fraction of what it costs to provide the therapies and

treatments and services for people with disabilities, they get help and

we should preserve that programme. If Republicans want to sit down and

talk about fixing parts of the system that aren't working, we have

a lot to talk about, but we are not going to be part of an effort to be

peeled Medicaid in essence, repealing the bill and devastating

Medicaid for kids, people with disabilities and seniors. Senator

Casey, so grateful to you for giving us your time. Thank you for being

with us here on the BBC. I feel bereft of elections, we have had one

for a few weeks. Trump 2020 - does it

have a ring to it? Barely into his first year

as American president, for a second term

in the White House. His campaign director says

the president's first fundraising event will be held at the Trump

hotel in Washington next Wednesday. Come on, let's guess where it was be

held! You give it away too easily! With bated breath, wondering where

it could possibly be Hal (!) anyway, this is 100 days plus for this week.

You can get in touch with us using the hashtag

For now, from Jon Sopel in Washington

and me Christian Fraser in London - goodbye.

Tests are carried out on the cladding on