the phone call in the withholding of a that was pretty unpredictable right there was asking that as brenda happened in new york allan barron and washington d.c. thank you both again so much. of the product it is $23.00 g.m.t. that 6 pm and washington d.c. and we are into what's likely to be the final hour of debate before a vote on whether to impeach the president of the united states democrats and republicans in the house of representatives in making their case about whether donald trump violated the constitution he's accused of withholding aid to ukraine to pressure it into investigating his political rival joe biden and of obstruction of congress the democrat controlled house is expected to make trump surge president to be impeached and u.s. history will trump has dismissed the process as an assault on america. while the

democratic speaker of the house nancy pelosi opened the debate she called for both sides to put aside their pashas and differences and vote in the interest of the country it is tragic that the president's reckless actions make impeachment necessary he gave us no choice what we are discussing today is the established fact that the president violated the constitution is a matter of fact that the president is an ongoing threat to our national security and the integrity of our elections the basis of our democracy hundreds of historians legal scholars and former prosecutors regardless of party had stated that the president committed impeachable offenses well the republican house intelligence committee member matt get says the democrat impeachment will backfire in next year's presidential election. democrats may not have known why they were

going to impeach the president but they knew it was an inevitability facts be damned this impeachment is a slap in the face to the millions of americans who voted for president trump the same americans that democrats in washington have mocked as smelly wal-mart shoppers and deplorable zz this impeachment isn't legitimate it's the radical left insurance policy but we have an insurance policy too it's the next election and we intend to win it and let's have a listen now to the debate on the house speaker. in a day heavy in verbal debate i choose to use my time to enumerate in detail every high crime and misdemeanor committed by the president i had states i will do so now .

gentlemens times expire you're back. gemma from california. 7 reserve met a speaker i consider reserve thank you from georgia madam speaker you all 36 the general from tennessee mr flashman gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds madam speaker in my 30 seconds my heart aches for our great republic today i employ implore my democratic colleagues in this house we're not republicans or democrats we are americans this is not the right place this is not the right procedure settle our political differences politically we owe the american people a great duty to come together don't give the senate the victory lap give the house the victory lap vote no to impeach we owe it to the american people they want so dearly for us to come together for our great republic and thank our great president

and i enjoy your back and members are reminded to address their remarks to the chair gentleman from california but as speaker i continue to reserve chairman from georgia thank you might i say what we're going to catch our breath could you give us the time for both majority and minority to has 43 minutes. the gentleman from california has 29 minutes gentlemen georgia thank you about a secret operation that 36 of the gentleman from florida mr walz gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds madam speaker i'm a green beret and a proud veteran but this process does not make me proud i've fought all over the world from africa to afghanistan and seen fairer and more transparent processes than this since the democrats lost the election in 2016 they've been focused on impeaching this president meanwhile we have not solved the problems america and trusted us to solve immigration health care infrastructure nothing in president

trump's call rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors worthy of n.p.t. and it has to act reasonably voting against impeachment today for india continues to reserve yes medicare gentleman from georgia joe thank you madam speaker you are 36 and joan from kentucky mr guthrie gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds thank you madam speaker i rise today in opposition to the articles of impeachment on president trump my democratic colleagues have been planning to impeach president trump since he took office after months of wasting house time on partisan investigations they've been unable to produce evidence the president from committed a crime i will vote no on today's articles of impeachment i look forward to getting back to the business on behalf of kentucky and i yield back. i'm from california and this week i'm proud to recognize the gentleman from new york mr maloney for 2 minutes gentleman is recognized for 2 minutes madam speaker the facts and the evidence established beyond peradventure that the president abuse the power of his

office for personal gain and sought to cover up his misconduct by obstructing the congress what we do today goes to the heart of the oath we take to support and defend the constitution these actions are as necessary as they are heartbreaking it is the president not any member of this house who has brought us to this sad place his actions echo in this chamber and like a tin can tied to his leg will rattle behind him through the pages of history for the final analysis none of us will escape the truth it will come for us all in this world or the next what is the truth the president used taxpayer money and official acts to pressure a foreign government to help him win reelection by slandering a fellow american how do we know this truth we know because brave americans soldiers and public servants came forward to reveal the president's misconduct and

the president he continues to undertake a not precedented cover up to stonewall the public and obstruct their representatives in congress he withholds access to documents and records belonging to the public that would further establish his mendacity he blocks his advisors and associates from testifying before the public to conceal the wrongs they witnessed his actions are unworthy of the presidency today is about right and wrong and whether we still know the difference. today we hold the president accountable if we fail to do so future presidents would see corruption as without consequence and there our democracy goes to die we inherit this republic from our ancestors and we borrow it from our children with humility we pray that the history of this day will guide us to a better future for our nation that gentleman from georgia thank you madam speaker

you are 36 the gentleman from missouri mr long term is recognized for 30 seconds thank you madam speaker and we have never ever in the history of this country seen a presidency like this one once the president was born and 19 minutes later the washington post said it patient begins today a 1000000 woman march next on washington bank of america starbucks both of supported hillary clinton had their windows broken out here in washington because people were so upset that this man was elected president of the united states he's had his helmet on his head held underwater for almost 3 years now never coming up for breath or air just keep pushing it down lowest black unemployment ever lowest test paddick unemployment ever highest stock market ever so i'm very i'm sick lowest unemployment in years and john into the balance of my time i yield back reserves yes gentleman from georgia madam speaker i yield 36 the general from nebraska mr fortenberry gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds.

thank you thank you madam speaker i have been concerned since the beginning of this from peter a process that has been driven by a pre-determined guilty verdict it's unfair it's wrong and now every future president democrat or republican will have to worry that the impeachment process will be driven as a blunt force political instrument it's been said that this day is sad it's not sad it's regrettable but this day we're in shortly the house has had its go thorough moment tomorrow will be again a new day let's get back to work and you're back gentleman yells back gentlemen so we have been listening there to the last of the statements from members of the u.s. house of representatives for that vote on impeachment against the u.s. president in a moment we'll speak to heidi. she's live for us on capitol hill but 1st let's bring in our white house correspondent kimberly helka 10. and. unusual

silence from the u.s. president of the last 5 hours and so as he makes his way to that supporters rally in michigan kimberly. yes and it that silence was broken about 10 minutes ago when the u.s. president tweeted we presume from air force one we haven't had any reports that he's landed yet in battle creek michigan where he is expected to take the stage about the same time as we're expecting this historic vote in the house of representatives the president tweeting just 2 words all caps thank you with an exclamation point with the thanking the supporters that are waiting to hear from him it's a video that is playing in lieu of a very long lines of supporters in battle creek michigan waiting to hear from this president notable silence though as the president left the white house he made a wide berth around reporters to avoid their questions only speaking to his supporters before getting into marine one now this is unusual given the fact that the president has not only been tweeting throughout the day maintaining no

wrongdoing saying that he never did anything wrong this should never happen to another president but also given the fact that just the eve of the day before this vote the president set a 6 page vitriolic letter saying and accusing democrats of essentially a coup and sort of a hijacking of democracy now the white house for its part has been speaking to reporters privately they're saying this is a very sad and solemn day essentially what they say is that democrats had a conclusion with regard to this impeachment and then proceeded with their inquiry to search for evidence the bottom line is we're getting a sense of well the president was silent as he left the white house south lawn think he's saving it for his reporters or rather his supporters in michigan it's safe to assume the campaigns already sent out a very sharply worded e-mail essentially making the argument that impeachment is political revenge on the part of the democrats who are upset that hillary clinton did not win the 2016 u.s.

election very sharply worded e-mail expect that the president's comments when he takes the stage in battle creek michigan could be equally shot. given the fact that he believes this will help him win reelection in 2020 and campbell he's going to michigan you know for a very important reason michigan was important to his last election and it's key states key you know states like michigan swing states sometimes that crucial and next year's election to. you're absolutely right it's so fitting that the president it wasn't coordinated deliberately but it is perhaps lucky for him that he is battling it out in battle creek michigan a battleground state there are few states like michigan where there are key for the president's win back in 2016 wisconsin's another one pennsylvania another one as well and he needs them in 2020 and here's why these are also really important

states right now because well this is a nation evenly divided when it comes to whether or not to peach the president the president has been touting some poll numbers seem to show in these battleground states around the few undecided independents in the united states his support is going up so expect the president will talk about those poll numbers when he takes the stage in battle creek michigan no doubt committee thank you for that white house correspondent committee held that live in washington d.c. let's bring in heidi koster now she's live for us in capitol hill on capitol hill also in washington d.c. and we're in the final moments heidi of the 6 hour debate ahead of the vote. that's right and that's why we're seeing in a sense this lightning round of arguments in this debate leading up to what promises to be a historic vote on the articles of impeachment you saw those republican members given only 30 seconds of time each to get in their statements everyone wants to be

on the record as saying a stating their opinions or whether or not they wish trump to be impeached and right now the writing is on the wall because in about an hour's time they will hold these votes and democrats have the numbers to cast them pietschmann articles which would formally impeach making him only the 3rd u.s. president to face that congressional sanction now we've heard from republicans saying that this entire process is a sham calling the in. pietschmann illegitimate in an effort of democrats to undo the election of trump that put him into office saying that democrats have been trying to remove trump from office since the day that he took the oath of office and democrats countering that this is a solemn occasion that no member of congress wishes to undertake to impeach a sitting u.s. president but in the words of house speaker nancy pelosi that this is something

congress has been forced to do by the president's misconduct in the white house she says that trump is an ongoing threat to national security republicans really have a little that they can do now to stop this vote from happening we saw earlier in the day some delay tactics parliamentary maneuvers that were quickly knocked down by the democratic majority and that's why within about an hour's time we expect these articles to be tackled abuse of power and obstruction of congress they will be voted upon one at a time and then that would formally impeach president trump which with then put his fate in the hands of the u.s. senate where as you know his own party is the majority for them to decide whether or not he remains in office heidi thank you for that with the basis live on capitol hill. thank.

you watching on is there a quick look now at other news stories from around the world lebanon's former prime minister has announced for the 2nd time that he doesn't want to lead a new government saab has resigned and october after weeks of anti-government demonstrations on monday the president planned to hold consultations with the political parties to decide on a new prime minister but that's been postponed until thursday or people have been watching their anger against corruption and sectarian politics governing their country for decades protestors have rallied again in new delhi after india's top court postponed hearings on the controversial new citizenship law until next month it says it needs more details from the government that all makes it easier for non muslims from of guns bangladesh and pakistan to gain indian citizenship. at least 23 civilians have been killed in the latest round of russian attacks on rebel held areas of northwestern syria where shelling and airstrikes and problems have

escalated in recent weeks president bashar al assad's government appears to be preparing for a ground offensive to secure the main highway linking the capital damascus with the northern city of aleppo. now a disabled palestinian man has watched israeli demolition crews destroy his home for the 4th time in 20 years. is vowing to rebuild again saying the land and occupied east jerusalem is his rights groups say israeli demolitions increase this year the estimate a couple of months ago it was more than $200.00 palestinians had their homes destroyed. this is my land i have the right to live in it i will rebuild it whether they agree or not i will keep building my home on my land for as long as i live now a major merger has been announced in the car industry to create the world's 4th largest manufacturer fit chrysler and p.s.a. owners of persia and france have agreed to

a $34000000000.00 tie up both qantas companies have assured production line workers that no factory closures are planned a stray has experienced its hottest day on record the average temperature across the country on tuesday was nearly 41 degrees celsius and that record could be broken on wednesday as it is only the start of the southern hemisphere summer the searing temperatures have made things worse for crews dealing with more than 100 bushfires in the eastern state of new south wales now ship owners are proposing a 5 $1000000000.00 fund to research low emission fuels and clean engine designs the industry is under pressure from the un to have it c o 2 emissions from so-called dirty fuel or shipping associations according for a magic trick contribution of $2.00 per tonne on fuel burn to help develop cleaner energy.

back to our special coverage an hour about 6 hours into the final debate over whether to impeach the us president let's have a listen to some of the arguments on both sides. those who voted against impeachment are not just indorsing president trumps past actions but it's future ones as well democrats have delivered to weak articles of impeachment abuse of power not according to the ukraine president lecky confirmed many times that there was no quid pro quo no action taken and significant military aid was delivered without anything in return this vote this day is about one thing and one thing only they hate this president they hate those of us who voted for him they think we're stupid they think we made a mistake they think hillary clinton should be the president and they want to fix that figure would you mind the gentlemen that if the president is president trump

is impeached and removed the new president will be mike pence not hillary clinton. so we are listening now to the live debate taking place in the house of representatives we believe that these are the final few moments the debate has been taking place for nearly 6 hours now and it was 6 hours that was set aside for the for the vote we've heard. from them now let's bring in our guests allan baron is a former special impeachment counsel to the house of representatives so we will speak to him in washington d.c. shortly but 1st we're joined by karen greenberg who's the director of the center on national security at fordham university school of law and she's joining us live from new york ms greenberg very good to have you with us on the on al-jazeera so 6 hours and it's less of a debate as and than the house members of the house of representatives reading

their statements and from what we've heard so far i mean it's completely along partisan lines as were expected. yeah it's very much a partisan lines and it's very much the arguments that we expected to hear and that we've heard before basically the republicans are saying this is a sham process that it's about disliking the president that it's about reversing the election and minimizing any talk about ukraine and when they do talk about ukraine and selenski and the phone call they basically rely on the he didn't actually do it therefore there's nothing here to fort for us to impeach him on in terms of abuse of power the democrats are sticking to the line of abuse of power of talking at sometimes in depth about what happened in ukraine and interference with the election or attempts to interfere with the election and so it's been rather vitriolic but as you said to start it isn't really about

a debate and exchange of ideas it's about a repeated lines over and over. the one thing that that's come out that i think is really interesting is that in a way if you listen to what the republicans are saying they keep saying this is about rejecting the last election and basically what that means is let's wait for the next election this is a wrong way to go about it and because they're talking in those ways they in many ways undermine the idea of impeachment at all another words an election somebody who is elected should stay in office until they're unelected or their term runs out or whatever it is and and that's something we really haven't discussed yet in terms of the takeaways from what we're hearing well let's bring in the alan baron now mr barron you know your former special impeachment counsel to the house of representatives miss crean bug outlining the sort of arguments on both sides and what have you made on the off the arguments on on both sides and what ms greenberg

was saying about the republicans not wanting to allow an impeachment to remove the president from office and leaving that to the will of the american people and and the next election. well neither the democrats nor the republicans have offered anything terribly new that we haven't been hearing over the last month or so. as they argued these same points. back and forth i think that the idea of. letting the it pietschmann process sort of stagnate and let's just all wait for the the vote in november i don't think that's right i think that the constitution says we have the power the house has the power to impeach that is. the sole power to impeach it's there to be used if appropriate i think saying well let's not do it. for any reason such as well the

senate will convict him anyway or well it says wait until the election comes up i don't find either of those rationales persuasive as a reason for not going ahead with impeachment provided of course that the factual basis for engaging in the impeachment exist and again given you know you'll background and you've worked on and pietschmann how strong do you think the democrats case is. i think it's very powerful i think the republicans have been nibbling around the edges or they keep talking about process why didn't they do this why didn't they do it that way if you talk about what the facts show i'm a former federal prosecutor i would take this court case into court before a jury any day of the week i think it is a compelling case that the president held up the aid for

ukraine and for a direct quid pro quo it's now become part of the american political dictionary. in return for getting the support that he wanted to try to undermine is a potential political rival joe biden i don't think there's any doubt about that and 'd to. to to say well it's all process it's all a problem with the the way this has been handled politically that is just ignoring the hard cold facts the screen but do you think that that's what the republicans are doing are they ignoring the cold hard facts. well what they're ignoring is they want to have it both ways they keep saying the democrats didn't provide evidence they didn't provide documents they didn't provide witnesses that would have allowed this to be in their mind a fair procedure on the other hand why were the evidence the witnesses the

documents provided because the white house and donald trump blocked it and so they they want to have it both ways the other thing that that comes up a lot is the timing how quick this has happened and i think it's rather appropriate how quickly it's happened given the political context given the way in which the white house has tried to block so much of this coming out for and i think they've done that pretty well it's interesting isn't to that that's one of the republicans main complaints is that you know the process was too fast and get when they speak of the upcoming trial in the senate that is most likely to take place when the house of representatives votes to impeach the president and they say republicans say they want a very quick trial mitch mcconnell says they want a very quick trial we just heard lindsey graham in the last few hours saying the same thing correct yeah i think that's right and i think again i think they're talking out of both sides of their mouths and the way they want it

both ways we'll see when it actually gets to the senate the reason they want it fast in the senate is they they think they know the result which is that will be over that it will go forward in the senate that all divide along party lines at the very least and that and that this will be a rapid dismissal of of the charges but you never know what's going to happen when you get into a courtroom and mr barron they are likely though they are the republicans to get a quick trial given that they do have the majority in the senate but again as as as in this greenberg says we don't know what would happen when it comes to a trial. well i think in this trial we have a pretty good deal what's going to happen since you need a 2 thirds of vote of those sitting in order to convict but that is why several times today i have been raising the possibility of the house voting articles of impeachment but there is nothing in the constitution that requires them to then deliver those articles of impeachment to the senate they can hold on to

them they can continue to investigate they can subpoena witnesses and if they don't have to rush to a trial they can wait for the court process to proceed. and presumably i think a congressional subpoena will be sustained by the courts so i think that's a real alternative knowing full well that if they go to quote trial and i quote in the senate it will be a quick trial and nothing to show for it but mr bound you think that they would have a stronger case if they waited if they didn't send the articles of impeachment to the senate and to a trial in the senate immediately and if so i mean why haven't we had more about that option. i don't know someone raised it with me someone i can't disclose but someone used a name you would recognize and when i 1st heard it i said you know i have to think about that and i slept on it overnight the next morning i called him up and i said

it's absolutely brilliant why why rush to do something when you know you're going to go over the cliff and lose. i think it's really a very ingenious and perfectly appropriate and constitutional approach to this set of circumstances that's greenberg place to come in. yeah yeah i hear that and i think i've seen it raised in a number of forums online particularly today but remember this is about the next election and the worries of the democrats and of many in the country is that there are compromises going on with the next election and the longer you delay this the more time there is to interfere with the election to set up ways of interfering with the election to mess with dissin from ation and so that's a game that i think that democrats may not be willing to to play that's not a bet they want to make i also think that nancy pelosi is not going to take that

route i think it can get very messy very complicated and very politically a destabilizing even beyond what we've had and has we've seen she tries to keep a very steady hand i'm not sure she could do that if you open it up to that kind of process so so you know that's just another perspective on why maybe not go down that road karen greenberg in new york in alabama and washington d.c. thank you both for now. and you're watching our special coverage of president donald trump's impeachment debased let's go now to the house of representatives where members of debate in the articles of impeachment on the other side of the are listening this has nothing to do with the constitution it has nothing to do with anything but raw politics you know there's only one person on the other side of the aisle they got 7 pinocchio's for not telling the truth no one on this side of the aisle got that during this impeachment process madam speaker in the american people need to understand 2 key facts the democrats in control set their own rules

of evidence they said what we need to do for impeachment is to have compelling evidence and by some partisan support where they don't have either of those 2 things they failed the rules that they made up themselves. we've got president zelinsky of ukraine saying there was no pressure we've got the number 2 guy in ukraine saying there was no pressure we've got the number 3 guy in ukraine no pressure these are the suppose it victims of this alleged crime and yet here we are supposedly having this compelling evidence of facts when the best witness they had the very best witness they had had to change his testimony twice they mention him 611 times and ultimately also mentally he said i presume that that's what the president mitt you know i can tell you that there are not facts here is to support it but what is more important than that madam speaker is this. because here

we are today we have bipartisan opposition to impeachment not bipartisan support you know my colleagues opposite want the american people to think that this is a sad and somber day well this is a sad day it's a sad day for this institution because we've lowered the bar to impeach a president that continues to give us an economy that not only is growing but growing at levels that we have never seen in the history of our country when we look at unemployment at a level that is truly remarkable they want to impeach but it's another sad day because now what they're doing is they're telling the american people that $233.00 democrats deserve to decide who the president the united states should be and disenfranchise $63000000.00 voters when all is said and done when the history of this impeachment is written it will be said that my washington democrat friends

couldn't bring themselves to work with donald trump so they console themself instead by silencing the will of those who did the american people and i yield back gentleman from california this week i'm proud to recognize the gentleman from california mr sherman for one minute chairman's recognized for one minute. robert mueller lays out facts from 2017 that constitute obstruction of justice but says the president cannot be indicted only congress can apply the lot of those facts many of us have been talking about impeachment since those facts emerged in 2017 of course today we focus on more recent crimes so why did we talk of impeachment back when a republican led congress would not act why do we see impeach today when a republican led senate is unlikely to act 1st because it is our constitutional

duty no matter what the political consequences 2nd because it is the most effective tool to chasten and restrain a president who is not naturally feel constrained by the rule of law i would note that the president's attempt to extort ukraine was secretive and furtive far different from his modus operandi of blazon threats that we saw in 2017 we can only imagine what high crimes and misdemeanors this president would have boldly committed had no one been talking about impeachment then had he felt immune from impeachment today we will demonstrate that the president is not above the law gentleman from georgia so be honest and that to members of the u.s. house of representatives and what we think of the final moments of the 6 hour debate before the vote on impeachment and let's look at the impeachment process now once the house approves the charges the president is impeached but that doesn't

mean that he's automatically removed from office because next a trial is held in the senate and that could be as soon as january it'll be all the same by the chief justice of the supreme court senators act as jurors all members of the house of representatives of the prosecutors at least 2 thirds or 67 senate says need to vote guilty on at least one of impeachment to have donald trump removed from office and if that happens when the vice president takes over as president. now let's go to patty cohen in washington d.c. to talk more about impeachment with a special panel patty. thanks so much elizabeth it has been a very very long day it's been a very very couple of long weeks and we've heard a lot of the same things over and over and over again but this is important this is a historic day and joining us now to talk about this upcoming vote we have john malcolm he's the vice president of the institution for constitutional government at

the heritage foundation a republican leaning think tank robert said woodward burns he's an assistant professor at howard university here in washington d.c. and richard goodstein a democratic political consultant and former bill clinton al gore advisor welcome to you all gentlemen i think it's gotten lost a little bit and i want to ask each in each of you this question because it's been so repetitive it's been the same arguments not just today every single hearing and i've listened to all of them today matters so i want to start with you robinson why does today matter why is it when your grand kids say hey i got to the section the history book what what what happened why why is that going to be in there impeachment of presidents is a relative rarity this will likely be the 3rd time the president has been impeached and it to some degree test the limits of the constitutional system in the balance of powers between congress and the president this impeachment underscores something

that the clinton impeachment didn't and that nixon is likely impeachment did which is increasing polarization between the parties because this will likely be a straight party line vote one thing you'll remember from this impeachment is that essentially there was no love lost between the 2 parties and particularly between the president and the house richard about you what's what's your message today why does this matter this is an international audience all around the world course and have obviously the u.s. has an impact there but why does this matter we have to ask ourselves do we want fair elections or not in other words if if donald trump or any president could put the arm. what a foreign leader we give a lot of billions of dollars a year to israel what if donald trump it said hey bibi you know i'm your guy but do me a favor i'm going to give you that 3000000000 dollars in aid not 400000000000 like we're talking about with ukraine but you know you got all these high tech guys there you can work wonders you know helping me in this next election like i helped

you so how about it or what china i'm going to cut a good trade deal. chairman she but to me this favor i'm going to give you a little bit better deal than you think you're going to get but you know you can flood our airwaves we're with we're facebook or whatnot with things that benefit me and and. really give a lot of grief to my opponent how about that because if we don't draw the line with what happened here what's to stop the president from or any future president from doing that or worse john boehner is found to have or do you want to tell you as dolls you both 1st of all the heritage foundation is a conservative think tanks are not republican leaning so just to respond to return you know his spin is that that is why that conversation took place it was to help him purely with this 2020 reelection effort i disagree with that and i don't think that any of the republican house members or republican senators are buying that either and if that is the case it is certainly no different than barack obama in

this hot mike moment telling president medvedev tells lattimer to go easy on me until after my reelection effort because then things will change in terms of our relationship i wasn't sure about how in terms of the historical value of this in our entire nation's history this is only the 20th person ever to be impeached as and as robinson said the 3rd president impeachment is not meant to be a partisan plug we do not have a parliamentary system in a parliamentary system if you don't like the present course policies you can have a vote of no confidence we don't have that in this country in this country what we have our elections this is an extraordinary read. but he and the democrats are far from proving their case so i want to go through a couple of things because again i think one of the issues here that is so surprising is that we are hearing democrats say these are the facts and republicans saying these are the facts so some of the things that the republicans have said is and i'm one your response was that the bite investigation wasn't done but we know

that the president of ukraine was a day away from going on c.n.n. and announcing it until and then the whistleblower report came out no money was handed over as the other excuse or the money was handed over well that was again after the whistleblower there were no firsthand witness is gordon sutherland talked to the president he was a firsthand witness to withholding the white house meeting. to the investigation he said that clearly under oath ukraine says it wasn't pressured what do you think of the president of ukraine is going to know which one of these scenes would you. tell us record inside one said when he had his one conversation with the president in the asked him explicitly is there a quid pro quo he was told specifically there is no quid pro bono i mean finished there is no quid pro quo i just want him to do the right thing and we do have to put that in perspective is that was after it had already been out there that the whistleblower complaint said there was a quid pro quo so the president knows he's being investigated that's how it was all in all said the whistleblower for the whistleblower had no firsthand knowledge he

wasn't privy to the call and the record ation of the call that was released there was no quid pro quo and gordon simon who is one of the few people with direct evidence because you spoke to the president made it quite clear that the president said that there was no quid pro quo with respect to the risk my investigation look british authorities in 2014 sees $23000000.00 of mccoll have skeets the president and founder of britain's holdings in assets the next month hunter biden was appointed the board and paid millions of dollars in december of 2015 to new york times. reported that victor shoket the prosecutor general in in ukraine was investigating charisma and on february 2nd of of that of 2016 still chaps his home was raided and his assets were seized immediately there were calls from president biden president vice president biden sorry to

present himself without rancor and you know look what happened the president you want to talk about a quid pro quo the vice president said i will not release a 1000000000 dollars in loan guarantees until shock and was fired he was fired and he has now signed an affidavit that said that was he was released he was fired because he was investigating and the biden since biden is not being impeached today is correct also a lot of very credible news organizations have looked into this and said there's no there there but richard you look like you really about to jump out of your skin so look we've heard all this. let's take a let's take this one at a time we know that joe biden was doing what everybody in the western world and the i.m.f. were trying to do which was get a corrupt prosecutor out and this prevents twisting that somehow or other that was corrupt is itself. part of the big lie that underpins the defense of donald trump

here the fact that joe biden who was complicit with every western government was part of the administration's position and the i.m.f. trying to get out a corrupt prosecutor solecki was the reformer ok and the notion that somehow or other that is part of the corruption is just something that again. you know we all have to be grounded in honesty if we're on a show like this we have to be grounded in honesty that's not an honest recitation of the facts sorry well i do that supposition i look at it we hardly know that for 2 years this corruption of if it was such a big deal why didn't anyone look into it the president never said it if it wasn't oh joe biden notes that he was writing for now that's not true that's not true when he put it was before he was a candidate but nonetheless the president is entitle to investigate corruption at the highest levels of the previous administration or suspected corruption at the so

why do you want to say look president obama had no compunction whatsoever about investigating potential corruption involving donald trump's campaign ok wait all right i should have guessed i got to a lot of it are we're not going down that rabbit hole that's for a different american network that's neither here nor there i know you have is going to say so robinson how did we get here how did we get to this point explain to my international audience they're going these 2 gentleman highly educated they see i could show them a picture and one is going to say it's white the other is going to say it's black what. underlying the investigation was a series of facts and there's some debate about whether these facts constitute an impeachable offense what the white house in a memo a transcript of a call it released between presidents once again trump revealed was that president trump requested a favor from president vladimir selenski testimony in the house intelligence

committee more or less backed up that story the question is and the question that the constitution doesn't answer is whether that's an impeachable offense the constitution leaves that to the house to centrally arbitrate and in releasing these 2 articles of impeachment house democrats have built a case that it is so i think it's less a question of debating the facts but about rather a question about the nature of what sort of offenses are in fact impeachable ok so since you're the political science professor i think it's important to put in the context in modern history we've had 2 presidents we face impeachment richard nixon who got out of town before they could do it no clinton but if you look at those and you compare them to president donald trump nixon when they started this basically 38 percent of americans were in favor impeachment when they started investigating bill clinton it was even less that was a quarter of the people said no we don't want to impeach the 3rd supported it so any of you look at donald trump the majority it's

a slight majority but more people want him impeached they don't want him impeached so why is that not moving the politicians that question to you the difference between now and 1974 when nixon faced impeachment is partisan polarization the middle has fallen out over the last 40 years of american politics in the middle which could have swung for or against nixon ultimately against him we no longer have democrats will support impeachment republicans will oppose and because there are more generally democrats in the national electorate and more people's us. supporting impeachment democrats are able to go ahead with this it was the 20000 elections that best reflected that slate democratic majority in the national elections that got us to the point where it today so there's partisan ossification and poor's ation the parties are moving apart and there are slightly more democrats nationally which means that the nation has pushed us in this direction towards impeachment gentlemen this is been such a fascinating conversation but unfortunately i'm being told that doha once just

take it over so thank you for joining us you know it's been a fascinating day it's been a historic day and it's not done we still have a whole trial in the senate to get for get to get through so hopefully we can have you back that thank you so the for now that is the very latest from washington you're seeing for yourself the state of the country right here in this new set a divided country faces the coming weeks with the president likely impeached and fighting for survival in the u.s. senate for now that's live from d.c. back to you and patty it has been fascinating to listen but we are going to go back to the house of representatives to listen in on what we think of the final few moments of the debate the democrats also put forth ever changing accusations against the president including campaign finance violations quid pro quos election interference bribery extortion eventually they ended up with the ridiculous charges we consider today abuse of power and utterly meaningless term and obstruction of congress one democrat has pronounced the president guilty simply because he won't

cooperate with their plan to railroad him but the only thing president trump is guilty of is beating hillary clinton the democrats refused to accept that loss and now they're indicating they'll continue their impeachment efforts even after this one fails in the us senate madam speaker after all they're deceit phony investigations ginned up crises and manufactured outrage the democrats need a long period of rehabilitation they must learn how to do something productive for the american people instead of ripping the country apart. and their lust for power so that you'll back the balance of my time gentlemen you know as fact gentleman from california. madam speaker i think the german for his remarks and it's now my pleasure to recognize the gentleman from massachusetts chairman neil for 3 minutes tenements recognize for 3 minutes.

thank you madam speaker it is deeply unfortunate that we have to undertake this impeachment proceeding that unfolds this evening but the part we play in this process is not optional among other things as the intelligence and judiciary committees have painstakingly documented the president has indeed and views his authority and he has indeed obstructed justice he threatened to withhold congressionally appropriated u.s. taxpayer dollars from an ally under attack from russia unless they agree to interfere in our election on his behalf he has expressed no remorse and he continues to maintain that his behavior was quote perfect while simultaneously obstructing legitimate congressional oversight and subpoenas and blocking members of his administration provided from providing truthful testimony to investigators his actions are so far beyond the pale that they have left us with no remaining recourse except impeachment and so we shall impeach because as drastic as on

welcome is this step is our country faces even greater long term risk if we fail to respond we cannot excuse a president who feels entitled to disregard or break the law with impunity we are a nation built upon the rule of law not the law of rulers. the framers gave us their best effort in 7887 and indeed it was an extraordinary one the constitution they set down wasn't perfect but it ever found that a republic that has endured and thrived with exceptional stability as the late senator moynihan pointed out only 2 countries in the world both existed in 1900 have never had their governments changed by violence since then the united states and britain only 8 governments have existed since 1914 and have not had their form of government changed by force since then the united states the united kingdom australia canada new zealand south africa sweden and switzerland the innovative

system of checks and balances that they constructed with the separation of powers brought about and successfully negotiated a generation of challenges that we have sustained in the very 1st week that the framers began crafting this blueprint for america's freedom and stability and negotiations indeed immediately started an impeachment no government in the world at that time expose the head of government to impeachment but america was to be different in the view of the framers impeachment is in no way a constitutional crisis it is a process that the framers wisely judged that we would sometimes need this evening is one of those rare moments madison worried that one day the country would elect a president who quote might pervert his administration to a scheme of check elation or oppression he might be trade his trust to foreign powers end of quote george mason asked the delegates quote shall we see any man to be above justice and above all shall that man be above it then who can commit the

most extensive injustice end of quote of course not because having just thrown off one king they would never consent to annoy another one america firmly rejected the notion of divine right speaker labor and summed it up but i have 30 x. seconds mr 30 extra seconds. without objection thank you gentlemen to germans recognize article one of the constitution prescribes congresses the 1st branch of government and just as importantly let me quote speaker rayburn who was asked how many presidents did you serve under as speaker rayburn answered none i served with 7 presidents of the united states impeachment is reserved for moments of grave danger when the constitutional order becomes dangerously out of balance moments like this one and that's why i will vote to impeach gentleman from georgia thank you madam speaker i yield

a minute 45 to the gentlemen to the gentleman from georgia mr 1st an important absence for one minute 45 seconds thank you madam speaker well here we are on the verge of doing exactly what america doesn't want us to do and what they feared that you would do in 2016 hour long with 63000000 american voters representing 304 electoral college votes went to the polls and we raised our collective political middle finger to d.c. and voted for donald trump folks like my father who watch this place destroy his profession of community biking my friends and family in the textile industry that sol their way of life dish droid following after americans in rural areas whose opportunity in life and the envoys have been drowned out by the screams of socialist democrats our friends and neighbors living in poverty and crime broken down project based public housing who for generations have been told by this place

this is the best that we think we can that you can do here is your check god bless you now move alone. voters and now you want to remove our voice from office our voice will be heard and i stand here determined to make sure that it will be because we will fight back against this corrupt and unfair ph but process how dare you use the liberal only it's the condon sending bureaucrats and every other kind of swamp critter in this godforsaken place tell the american public who the president should be that's the job of the american voter not your worse this whole flippin goat rodeo is a sham and a shame and it will not be forgotten the speaker i yield back 7 yes back gentleman from california. and a speaker i'm proud to recognize the gentleman from washington the gentle man from

washington mr hack for 2 minutes gentleman is recognized for 2 minutes madam speaker. this week americans are busy finishing up their christmas shopping mostly for their children or if they're lucky enough to have them their grandchildren and high school and college students are taking final exams and sweating out the results and that got me to thinking about those who follow and what our obligation is to them and that got me to thinking about those who came before and how they might have seen their obligation to us people like my grandfather who our family believes literally was born on the boat on the way over here from germany or my father who fought in world war 2 against the very people that his grandfather had left we are all here today all of us because someone before a sacrifice so that they could journey here and build a new life in this unique land. and we are here today because those immigrants and

their children were dedicated not just to the land of america. so we have been listening there to members of the u.s. house of representatives read their statements and that 6 hour debate ahead of the impeachment vote and if the house votes for impeachment it will next head to the senate for trial well let's bring in our correspondent alan fischer he's joining us live from there so is the senate expecting those articles of impeachment to arrive there then. well they obviously have to wait for the vote and then we see what happens next obviously if they vote as we expect then the articles of p. 2 it will be delivered to the senate and the senate will probably wait til beginning of next year before they decide how this will proceed it will proceed with a trial mitch mcconnell who's the leader of the republicans in the senate will decide the format of that trial all 50 or $100.00 senators will act

as jurors the chief justice of the supreme court of the united states john roberts will essentially be in charge of the proceedings. every senator takes and north to judge impartially the facts that are presented and front of them but we have already had mitch mcconnell say that he is not an impartial juror he says that he thinks this is a political process he's criticized the democrats for speaking out saying that they want to call witnesses saying that the leader of the democrats should not have gone on the media to see that spoken to him fast mitch mcconnell was responding after he'd actually gone on the media in the 1st place to say that he was not going to be impartial and that he wanted a quick trial that's important because the republicans essentially want a quick trial where is the democrats say that they want to call witnesses no throw the process needs to impeach a president what's known as a supermajority that had 67 of the senators to vote to impeach donald trump at the

moment the republicans have 53 so the democrats would need to sway another 14 votes in their direction and not quite obviously because they need 7 to go on their side no one has said that they are going to vote for the impeachment of donald trump so that makes it very difficult for the democrats also senators can see it any point as this proceeding goes ahead if they don't like the way things are going they can call for a vote on. and that that just needs a simple majority but again democrats have only got 47 votes and the republicans have got 53 so it could be a long drawn out process will certainly be a number of days with the the here and then they'll have at least 24 hours to reflect but the 1st thing that happened obviously is opening statements and someone at that point can see we should move to a vote and that's certainly what the republicans seem to be planning at the moment . and alan you know we've heard from the senate minority leader chuck schumer

recently asking for various witnesses to testify as the ph but does it get to a trial but that's very unlikely isn't he the kinds of names that he's throwing about the white house acting chief of staff mick mulvaney former national security advisor john bolton even secretary of state might pompei or when the republicans wouldn't allow that exactly right they have the majority mitch mcconnell as i said right at the very beginning essentially dictates how this is going to go ahead he says he's basing it on the 1999 impeachment of bill clinton that is when there was bipartisan support a new witnesses were called you're right the democrats would like to hear from might from pure they would like to hear from john bolton who is national security advisor who according to reports walked away from what donald trump was trying to do with ukraine describing it as a drug deal they would also like to hear from mick mulvaney the acting chief of

staff because he said look quid pro quos happen all the time get over it and they're likely to give evidence i wouldn't put money on it alan thank you for now allan session live in washington d.c. . hello again i'm in of the parana it's j m t that's 7 pm and washington d.c. and a vote on whether to impeach the president of the united states is likely to be held within the next hour democrats and republicans in the house of representatives are making their case about whether donald trump violated the constitution he's accused of withholding aid to ukraine to pressure it into investigating his political vile joe biden and obstruction of congress the democrat controlled house is expected to make trump the 3rd 'd president to be impeached and u.s. history.