If there is evidence is mounting that there might have been efforts to obstructjustice that would be a parallel back to nixon and wouldnt look good for the president. Tonight, as fresh revelations about russia and the man he sacked as fbi boss who he apparently told the russians was a nutjob engulf the trump white house, we ask whether he can keep his presidency on the road. Jeremy corybns Right Hand Man Today made the bold claim that labour can win the election. We ask the Shadow Defence Secretary what that would mean for protecting the country. The little boy who witnessed the horrific murder of his mother Rachel Nickell 25 years ago tells his story of the trauma he suffered, and the impact of relentless press intrusion. All of a sudden we saw this man lunging forward with a black bag over his shoulder, and then everything happened. In a matter of seconds i was grabbed, thrown to the floor, my face dragged across the mud. Seconds later my mother collapsed next to me. And newsnights own Battle Bus Ventures to the parts of the country shunned by the election circus. You dont get much of a buzz around here. Thats why we are here this evening, donald trump left washington for this first foreign trip as president. Eight days away, visiting five countries, including saudi arabia and israel. Often an outing on the global stage is an opportunity to draw the heat from domestic travails, but in trumps case theres no chance of a let up back at base, in a week where it has felt that perhaps the Tectonic Plates shifted definitively in the ever developing scandal over trumps dealings with the russians, and his battle with the fbi. Tonight, two separate stories which threaten Fresh Turmoilfor the president. Our diplomatic editor mark urban is here. Mark, whats breaking tonight . No sooner has the president s playing taken off than two new bombshells were dropped by the Washington Post and the New York Times. The Washington Post saying that the fbi investigation into possible collusion with russia in the election period was gathering pace and had a new Person Of Interest who was a Serving Member of the white house staff. Close to the president , thats the story. People are speculating on twitter, some of them quite informed reporters, that that is none other than jared kushner, the son in law of the president. Of course we dont know that, but that is the speculation. This is the fever pitch. The New York Times story if anything is more damaging for the trump white house, saying they have a minute, a written record, of that meeting with the Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov at the end of last week, in which extraordinarily President Trump is quoted as saying that comey the director of the fbi was a nutjob, that he was putting him under pressure over russia and now that is taken care of. Well, that does feed those who say this is Obstruction Ofjustice in the case they are trying to make. You wonder if trump knows that minutes have been taken. The pace of all this is relentless. Where or when does this all end . You could say there is a by the book answer and people understand the processes involved if this is going to come to some formal, legal charge, if its going to get impeachment. With impeachment the House Of Representatives have to vote for it and a lot of the calculation has been, until the mid term elections in late 2018, thats not even a possibility because the republicans control the House Of Representatives. Would they really vote for impeachment. But the pace of it now these last two weeks is causing some people to reassess that and ask, well, if real, hard evidence is produced by the fbi, or the other investigations, will support crumble, and will this become more and more like that defining president ial scandal, watergate. All the president s men made bringing down Richard Nixon seem like the most romantic of adventures. Particularly if youre a journalist. Now, many in washington see the parallels, Talk Breathlessly of impeachment, as they watch Donald Trumps legal difficulties multiply. If there is evidence is mounting that there might have been efforts to obstruct justice, that would be a parallel back to nixon and would not look good for the president. The other thing that i would look for whether the Special Counsel is going to bring charges. If we know there are ongoing Criminal Investigation is coming out of this Counterintelligence Investigation also going on, thats not typical. Usually you dont see a lot of prosecutions coming out of a Counterintelligence Investigation. Depending on who is implicated, that might spell trouble. Earlier this week it emerged the president had briefed the Russian Foreign minister with highly sensitive intelligence. Then it leaked that the fbi director sacked ten days ago penned a Memo Pressuring him to drop investigations into fired adviser mike flynn. Then, on wednesday night, Thejustice Department had appointed a Special Counsel to investigate trumps ties to russia, prompting claims of a witchhunt. No president of the United States wants a Special Counsel appointed. In the case of president clinton, where he had an independent counsel, that led to whitewater and eventually monica lewinsky. With president ronald reagan, we had the arms for hostages situation that tarnished the end of his term. So, no, no president of the us wants a Special Counsel appointed. The question is, was there an underlying crime in mr trumps case that warrants such an appointment . And so the watergate analogies begin. The Special Counsel claims of Obstruction Ofjustice, and trumps political enemies talking in impeachment. Key to the drama of watergate was the character of deep throat reputedly a Deputy Director at the fbi who guided the reporters that Underground Assignations towards their quarry, the president. Well, thats one of the similarities with todays situation, although now you could say there are differences. There are so many deep throats and so many reporters pursuing trump, that, according to your prejudice, you could say thats a sign of the resistance at work, or of a deep conservative establishment trying to thwart his programme of radical change. Weve seen the deep state working round the clock. The president s backers paint whats happening as the revenge of a deep state against a president elected on a platform of radical change. You have instance after instance where its just not coincidence, its fact, that people are leaking classified information to try to harm the trump administration. You can have your own political agenda, just put your name in front of it and leak it with your name attached and get arrested for it. The president , like nixon, likes to refer to a witchhunt, but how far is it now from impeachment . The case against trump of collusion or Obstruction Ofjustice isnt yet proven, but ultimately the judgment of his party is critical, and for that you have to look to congress and count the votes. Evidence against him doesnt have to meet the standards to prosecute him in a court. So theres a little bit of fudge room there and it depends on the support he has. The house would have to vote to impeach, the senate would have to vote to remove him, and those are really political issues and will depend on the amount of support president nixon chose to resign before it came to an actual impeachment, but when he knew his party was slipping away. Trump may not go so easily, but all eyes will now be on the party and whether support starts to crumble. Joining us from washington is journalist james fallows, who started his career covering nixons fall in watergate and went on to become chief Speech Writer to president carter. Hes now the National Correspondent for the atlantic. Good evening. Thanks for coming in. First of all, lets deal with the New York Times story that trump told the russians that comey was. The removal of comey ended the pressure on him and he went on to call him a nutjob. Is there the danger of obstruction of justice . The suspicion in most cases like this is you find some subtle clues of Obstruction Ofjustice and the president doing things because theres some three Domino Effect that will reduce pressure on him. According to these reports, trump is out right in saying this was the reason he got rid of fbi director comey. So, yes, in any normal, political environment this would be serious trouble for a president. You say in any normal political environment, so you are not sure . Yes, the commentary you are having was right that there are legal enquiries under way but fundamentally this is a political decision. So far a major difference between this episode and watergate, apart from the speed with which things are unfolding, is back during watergate there were a number of members of the Republican Party who said, wait a minute, what principles are being violated, what about the constitution . So far there has been some Hand Wringing and concern from members of the Republican Party, but none of them have actually voted for investigations, etc. Lets now turn to the Washington Post, that someone close to the president , a senior white house official, speculation is that it is jared kushner, is now a significant Person Of Interest in the enquiry into links between russia and the trump campaign. Is this just another small stoking of the fire, or is it important . This does reminds me of the actual watergate in that news unfolded everyday and you didnt know it would lead. There are two uncertainties, one is what Person Of Interest means, the other is whether we are talking about jared kushner, or steve bannon, somebody close to the president and still on his active duty service. So it could be a week from now we are looking at this as the domino which did move things, it could be that some other thing will have occupied our attention. It is potentially interesting. So these stories, both of them came out as soon as trump was wheels up leaving for a foreign trip. Which might suggest the papers are engaged in some kind of warfare with the president , and its not so much the deep state but the media generally is out to get him. What do you think about that . My guess is that if either of these publications had had the material ready to go three hours earlier, they would have used it then. You could say this is the deadline for a daily paper, but it is 2a hour news cycle now. So i think its when they had the facts they went with it as soon as they could. Does that suggest that even though when hes away there may be more dripping out in the next couple of weeks . Hes away now for nine days. How embarrassing will this be to him abroad, or not so . Well, it is traditionally true that oversees president s look stronger and more confident, but it is hard to see how that can work trump. Number one, he has not experienced internationally and he is going to tricky places, saudi arabia and israel in particular. Number three whenever things get dicey, his impulse has been to lash out through twitter or whatever else and maybe he is under tighter discipline when on Air Force One but there is wi fi on that i think that the momentum of these revelations is likely to continue while he is overseas. Thank you very much. Throughout the election, newsnight is embedding in the cumbrian constituency of Barrow In Furness, to capture close up how the Campaign Looks from the perspective of one key marginal seat. Barrows Labour Majority of 800, a ukip vote of ii in 2015, and a 60 vote for brexit, all make it high on the tory target list. John woodcock, whilst campaigning under a labour ticket, is one of the partys most outspoken critics of its leader, Jeremy Corbyn. So, how is that playing in the seat . This week, our film maker Nick Blakemore spent time with the main contenders. We just hear it on the doorstep, time and again, people saying weve always been labour, but were worried about you nationally, and we dont know what to do. The National Election is going to be decided elsewhere, and its going to be decided in favour of another tory government. They have called it because they know theyre going to win. And so, who do you want locally . And, i mean,james, what is your sense of going out over the last few days . Theres maybe an 80 90 chance that theyre sticking with us, but theres that remaining 10 that either arent sure or they are swinging away from us. I feel it is not as high as 80 or 90 , actually. Hello, im simon fell, the conservative candidate. You kind of, just picture theresa may of a morning, setting off to go to parliament on the a590, shed never get there. She would never get there, would she . And something would be done about it, because itd be in her backyard. And this is what, i think, is very frustrating for everybody. Its not to you or anybody else, but we always feel that this part of the country is, just get everything palmed off, the dirty work, you know, the construction, just tuck them away. Are you rolling . A tory nodding dog wont be there for you. A tory nodding dog wont be there for you when it matters. My record shows ive always put you first. Please re elect me on the 8th ofjune. 0k, one more time, and i mayjust nail it. Are you campaigning on the manifesto . So, any discussion of labours manifesto is actually slightly artificial, because it can show what our values are. But when people understand, actually, that the tories are going to win nationally, they view it in a different light. Its her policies on education i dont like. I dont like the way she is putting pressure on the kids, and shes increasing that. This is theresa may . Mm hm. Justine greening the education secretary, you know, she is a comprehensive girl, this is the job shes wanted all her life. I think now we are going to see a bit of a shift towards the priorities shes after. We had in cameron the heirto blair, and we now have in theresa may someone who is recognised as a tough leader, who will buckle down and get the job done. Her brand of conservativism is really different. And she means it. What makes you qualified to represent Barrow In Furness in parliament . Its where we go shopping. So you dont live in the constituency . No. Ive actually put a bet with a punter, who is going to get sacked first, corbyn or woodcock by corbyn . One horse race, im afraid and its frightening. I think nigel farage is the most honest man ive seen in politics for a lot of years. Prior to that, well, enoch powell, arguably. He was not afraid to hold his line, even though the rest of the world was crashing round him. Theyre very few and far between. Hello simon, how are you . Very well, thanks. Hows the Campaign Going . Well, thank you. Weve got the Secretary Of State with us to discuss issues on the rail station, but also the a590 and the a595. Ive been up looking at roads all across cumbria, both up in copeland and down here in barrow, and the number of things that need doing, including the a590, probably cant spend the next ten years going through a farmyard. Just a little further forward. In barrow, there are a higher than average proportion of people on disability living allowance, so living with disabilities, and they feel that under a conservative government they have been made to suffer. We dont want to do anything else but support those people with disabilities who need that support. But it is reasonable that when people receive a benefit, that they should have been properly assessed as to whether they are the right people to receive that benefit. Simon, its been almost 25 years since theres been a conservative mp in barrow. Will anybody from the Shadow Cabinet be coming to your constituency to support you . Well, iwould be delighted if they did one thing that i know is ive had really good support from cat smith, who is a valiant Shadow Cabinet Member for younger people. She was born in barrow. Right, first of all id like to thank you for attending. Its a pretty miserable night out there. To my left, far left, i have andy from london and john woodcock. John woodcock, who is the parliamentary candidate and ex mp for barrow. Technically ex mp, to be clear. Because there are no members of parliament, very much hoping to continue anyway, sorry, dont let me interrupt you this is a Community Coming together to show that we want to save the post office. And through all of the national staff, who is going to be Prime Minister, this is what politics is about. I would have been happy if this general election had been called in 2020, as was planned. But now its here, im sure that we are going to make the issue of the post Office Central to this campaign. I was actually put in parliament to do right by my constituents, and thats what ive decided to do. We cant pretend to be something were not, people can see through us. But whats important is that there are these labour voices wholl stand up for their communities. Applause there are five candidates standing for election in Barrow In Furness. Here they all are. Well, Barrow In Furness is a key centre for defencejobs, and were going now to examine the labour partys position on defence and security. This week their Manifesto Launch boosted labours poll ratings hhhe highest sofa r in the campaign. Has been an area of real tension within the party under Jeremy Corbyns leadership. Nia griffith is the Shadow Defence Secretary and she joins me now. Good evening. That is talk about this confusion over trident. There was a line in the leaked draft manifesto, any Prime Minister should be extremely cautious about ordering the use of weapons of mass destruction, that disappeared from the official version. What is clear in the draft version and the final version that we are fully committed to having a Trident Nuclear deterrent and it is not appropriate to go into detail about how and when you might use that in the manifesto. We have it, thats deterrent is there to be used. It is there to be used. It is going to be part of a Strategic Defence review . Is that a good idea . When we have a review coming into government, it is about how we would spend money and what we would do and in what order, what sort of timetable. It is not about questioning whether we would have a Trident Nuclear deterrent because we settle that last year. Emily thornberry tonight suggests that it was possible that it could be scrapped as part of the Defence Review. And indeed, Jeremy Corbyn says that it is part of the Strategic Defence, we know his own position and it is different from the labour pa rtys. In a sense, trident is not secure. In all respect, emily is not the Shadow Defence Secretary, i am. We had a long meeting on thursday to agree the manifesto as nobody raised the issue of removing trident from the ma nifesto. That was agreed last year as part of our Defence Review that we had last year and is part of the National Policy. Emily thornberry said were going to have a proper review and there is no point in reviewing trident if you are absolutely committed to it . We are. Emily thornberry is wrong. Indeed. Last year we looked at this at the National Policy forum and it was decided to keep the Nuclear Deterrent and that was reaffirmed. Three weeks from the general election, the Shadow Defence Secretary says there is no chance will not be with us, it is a firm i am very clear because it has been reaffirmed every year, we made a commitment in 2007 to renew the trident deterrent and that is our position and commitment to our foreign allies and our industrial workforce and that has been reaffirmed year after year at Labour Party Conference and again on thursday, with the manifesto meeting, it was fully affirmed by the room. This is a very serious time, not some count of opposition conversation. 18 months from the election. There is an election in three weeks, Jeremy Corbyn could be the Prime Minister, we will have a strategic review, Emily Thornberry says everything is up for grabs and it could be trident and the Shadow Defence Secretary does not say that. You were not even at the Manifesto Launch. I was at the meeting last thursday, when we were looking at the detail of this programme. It was a money not listening . Not one query was raised about trident. It is not a deterrent . It is important to have the deterrent and that you are prepared to use it. You will do Everything Else before, you have a dramatic means and conventional military means, nobody in any circumstance would want to use that as your first line of attack. Nobody is suggesting somebody is going to fire a missile without the most incredible thought but what we are saying isJeremy Corbyn said there would be no first use, it might as well be a very expensive white elephant. If you have Nuclear Weapons . You have to be prepared, that might be the circumstance you find yourself in in this very uncertain world and that is why it is essential we keep that Nuclear Deterrant but nobody would put that as the first item on the agenda, what we need to do is make sure that we actually get in quickly to deal with problems so they do not escalate. Let us turn to nato. There is a manifesto commitment, the same nato that Jeremy Corbyn called a danger to world peace and World Security . We are fully committed to nato, it is the cornerstone of our Defence Policy and even more important by coming out of the European Union that we reaffirm that policy and that we are committed to that 2 spending commitment. Let us say that nato is called Military Equipment and personnel in to resolve that situation. Jeremy corbyn seems to suggest that we would not necessarily in certain circumstances come to the aid of a nato member militarily . We are fully signed up to the nato treaty, which says we would put in that. He is wrong . Of course we all go through the other processes, also in that treaty, of diplomatic means first but ultimately, you have to back up your defence. If what were saying is you say that if you asked militarily to support estonia, there will be no question, Jeremy Corbyn does not say that, i will put it to you, the tories say the labour party is in chaos, three weeks from the could come to the aid of another nato country. We are fully signed up to all of our nato commitments and that means that if the threat was of that nature, we would put in that Military Force and we support the enhanced progress that is in estonia already. Thank you. Its 25 years since a young mother, rachell nickell, was stabbed repeatedly and killed on Wimbledon Common in london. What made the murder even more shocking was that it was witnessed by her two year old son alex. He was the only witness. That put him in potential danger from the killer and changed his life completely. The combination of the need to protect alexs identity and the intense, shocking Media Intrusion Led his father, andre, extraordina rityvivnj Detetththet Story of what followed. But most of all, Letting Go A True Story of murder, loss and survivial is a tribute to his mother, rachel. I remember everything. Waking up. Waving goodbye to my father as he drove off in his motorbike to go to work. I remember walking hand in hand with my mother along Wimbledon Common. With marley running around. Your dog . Yes. And then, as we ventured deeper into the trees, there was a section that was covered by trees. All of a sudden, we both sensed that there was something in the air so we both turned our heads to the right quickly and All Of A Sudden we saw this man lunging forward with a black bag over his shoulder. And then everything just happened. In a matter of seconds, i was grabbed, thrown to the floor, my face dragged across the mud, and seconds later my mother collapsed next to me. And then i saw him disappear as i was getting myself up from the floor, still, because it all happened so quickly. And then he just disappeared into the distance, like he was a ghost, disappearing. And i stood over my mother and i said, mummy, please get up. She didnt move. So i was thinking, why doesnt she move . Why doesnt she respond . And then i said it again, mummy, please get up. And then it hit me right at that moment. I understood, i made that connection that she was gone and she was never coming back. My heart was completely broken. You feel that very physically in your heart. What kind of person was your mother . For me, more than anything that we may have done together,
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.