good evening. in most known universes, it could be either "conspiracy theories and fake news" or valid information allegedly leaked to journalists by intelligence services. in donald trump's universe it can, apparently, be both. not yet a month in office and already one national security adviser down, the american president today took to twitter — where else — to blame pretty much everybody except russians and his campaign team for the reported russian infiltration of his campaign team. more on that momentarily, but first a rather more conventional sortie for a newly—minted president, the middle east peace process. earlier tonight, at a press conference with the visiting israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, president trump shared his vision. so, i'm looking at two—state and one—state, and i like the one that both parties like. i'm very happy with the one that both parties like. i could live with either one. the bbc‘s middle east editor jeremy bowen is here. he is certainly covering his bases. did that mark a profound shift in us policy?

it is hard to know, with president trump. he is rewriting the rules or making them up as he goes along. if he says it this week, he might say something else next week. certainly, the idea that a us president is backing away from the idea of the two—state solution is a change in a fundamental of american foreign policy for... well, the last four presidents, since 1990, something like that, the two—state solution has been what they have been pushing for. do you think netanyahu would have been surprised by what came out of donald trump's mouth at the podium? or would he have had early warning? all of these are contingent on more conventional politics, these questions. in these things, there's clearly a lot of preparation that goes into them. i think prime minister netanyahu and the israeli right have been hoping for rather more

from president trump. judging by the things he said as a candidate, they were more or less going to get a blank cheque when it came to the palestinians, to do what they wanted, build settlements where they wanted, in the numbers that they wanted. the us embassy was going to move from tel aviv to jerusalem, therefore recognising jerusalem as the israeli capital, something the rest of the world has not done, most of the rest of the world. but as president trump, he has reined back on this. in the first couple of days after the inauguration, mr netanyahu approved 6500 new settlements forjews, new homes forjews, in the settlement, i should say, and in a news conference president trump is saying, hang on, i want you to hold hard on settlements, there has to be a deal with concessions. netanyahu was a bit taken aback, i thought, and said, well, concessions from both sides. the reported constant contact between key trump aides and russian

officials during the election campaign is a burgeoning scandal with the potential to shake most politicians to their core. but donald trump is not most politicians. john sweeney has been wondering whether the teflon candidate might be turning into a teflon president. i think it is very, very unfair what has happened to general flynn, the way he was treated and the documents and papers that were illegally — i stress that, illegally leaked. very, very unfair. president trump today mourned the loss of his national security adviser of 2a days. the man who, according to reports, he sacked in a flash. when he ran for office, they called him the teflon don. nothing stuck. so, he kept on throwing mud. don't worry about it,

little marco, i will. don't worry about it, little marco! the voters have a right to know. no, you're the liar. you're the liar. i've given my answer, lying ted. i'm running against the crooked media. that is what i'm running against. he won and carried on regardless. time to chuck dirt at the cia. the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out, that they did that, i think it is a disgrace. i say that, and i say that, and that is something that nazi germany would have done. but the teflon don is no more. the grime is sticking to president trump as never before. at the heart of the flynn fiasco are fears that team trump had a russian connection with kremlin spies. this morning, the new york times reported that us intelligence sources told it that three of his closest election aides have repeated contact with russian intelligence officials. all three deny it. trump took to twitter to fight back.

the best evidence for the russia connection might not be all nonsense, it was from the man himself in the campaign. russia, if you are listening, i hope you are able to find the 30,000 e—mails that are missing. i think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. today, the former reality tv star was clear who was to blame. america's greatest newspapers and its own spies. so, what is going on? this building behind me is the case for the defence. it is the new american

embassy in london. as you can see, like the trump presidency, it is a work in progress. trump has teething problems. but give him time and he will work perfectly well. the counter argument goes like this. ok, maybe the building will work, but, for the moment, it has a bloody great hole in it and it is leaking! trump this morning praised american security journalist eli lake. so, who better to ask than the president's current favourite reporter? we trust the government to eavesdrop in order to stop terrorism, stop crime, stop foreign infiltration and so forth. if you want to say mike flynn is indeed a spy, a patsy or agent for the russians, which nobody is saying, and i would find hard to believe, having covered the man, that is interesting. but do that in a court. let him defend himself.

don't do it anonymously like this, when you have the allegation hanging over him. there was a time when this sort of thing was done and it was called mccarthyism. perhaps the us the state is at fault and the media are not giving president trump a break either. i do think there is not the same rigour going on in newsrooms. the number of rubbish stories we are seeing, with reporters rushing to publish, with thinly sourced or anonymously sourced stories, it is not doing any favours to the impression that they are out to get donald trump. but where are the media getting the leaks from in the first place? what we are seeing is we have an establishment faction, like sean spicer, and then the populist faction that sees people in congress, the leadership in congress, paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, as sell—outs who have failed their wing of the republican party. the number of leaks we are seeing is people jockeying for power. it could be an explanation for what happened to flynn.

with his back against the wall, trump will need to rely upon republicans in congress to push through his agenda. tonight, his pick for labour secretary dropped out because of a lack of that support from his own party. in politics, as in life, in london, washington, dc, wherever, the more mud you throw around, sooner oi’ later some of it will stick to you. let's talk now to democrat congresswoman jackie speier, who sits on the intelligence committee in the house of representatives. it is hard to know where to start. let's begin with that word illegal, employed by the president to describe the passage of information from who knows where into the hands of american newspapers, with regards to general flynn. do you recognise his description of criminality, illegality? let's go further back, to when sally yates,

then the acting attorney general, communicated with the president through his special counsel that there was concern is that michael flynn was compromised because there were intercepted communications from the russian ambassador and inadvertently received information from michael flynn. it is very serious business. the role of russia in impacting and meddling in the election in the united states is real. the president, for the longest time, denied that russia was responsible. now he seems to want to dismiss it. what we are mostly concerned with is what is the relationship, why is there such a bromance between our president and vladimir putin? in the last few days, russia has tested missiles against the treaty dating back to ronald reagan. there was a destroyer that was buzzed by russian aeroplanes and also a destroyer

on our coast, a spy ship, that was within 30 miles of connecticut and delaware. forgive me, none of which addresses the question of off there is a danger, think, that people see him as being right about everything or wrong about everything. it's impossible he is 100% right or 100% wrong. surely, regardless of where the information has come from, for it to make its way from the intelligence services to the media is, at best, a dereliction of duty, and, worst, a form of criminality bordering on treason? well, i guess i would disagree with you. the media has to be independent. the extent to which the president

is now is trying to exclude mainstream media and only provide for opportunities for bloggers that are supportive of him or local tv stations that are not part of the mainstream media, would suggest to me that he is trying to silence the media. i go back to the sally yates situation, because it was detected by the cia and that information was shared with the president about their concern that michael flynn had been compromised because of the conversations he had had with the russian ambassador. then more information has come out that there were other people. i haven't seen any of those transcripts. whether i will be able to see them as a member of the intelligence committee is something that we are looking into right now. but i would say that, if there was collusion by the trump campaign and his associates, with the russian government, that is treason. that is a crime. then we move onto

a different address. the transcripts notwithstanding, what else is the role of the intelligence committee now? i don't know how long you have been on it, but have you ever encountered a phenomenon like this before? no, i have only been on the committee for two years, but i would suggest to you that this is as big as watergate, if not bigger. i think we have an ultimate responsibility to the american people to make sure that we have reviewed all of the information the cia has provided, that we have double checked it, that we have looked into whether or not, beyond what we know today, there were other relationships that existed between the trump campaign

and russian officials. we also need to have the tax return of president trump released. it has always been historically the way that presidential candidates have addressed this issue. he has first said it was because of an audit, now he says he is not going to release it at all. we have to find out if there are links between president trump and russian oligarchs, if they have received financing, if there are relationships that exist. that then puts in question any decision that is made, relative to russia, by the president. many thanks indeed for your time. 0ne perspective on the unfolding drama that is often hard for western watchers to appreciate is that of the putin camp itself. its members could never be accused of beating a path to the doors of western journalists. avigdor eskin isn't exactly in it but the russian—israeli businessman and political activist is a staunch supporter of the russian president and frequently lectures in the country on political science.

he's made a reputation by holding some controversial views. i spoke to him earlier at his home injerusalem, and began by asking him how the russian media had reacted to general flynn's resignation. people could not understand this whole scandal around general flynn, because many of us remember him coming to moscow one year ago. my colleagues, everybody noticed that he was kind of redneck american with the type of ideology close to late senatorjesse helms who promoted the american interest line, america first line, and when someone suspected him of being somehow leaning towards moscow, itjust sounded as a joke, as a kind of mccarthyism, which was probably too much for senator mccarthy. it's unbelievable. flynn is an author of a book

where he describes the fight against world terrorism, and criticising russia for many of the things that russia presents in this circle of interest and after it, he somehow presents washington as being pro—russia. i mean, it's unbelievable, it's something unheard—of and nobody can understand it, really. is it really mysterious to russians to understand how a national security advisor being economical with the truth to a vice president becomes a dismissible offence? there are some misunderstandings between different people, and it's not our business. what we are saying is that flynn was nothing but an excuse to attack trump. if he does not force his way now, to the greater satisfaction of his friends and allies around the world, and in the united states, he will be in trouble. he needs to stick to one promise on every issue,

and it will be fine, believe me. ok, i will park that question of how it can be uncontroversial to have a national security advisor being misleading to a vice president. i will ask you instead why donald trump was the preferred candidate of the kremlin during the american election? we know nothing about it, trump was critical of certain aspects of russian politics. however, being a realistic leader of a first world power sees russia as a potential ally in fighting terrorism, which is a mutual threat. he wants to find some neutral ground for cooperation with russia, with all the respect to moscow, well, trump is going to disagree with mr putin on some other matters. it's absolutely clear, it's absolutely clear. and it's how real politics works. we've are talking about the realistic approach to this world. this one we are discussing now.

many thanks, avigdor eskin, good night. even in this era of unprecedented political upheaval, some of the old conventions still hold true. and it's fair to say that busy prime ministers don't often turn up on the mid—term by—election stump — unless they think they've got a very real chance of winning the seat from another party. factor in the pub quiz classic about governing parties not having made a by—election gain since 1960, defections excluded, and you'll understand some of the excitement surrounding theresa may's visit to copeland today. newsnight‘s political editor nick watt was there. for more than 80 years, the tories have really had much electoral success beyond the dreamy landscape of swallows and amazons countries in the lake district but now for the first time since 1981, the conservatives think that they can

win over the deprived west coast of cumbria. today, theresa may donned a suitable outfit for this mainly role constituency, as she paid a brief visit to support her candidate in copeland, it was not an easy ride as both labour and tories have a strength and weakness in the by—election. the conservatives are on the defensive why labour.

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