Thats a summary of the news, newsday is coming up at midnight. Now on bbc news its time for newsnight. Theresa mays been in switzerland. Most of westminsters on holiday. But tonight the governments brexit position, finally, starts to take shape. In something that looks a lot like the Customs Union, but with britain able to negotiate Free Trade Agreements with the rest of the world. We ask whether the proposed transitional arrangement is possible or even desirable. And finally, two days after the event. Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs. Including the kkk, neo nazis, White Supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as americans. Trump this evening disavowed the racists but will this be enough to stem the tide of criticism of how he handled events in charlottesville . Also tonight, after one of the most exciting Opening Weekends in its 25 year history, we ask one of the Premier Leagues architects whether
the victim, the victim of a witch hunt, the victim of political persecution by joe biden. all lies. it s part of this narrative he builds around himself where he s like a christ-like figure, a martyr taking this for his people, for his followers. it has worked for him to a certain extent. look where he is in the polls. his supporters in congress are tweeting attacks on the judge for not having postponed the proceedings so he could be with his wife melania who just lost her mom. the same guy was in iowa campaigning. the same guy was hosting a new year s party when his wife was in the hospital with her dying mother. it s selective when he wants to be with his grieving wife. it has some effect. this is donald trump being donald trump. s.e., you see donald trump in
of the vote. takes it a step closer to donald trump who, of course, was tweeting attacks at mike pence while he was running for his life. michael schmidt, thank you for being with us. greatly appreciate it. david, let s talk about the time frame. the pace has quickened. things are moving with the doj. you suggested they may have less than a year to get this done. there s a political clock on this. the republicans are in a good position to win back the house this year and the new congress will convene at the beginning of january in 2023. that gives the january 6 committee less than a year to complete its work. and these investigations can be very difficult. they can be very time consuming, very intricate. you have to fight through resistance from people you want to interview, look deeply into facts with investigators not just hearing that make everybody
a steady stream. this is endless. we need to remember donald trump is being impeached. we can decide who it s good for. it s not good for donald trump. he s going to wake up every day for the next three, four, five months being impeached. at the end of the day, he may have the same job, but it s bad. it s a degree of bad. there s nothing good. let me ask you. there was this 0 for 3 video. is there any reckoning happening in the white house, him intervening by the way he did, call it witness intimidation, call it whatever, inserting himself? there is not the first time he s been accused of witness intimidation. all throughout the mueller investigation he was tweeting attacks at michael cohen and they saw no consequences of that. this is a continuing pattern of behavior. it was interesting to see the president evolve over the week. you play the clip wednesday, he
campaign against yovanovitch, accusing her of partisan and bad behavior that she denied under oath. the false stories against her ultimately led to president trump dismissing her in may despite multiple high-level officials in the state department trying to defend her. in the face of this smear campaign, did colleagues at the state department try to get a statement of support for you from secretary pompeo? yes. were they successful? no. did you come to learn that they couldn t issue such a statement because they feared it would be undercut by the president? yes. in a major moment under already extraordinary circumstances, the president began tweeting attacks against yovanovitch as she was testifying. house intelligence chairman adam schiff asked her to react. as we re sitting here testifying, the president is attacking you on twitter and i d like to give you a chance to respond. i ll read part of one of his tweets. everywhere marie yovanovitch