Whether Angela Merkel can remain chancellor when germans go to the polls later this year . And Behind The Scenes at the white house. Well speak to a reporter about his dinner with the president , and finding out Donald Trumps favourite modern invention. Welcome to the programme. Im katty kay in washington. Clive myrie is in london. We are learning a lot today about the firing of the head of the fbi and we are hearing it from the president. Mr Trump Hasjust called mr comey a showboat and a grandstander. He also revealed he was determined to fire the director anyway, whatever the Justice Department recommended. Mr trump also reasserted the claim, that mr comey told him three times that he personally wasnt under investigation over ties to russia. Mr trump made those comments in an interview with nbc news thats just been released. He isa he is a showboat. He is a grandstander. The fbi has been in turmoil. You know it, dynamic, Everybody Knows it. You take a look at the fbi a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil, less than a year ago. It hasnt recovered. On monday you met with rod rosenstiel. Did you ask for a recommendation . What i did was i was going to fire comey. My decision. You had made the decision. I was going to fire comey. Mr trumps comments come as the acting fbi director, Andrew Mccabe, is testifying before the senate. Mr mccabe says mr comey had the full respect of the fbi. He also insisted the probe into the trump campaigns ties with russia will continue unfettered. The work of the men and women of the fbi will continue despite any changes in circumstance, any decision. There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date. Quite simply put you cannot stop the men and women of the fbi doing the right thing, protecting the American People and upholding our constitution. The acting fbi director Andrew Mccabe there. Well, democrats arent so convinced about the timing and impact of this dismissal. A brief time ago i spoke with democrat bob casey on capitol hill. He is calling for a Special Prosecutor and spoke about the timing of these events. I think this decision was made, based upon reasons that are inappropriate. You cant fire the head of the Investigative Team that is investigating either your activity or the activities of people connected to you potentially, in this case starting on march 20, when director comey said he was leading this investigation that had been going on for many months. At that moment, the white house and President Trump had forfeited any opportunity, any rationale to fire him. If they felt so strongly about what he was doing in 2016, and there isa what he was doing in 2016, and there is a lot of debate about that and calls for criticism, if that was the basis of your decision and it all rested on 2016 activity, why wasnt the Decision Making in the transition or soon after . The question now, is it possible to put in place a new director of the fbi with bipartisan support, who the American People can trust is doing an independent job . American People can trust is doing an independent job . I sure hope we can find that person because it is vital that that person has bipartisan support. The democrats have come out vehemently opposed to the firing of james have come out vehemently opposed to the firing Ofjames Comey, even though some called for it last year during the election campaign. You yourself have used the word nick servini and about what happened this week. Our claps at risk of overplaying the hand, hyperventilating over this. You will get a new director of the fbi and the bureau will carry on its work. used the word nixon like, because it is the closest analogy to a Top Investigator being fired in the midst ofan investigator being fired in the midst of an investigation, so it was entirely appropriate. You could easily agree with everything that was asserted in the Deputy Attorney generals memorandum, you could have all kinds of criticisms of director comey, but once he stated publicly on march the 20th, the administration forfeited the opportunity to make a change. No matter what you believe or what you assert about director comeys activities in 2016, the higher and more important responsibility is, do not create the appearance of impropriety in the middle of an investigation. How does this look to americas adversaries . investigation. How does this look to americas adversaries . I think we look terrible Around The World. We are supposed to be the country that no matter what the changes, politically or otherwise, the rule of law is paramount and that even the Public Officials, appointed Public Officials are concerned about not just Public Officials are concerned about Notjust ImproprietyPublic Officials are concerned about not just impropriety but Public Officials are concerned about Notjust Impropriety but the appearance of impropriety. And yet Around The World people scratch their heads and wonder if we are still that kind of country. We have to restore the confidence of the American People as well as our standing in the world, and what they see as the appearance of impropriety, a lot of chaos and Ad Hoc Governing which is undermining oui hoc governing which is undermining our system. This administration has to do our system. This administration has todoa our system. This administration has to do a lot of work to restore credibility and to create a Firm Foundation for both propriety and those appearance questions which are critically important. Thank you. 0ur Washington correspondent gary 0donoghue has been speaking to the republican senator bill cassidy, who gave his thoughts, on the way in which james comey was fired. There are two issues. One is the timing, and the second is the actual method. The timing was never going to be good. The report said President Trump considered his firing right after the election. Democrats have been calling for it since last fall. Hillary clinton recently criticised comey. But the president needed and Attorney General and an Assistant Attorney General. The Assistant Attorney General. The Assistant Attorney General was appointed about three weeks ago and recommended the firing. If the Assistant Attorney General had recommended a firing now but trump had not dismissed for four months, that would have been the issue. Mr comey had become a distraction from the work of the agency. There was never going to be good timing. Mrtrump agency. There was never going to be good timing. Mr trump did what he felt he had to do. Do you think that in order to protect the independence of the fbi you should fire someone investigating you . He is not the one doing the investigation. 0n investigating you . He is not the one doing the investigation. On monday morning, his first meeting is about the budget, his second is about hr, his third is about the cafeteria director, his fourth is about narco terrorism, and his last meeting is about this. The person who is heading that investigation is still on thejob. I have every heading that investigation is still on the job. I have every confidence that she or he will do great work. We are told he was asking for daily updates about the russian investigation, and asking for more money. That establishes two things. There is someone doing the investigation, giving him updates, and secondly he is concerned about the budget. He will get more money. I suspect that is going to be the case. How do you not . I also trust that the people of the fbi are professionals and will respond to their responsibility with greater alacrity now, if only to establish independence. And joining us now to help make sense of all the developments in this case is our north america editorjon sopel. There has been a lot going on. Hearings on the hill, the interview which the president gave to nbc. What do you make of it . If you were my doctor, my general to schneier i would be saying, my problem is that iam would be saying, my problem is that i am suffering from dizziness and vertigo, and whilst i not hearing voices, what i thought i heard two nights ago is not what i am hearing today and how can i make sense of it. I thought that comey was fired because of a letter written by the attorney get pretty general but i 110w attorney get pretty general but i now hear the president saying he was going to fire him anyway. I thought james comey had lost the confidence of the Rank And File of the fbi, because that is what i heard yesterday at the white house, but 110w yesterday at the white house, but now i hear that is not true. We had the White House Press spokesperson yesterday, Sarah Huckabee sanders, saying this about james comey and the fbi. The Rank And File of the fbi had lost confidence in their director. But then the Acting Director. But then the Acting Director spoke to senators this morning and said this. I hold director comey in the absolute highest regard. I have the highest respect for his considerable abilities and his integrity and it has been the greatest privilege and honor of my professional life to work with him. I can tell you also that director comey enjoyed broad support within the fbi and still does to this day. I interrupted you. Why was sturrock to James Comey Fired as head of the fbi . Well, lets think of why he was not fired. I dont think it had much to do with the Hillary Clinton e mail investigations lastjuly, which is what we are being told. Donald trump has said he had decided fire him. If you look at the timescale of when donald trump became most dissatisfied, it surrounds the investigation into russia. I think that is the reason but i think there is something very interesting in his use of the word grandstander, showboat. There can only be one star. The spotlight can only be one star. The spotlight can only come on one particular person only come on one particular person on the stage. And i think that person is donald trump, and i think there is almost a sense, listening to it, decoding it, that actually james comey was stealing a bit of the limelight and there was only room for one man show. James comey was standing up. One other thing that i think is the great difference, i think donald trump prizes, more than Anything Else, loyalty. And i thinkjames comey prizes more than Anything Else independence and integrity. And that was a Clash Waiting to happen, and it has, with the results we have seen. I have covered many resignations in politics before. The first thing you do is that you get your ducks in a row. Have we all got the same line . 0k, your ducks in a row. Have we all got the same line . Ok, this is how we can to sell this. We have had anything but that. We are all becoming armchair psychologists, what is your take, clive . You made a brilliant point, and notjust to massage your ego, but do you rememberwhenjames massage your ego, but do you remember when James Comey Hirst went, ithink remember when James Comey Hirst went, i think it was to the white house, and there was a line of people standing to greet him and donald trump was in the middle . He took comeys hand when he walked towards him and he shook it and he said, this guy is more famous than i am. He made that point and it stuck in my mind. Everything you have said points to that. I think you have a substantive issue, russia, which the president is furious about. He wants it to go away. He was tweeting last week about taxpayers money being wasted on this. That is a substantive issue, but there are other aspects which are to do with personality, differences in approach, that you just have to think played a part in it, because otherwise it is inexplicable. The only other thing i would add is that we have now seen three high profile sackings. The head of the fbi, the Acting Director general, the attorney from new york. What do they have in common . They were all investigating, in some way, what donald trump was doing. He does not like that much. My armchair theory, donald trump is thin skinned and thatis donald trump is thin skinned and that is why he was fired. Thank you. Its 29 days until the uk General Election and the labour party have sprung a leak. Their Draft Manifesto has been revealed, a week earlier than the party planned, and it had some interesting proposals. Senior officials in the party held meetings today to limit the damage, and say the manifesto has now been unanimously agreed on. But they did make some amendments. Now heres what we learnt from the leak. The party says it will renationalise the railways, reverse the sale of royal mail and create publicly owned energy companies. Therell be £6 billion of extra annual funding for the nhs, paid for by raising income tax for the top 5 of earners. And £250 billion will go on Infrastructure Spending over the next ten years. 0ur correspondent tom symonds is in our westminster studio. It was a surprisingly cruel. No one saw it coming, and it was very revealing. It was. They say there is no such as bad publicity. The labour party had a lot of bad publicity today but there is that feeling that this should not have happened. It has put the party on the back foot. Everyone can now prepare their rebuttal to the labour party ma nifesto rebuttal to the Labour Party Manifesto when it comes out early next week. It has told us roughly what the party will do and it is a huge change to what we have seen Labour Governments do in the past. This party, labour, would become, if given power, a party of taxing, of borrowing and of spending. I went through some of the spending commitments in the Draft Manifesto today, and assuming that is in the real thing, there are dozens of points where the party wants to spend more money. And it is saying this is an offer for spend more money. And it is saying this is an offerfor a spend more money. And it is saying this is an offer for a very different type of government, a government that will get stuck in and make changes. We will see whether that all ends up in the final document. Labour was caught short by this. What has been the reaction from the other parties . There has been a lot of questioning as to where the leak came from and no one has established that. Theresa may was very quick to call it shambolic. She has had a mantra throughout the campaign that labour isa throughout the campaign that labour is a coalition of Chaos Waiting to happen. Well, it was pretty chaotic. It is pretty bad for a party to get its manifesto out in this way without any of the mass arching that it would normally do. The institute of fiscal and is, which Number Cruncher is in the uk, described it as the biggest intervention in the economy since the 1970s outside a crisis, which is a reference to all of that spending. Labour said it is a fully costed, modern package, and that they would be borrowing to invest wisely as a country, as most businesses do. Thanks. We started this week with our top story as the election of Emmanuel Macron in france. It seems an age ago. Well, mr macron will be inaugurated on sunday as the new president , promising big economic reforms. Hes renamed his Grassroots Movement republique en marche, but he doesnt have long to rest on his laurels. In june, he faces parliamentary elections. Heres the Secretary General of the party explaining how their Election Plans will change the face of french politics. Translation on political clarity, the candidates come from the entire political spectrum reflecting the reconstruction of the Political Landscape that the president wanted to uphold the project he has flower country. Regarding the parity, 214 candidates are women, 214 are men so, as youll have understood. A28 candidates are included in the list that will be provided to you. The french journalist Anne Sinclair is a close observer of the political scene in the country. She was once married to the former head of the imf Dominique Strauss kahn, tipped to become french president for the socialist party, until a series of sex scandals in 2011. She founded Huffington Post france, and has just written a book about the challenges facing the country. I spoke