lation that they want in on this power and that they have in essence a different view of the constitution and the rights it grants to a president and the right to grants to the other branches to tether that presidency and so this is a step forward for the constitution working at least at this moment in time and it's hard to say what will happen in the future but i think it's very important to to accept what's happened here miss greenberg thank you so much for your analysis karen greenberg live in new york thank you. well i mean as a product and this is the news out live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes on this vote the yeas are 230 the nays are 197 present is one article one is adopted. donald trump is impeached he'll face

a trial of the senate after the house of representatives indicted him on 2 charges . well president trump divides the impeachment process as an assault on america and his republican party. for only the 3rd time in u.s. history a president has been impeached following a heated debate the democratic controlled house of representatives voted to formally charge donald trump with abuse of power and obstruction of congress the yes our 230 the nays are 197 present is one article one is adopted. well democrats and republicans made their case for more than 8 hours about whether

trump violate the constitution it paves the way for a trial in the senate where a republican majority is expected to block trump's removal from office with today's illegal unconstitutional and partisan impeachment. they do nothing democrats and they are doing nothing all they want to do is focus on this what they could be doing are declaring their deep hatred and this thing for the american voter. this lawless partisan pledge is a political suicide march for the democratic party have you seen my polls in the last 4 weeks. well let's bring in our correspondent heidi show costs right now she's live for us on capitol hill in washington d.c. and those votes finally took place heidi on both articles of impeachment after more than 8 hours of debate it was supposed to be 6 hours and just talk us through. this

and talk us through how the democrats and the republicans voted. well sure and these votes are so significant this is only the 3rd time in history that u.s. president has been formally impeached by congress and the final votes reflects the partisan nature of this view on that 1st article on abuse of power we saw 232197 with 2 democrats voting nay and one democrat voting present all republicans voting against that article on the 2nd article of struction of congress very similar numbers to 29 to 198 in this case the read democrats voting against this was one just all democrats who had decided to split his vote he had voted yea for abuse of power but voted against obstruction so in all those 3 democrats that voted against that 2nd article they're

all from conservative districts where trump is popular among their constituents so no surprise there that these 3 voted no on that 2nd count in that 2 of them voted no on the 1st count as well we also had one democrat who chose to vote present this was told see gabbert who is a presidential candidate among the democratic field and who has been trying to eke out her position as the most conservative option among that among the candidates there but again really no big surprises here almost of the i'm going to interrupt you because we. are hearing from house speaker nancy pelosi now so that's listen to that. good evening. december 18th. a great day to the constitution of the united states

a sad one for america that the president's reckless activities necessitated us our having to interviews articles of impeachment mad that our 6 chairs were for a long period of time have been legislated investigating and litigating. today that came to our culmination on the floor of the house. committee under the leadership of harry neither of new york and meet him to tell us his committee under the leadership of adam schiff of california broccoli articles of impeachment to the floor to a conclusion where they have passed i thank them for their tremendous leadership i thank congress congress for chairwoman maxine marv's of california richie nick of the financial services committee richie nero of massachusetts the chair of the ways

and means committee carolyn maloney the chair of the governor form the government oversight committee and of course adam schiff the chair of the intelligence committee for their great work over a period of time. i just want to say before you go then to the chairman of that i could not be prouder of a more inspired by them by the moral courage of the house democrats were never asked one of them how they were going to vote we never lift this vote we saw the vote. well you saw the public statements that some of them made so we saw the result when everyone else in. the statements on the floor about patriotism and about. being very true to the vision of our founders. and so i do this this day this fall as something that we did

to honor the vision i back down to establish from a public. the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform to defend our democracy and that republic and the aspirations of actual and that they will always live in a democracy and that we have tried to do everything we can can make sure what point is there are we out there. that will hear from my poor men and then more take 3 questions i'm now on their. own response to just endless chair of the gesture community generally not. thank you the framers reserve the power of impeachment for the greatest offenses against our constitution against our liberty and against our democratic institutions president trump used the powers of his office for his own personal political gain to the detriment of the national security interests of the united states that is the very definition of

an impeachable offense when congress began to investigate president trumps wrongdoing in gauge an unprecedented pattern of obstruction that too is why the impeachment power exists a president who subverts both our elections in our constitution and our constitutional system of checks and balances puts himself above the law and it is congress duty to hold the president any president accountable. it gives us no pleasure no pleasure to stand here today but president trumps conduct has put our next election at risk president traps behavior puts the integrity of our constitutional order at risk and president trumps continued actions put the rule of law at risk the framers gave us the absolute power of impeachment for exactly this reason and then fulfillment of our oath and obligation to the american people today we took action to hold president trump accountable for the serious and undisputed

risky poses to our free and fair elections and to the separation of powers that safeguards our liberty a president must not be allowed to become a dictator i want to thank speaker pelosi chairman shift my fellow investigative chairs and all of my colleagues who today defended the principles them upon which our nation was established today the house of representatives this constitutional duty today we lived up to our responsibility to the american people by taking action to defend our national security to preserve our democratic elections and to show that no one not even the president is above the law and now gives me and now happy to introduce the chairman of the intelligence committee and i'm here. so we have been listening there to house speaker nancy pelosi as well as jerry

nadler he is chair of the house judiciary committee and he along with who is speaking now adam schiff the chair of the house intelligence committees there committees are key and pietschmann inquiries against the u.s. president which have led of course to these articles of impeachment in the u.s. house of representatives with the house voting to impeach the u.s. president making him only the 3rd u.s. president to be impeached let's bring in our correspondent heidi show castro who has been following the impeachment inquiry the proceedings over the past month for us she's joining us live from capitol hill it's been a very busy last month for you heidi culminating in this you know historic day with the impeachment of the 41st president of the united states. that's right after these months of the impeachment inquiry and arguably the 2 plus years of partisan vitriol that's all kind of led up to this moment this climax in the official

impeachment of president trump now democrats will say that this is something that they did not want to do that they approached these votes tonight with the greatest a limited and with the greatest respect for the u.s. constitution speaker pelosi saying that this was trump's misconduct with ukraine that chain thought with endangering national security that was forcing democrats in the house to take this action and we did see this breakdown between very narrow partisan lines with the chew votes on the 2 articles abuse of power and obstruction of congress nearly straight down those party lines we had 2 democrats who voted against both of those articles they are representing districts that have conservative leaning with a lot of trump supporters and it was no surprise they had already indicated

previously that they would be voting against the impeachment on the 2nd article with obstruction of congress an additional congressman joined those democrats he also he splitting those votes he had voted yes on abuse of power but no on of struction of congress again another democrat who likely sees his own seat at risk from backlash from his conservative constituents and then in addition we saw one democrat who voted present for both of those articles i was told see gabbert who is a democratic presidential candidate who has staked out her position on that still very wide field as being the conservative option so it also no surprise that she voted present on those. 2 counts republicans stuck together as a clock this not one of them voting on either of these articles which was also expected so as you heard from the democrats who just held this press conference

they are calling this a victory for the constitution but nothing to celebrate now we have been expecting republicans the minority party on the house to also be giving a press conference that has been canceled for the moment of course we know that president trump is defending himself he is best spokes person holding that rally in the shipman heidi thank you for that for now that is live on capitol hill let's bring in alan fischer he's live at the senate and allan heidi talking about how the republicans are very much stuck together and how they voted in the house of representatives which has now off to 8 hours of debate and those 2 votes on the articles of impeachment but what's happening where you are in the senate alan. well the thing you have to remember is that as we've said this is only the 3rd time a president has been impeached or to others or andrew johnson and bill clinton no

people immediately here impeachment and think richard nixon richard nixon was never impeached there were hearings he saw the writing on the wall he realized he was losing political support and therefore he offered his resignation and left in the helicopter after seeing that he was handing over to gerald ford the important thing is that is that he saw his political support leaking away donald trump is not seeing that in the senate he doesn't believe that he's losing support here that he thinks that they will continue to vote as a bloc and that with a $5347.00 majority in the senate that is more than enough to defeat any impeachment proceedings what is likely to happen is that the articles of impeachment be presented to the senate they're about to go on break for christmas it will be early in the new year before they start to put all this together january 6th that the likely gate that the proceedings will start that's not will start getting from witnesses not we'll see things on the floor it's essentially just

housekeeping at that point they move to january the 7th that is when the senators are sworn in the actors judge and jury this is the next battleground of the impeachment battle against donald trump the actors judge and jury but the whole way that the proceedings are carried out well that's really going to be in the hands of mitch mcconnell who is a leading republican in the senate john roberts who is the chief justice of the supreme court of the united states will essentially over see everything in the event of a tie he will also have the casting vote but as a say you've got to remember the republicans have a 5347 majority in the senate so what will happen after that well the people who are employed as impeachment managers likely to be adam schiff on the democratic side as well as a couple of others and then whoever the republicans put forward likely to be simple leaning who is. the white house counsel they will present the case for and against what happens after that well that's really up to mitch mcconnell the democrats

certainly want to call witnesses in the mention mick mulvaney the acting chief of staff they've mentioned john bolton former national security advisor and they've mentioned my pompey or who is the foreign minister as well the secretary of state in the united states they've asked for the u.s. as witnesses the the republicans aren't keen on this idea they want this to be over as quickly as possible what's important to remember is that all the senators take a vote to deal with these facts impartially and then reach a decision but mitch mcconnell is already said look i'm not impartial here this is a political process and there is simply no way that he is going to vote for impeachment he thinks he will make sure that most republicans will do the same that or perhaps one or 2 who may be wavering names like mitt romney former presidential candidate himself he's been very critical of donald trump there is a possibility a possibility at this stage that he may vote for impeachment susan collins is

another one who's been mentioned and also one of the senators in alaska as well but there would have to be more than 2 or 3 swapping sides for the democrats to get impeachment through the senate but. still a lot of ifs and buts before we get to that point but we're going to see historically the 3rd impeachment proceeding you remember with the start of this answer which seems a long time i mention that there have been 3 presidents impeached andrew johnson was one bill clinton was the other how did they manage to stay in office it was because the senate refused to impeach them after the host presented articles of impeachment donald trump will be hoping the same thing will happen to him and alan your answer is never seem long but if i can ask you another question what happens now in the process you know when do those articles of impeachment make their way to the senate well that's really no in the hands of nancy pelosi and her committee

chairman whether they want to bring them over to the senate i'm standing in the senate returns or whether they want to bring them over to the senate this evening or whether they can just deliver them in the morning given that it's time 20 almost 20 past 9 here a been for a walk down the corridors here and most of the senate offices are closed that's not to say that someone can be walking up and brought back to the senate to get those article impeachment but from the news conference that nancy pelosi was holding we were expecting some sort of guidance on whether or not they will deliver those articles of impeachment no it really doesn't matter whether they come tonight or to morrow the timetable is pretty well set it's going to be the 6th of january ring in your new calendar when you get one on new year's eve the 6th of january is when housekeeping starts january 7th is when the senators will be sworn in january 9th is when we will start to hear the opening statements from either side and at that point we'll find out if there's going to be witnesses but given the way

the republicans are very keen to keep this very short they don't think calling witnesses it's a good thing for donald trump. but the are we are told from the white house in the last few hours going to be guided by donald trump and what he wants to do mitch mcconnell very keen that there's no witnesses donald trump has already said that he would like to see some witnesses i think which would call things that would be bad for the president so he's stealing him away from that it really depends on donald trump it's his impeachment if he wants to call witnesses if he wants to give evidence himself which he can do that he would say that to mitch mcconnell so that is why january 9th becomes the really kind of important day because we'll get an idea of how this is all going to play out it could be a simple matter of just a couple of days it could drag on for up to a month and thank you for that for now that is alan fischer with the latest live on capitol hill we're going to bring in frank bayamon now he's

a professor of law at the university of missouri as well as the author of high crimes and misdemeanors a history of impeachment for the age of trump and he's joining us live from columbia and missouri very good to have you with us on al jazeera so before we get into you know what happens next we've been talking to our correspondent who's at the senate about how now that the house of representatives has voted to impeach the president it's likely to lead to a trial in the senate but before we get to that we have to remember that this is only again the 3rd president in u.s. history to be impinged so just one goddess of what happens at the senate how significant is that mr bowman. well it's significant obviously to whatever legacy mr trump male tonight may have but of course it's also significant in 2 other respects one is the short term effect that this impeachment may have on the electoral fortunes of mr trump in the 2020

election and the other one is the harder question answer of how this is impeachment process and the way that it's gone down is going to affect american politics one of the most troublesome parts about all of this beyond the facts of the case is the way in which. i have to say really the republicans have addressed this matter from the beginning and certainly one can criticize the democrats in certain particulars but the difficulty i see from the republican perspective is they have simply refused to engage with the facts of the president's misbehavior from the beginning and one of the things that has as has been true about each of the previous impeachment or near impeachment of american presidents is that the members of the house and members of the senate of both parties took their responsibility of finding facts seriously they thought it was important to know what the truth was they then often had very different views of what the

consequences of that truth might be. but for example in mr clinton's case there wasn't any disagreement that he misbehaved sexually with the with the white house in turn there wasn't any disagreement about the the fact that that was a bad thing to have done the disagreement was over whether or not it was sufficiently bad to require his removal from office and what we've seen in this case is frankly a consistent refusal by the republicans even to engage on the question of what the facts show mr trump has done and that i think is is a poisonous thing because it suggests the truth really doesn't matter at all in in this this partisan political process. and that spence profoundly troubling and why do you think it has become that way with the republican party because again if you look at the votes against bill clinton or if you even look at the votes that the house judiciary committee did for richard nixon of course it never got to the house of representatives but the the votes of the ossicles of the peach went

against nixon i mean that neither of those votes were nowhere near as part of them as the ones we've seen now with donald trump so why is the republican party. you know why isn't trump losing support with the republicans and is it because as one analyst was telling us earlier well it's not really the republican party anymore and it's the trump pati do republicans see trump as they only took it to staying just to staying relevant to the moment so it's a combination of trump the man who is a who is. an egotist who cannot brook any criticism at all. and essentially attempts to drive from the party and from government anyone who opposes him. that's him that's him of course as a man but he is imbedded in

a media ecosystem. in which. the the folks who support him among in the media of fox news and others. essentially go along with this notion and want to and they are willing to the sensually drive out of the republican fold anyone who is criticizes trump really very much at all and therefore republicans are frankly scared of him and they're scared of being primaried having drawn primary opponents in the upcoming elections they're afraid of being berated on the news channels that their their core supporters watch. and the result of all of that is a degree of kind of cultish loyalty to the man that is in many ways more dangerous than the particular conduct he engaged in here and mr bowman you know you also mentioned that the possible impacts that this process the impeachment process

could have on the upcoming election i mean how do you see that playing out it's hard to say i think that trump maybe views this impeachment as at least not a disadvantage and on the theory that it will rally his core supporters democrats have always been afraid that if they impeach the president that it might have some electoral consequences down the road when for example contrary to one of the consistent arguments that was made by republicans during during the day. democrats as an institution as of i do apologize we have lost our connection with i guess to frank bowman he was life rise and condemned columbia missouri so let's move on we do have another guest ending by and that is karen greenberg she's the director of the center on national security at fordham university school of law and she is joining us live from new york ms green but thank you very much for staying with us

as we do this extended coverage of the impeachment of the u.s. president the house has now adjourned. what are you expecting when the house reconvenes and these ought to cool assent to the senate. i think it's a very good question i mean the 1st thing i think we have to think about is when are they going to do this and i mean there has been some discussion about delaying transferring this to the senate hopefully they'll have some kind of discussion about it and make a decision very quickly i'm hoping go forward and deliver this to the senate i think i really think that this is a moment upon which both democrats and republicans are going to have to take a little while to absorb what they've done jerry nowther was very confident about what has happened and how important it was nancy pelosi was very sober as she been

throughout about the importance the significance and the sadness of this quite frankly but the question is what does it mean does this stiffen the backbone of the democrats to push this through quickly does it give do they want to take a little while and think about what the next steps are given that they know that the republicans want this to happen very quickly and be done with it in the in the past i think they're going to have to to to think very strongly about what they want this to say to the american people do they want it to say that there were crimes committed. is there a way to take this vote and get beyond the partisan divide or there are pieces of information that came out that were important enough to say here we know there was wrongdoing because as as frank bowman said there was no admission on the part of the republicans that there actually was wrongdoing and that is a problem and i think it's something that the democrats are going to have to think

about in terms of how they package this decision and how they decide what their next step will be going forward and despite the republicans you know denying that there was any wrongdoing whatsoever in fact they say that the wrongdoing has been against the u.s. president the duly elected president of the united states we do have the republican senate majority. a leader mitch mcconnell who said that he's actually not going to be impartial in a senate trial we've had other senior republican leaders like lindsey graham saying that they want a quick trial so admission that they're not going to be impartial asking for a quick trial i mean how does all of that bode for the fairness of a trial for something as serious as as impeachment for abuse of power and valving of foreign government and obstruction of congress investigating the abuse of power . yeah it's sort of like doubling down on what just got exposed

and agreed on as a wrong delaying you know doing this quickly in the words of lindsey graham that's one thing but to such actually stating as mitch mcconnell did that he's going to just follow donald trump. playbook here and that he is not open minded about this trial is yet another piece in something very consistent that we've been hearing from the republican leadership for the most part which is that we don't recognize impeachment as a process that we think we should have to go through and again this is an issue of balance of powers to say we're not going to reflect on it we're not going to look at it we're going to we're going to double down on the fact that witnesses were excluded by the decree of the president the documents were withheld by the decree of the white house when you follow all of that up with we're not going to sit back and have a fair trial and listen to whatever is presented what you're essentially hearing is we don't recognize the impeachment process we don't recognize the right of congress

to to listen to the evidence and that's yet another reason why this deficit's an important step and there are more people in the senate than niche mcconnell and although he has a great deal of power about how things will proceed there may be some appetite for listening there may not be but for the moment we can at least look forward to that or hope for that must greenberg thank you so much for your analysis that is karen greenberg live in new york. but you're watching our extended coverage on donald trump's impeachment the case are 230 the nays are 197 present is one. article one is adopted. but donald trump has become only the 3rd president in u.s. history to be impinged following a marathon 8 hour debate the democrat controlled house of representatives voted to formally charged donald trump with

a busa of power and obstruction of congress. well the president is that a rally in michigan and he's dismissed the impeachment vote as a desperate effort by the democrats to win the 2020 alexion and the white house is also reactance saying the president is confident that he'll be exonerated with today's illegal unconstitutional and partisan impeachment. they do nothing democrats and they are doing nothing all they want to do is focus on this what they could be doing are declaring their deep hatred and this thing for the american voter. this lawless partisan page is a political suicide march for the democratic party have you seen my polls of the last 4 weeks well let's bring in our white house correspondent committee held that she is joining us live from the white house and it's not the 1st impeachment you

have covered kimberly but they don't come around very often. and no so then generation i think it's really interesting as i've been watching donald trump speaking there in battle creek michigan what we know from covering this president for the last few years and what we knew going into this is he's a master marketer he can take the most negative situations and make it shine and i've literally been watching him do that as he's spoken number one he's been very clever in not only the timing of this essentially this vote has happened and he's still talking so in other words for a man who keeps score believe me he does he's getting the last word at least that's how i think he's he's sort of framing it in his mind the other thing he said which is really notable as he responded in real time we should point out so he watched this vote as he was talking on stage in battle creek michigan he said crazy nancy

pelosi as house democrats have branded themselves with an eternal mark of shame that's astonishing to hear him say that because what we're talking about is donald trump entering the history books as only the 3rd president to be impeached but he has flipped that upside down and essentially is saying it is the democrats who are going to have this mark of shame and company and this is something that we see the president do time and time again he accuses you know whatever the accusations are against him while he turns that around and levels the same accusations at the democrats and he's done this with nancy pelosi before when she said that you know she's worried about the president's state of mind well he says that he's worried about nancy and he's praying for nancy. yeah i don't i'm not a lawyer i don't know what the legal term is for that but i think you often hear it's deflection it's redirection certainly you take the argument you move it in

another direction that's essentially what donald trump is doing and he also is appealing to the masses who supported him again we talked about throughout this evening as we covered this historic vote that this was a split screen moment that really capsulated the divisions in america the fact that the democrats on the one hand the sort of the liberal leaning political spectrum in the united states voting to impeach the president but then there were the thousands packed in the auditorium listening to donald trump supporting him and what's so notable about all of this is that the president is making the case he's already campaigning for 2020 we heard him talking there about some of the potential democratic contenders he might face a reelection and essentially he's making the argument they try to undo your vote that resonates with american voters this is why i don't trust got elected back in 2016 people felt they no longer had a voice in washington congress was broken they weren't being represented and they

looked to donald trump to be the champion of the little guy whether it was manufacturing bringing back jobs this is the person they were looking to disrupt what they saw as a broken system donald trump a 0 weighing in on that right away barely have the votes been cast and already he's campaigning framing what really most people would argue would be a stain on his legacy fighting back with his trademark defiance essentially fighting to resist store his legitimacy and he's fighting for now committee but this will no doubt fall to him you know that he is already the 3rd president to be impeached. absolutely this is bothering him i mean before this vote was cast donald trump sent an all caps tweet sensually once again declaring no wrongdoing pointing the fingers he's been doing that all day long you have to remember 24 hours ago we were talking about his 6 page letter which was

astonishing to so many many people saying it was bordering on maniacal that it was i'm presidential but there we had sort of a sort of a some nation of some of his strongest most pointed tweets at his rivals his opposition democrats whatever you'd like to call it blaming them calling this vote a coup saying this was an attack on american democracy even say comparing it astonishingly to the salem witch trials which took place here in the united states 16 hundreds where those accused of witchcraft were executed with no due process the president claiming that he has been a victim and that resonates with many americans who feel forgotten in this political system and are looking for a voice and a champion so don't have already branded what most people would see as a very very very bad black mark on their political career and he's shining it and already campaigning to try and win another term in the white house committee that

letter was really quite astonishing at the 6 pages of it again where he's comparing himself. and comparing situation to the salem witch trials we heard from republicans today saying that jesus christ was given more due process than donald trump has and this and this impeachment and it's remarkable really that the president that no one has advised him that he might not want to release a letter like that on the eve of the pitchman to vote against him and this is the same president who's also said you know that he might testify in the trial but is there any chance that he i mean is he serious and is there any chance that his advisers that would allow him to do that. at the end of the day the president is given a lot of advice but it's up to him whether or not he's going to take it and as much as we talk about how ill advised it would be to testify in a senate trial you do have to marvel that donald trump has growth in every role in

the political playbook and yet he's still sitting in the white house right now and by some accounts in his polls the numbers have edged up it's remarkable i you know his. it's really astonishing that somebody has this type of resiliency and i think what we're seeing is where donald trump gets his energy and his oxygen if you will it's once he leaves washington he goes and he's been holding these make america great again rallies from the day he took office from the day of his inauguration he's were portrayed himself as us against them the establishment in washington the media even saying that he's not been covered fairly but don't worry voters i will advocate for you and again why is the president in battle creek michigan so fitting such a night is the fact that that's a swing state along with pennsylvania also wisconsin he needs those independent

voters and the polls show and he's certainly been talking about it as he's been speaking to those crowds and i'm looking he's still talking he's talking about how they're supporting him and he says he won't let them down that's a message that resonates with those voters committee thank you for that fanaa that is a white house correspondent can be how can it live in washington d.c. and as we've been reporting donald trump only the 3rd american president to be formally impeached i do cost for next now at pasta impeachments to see what lessons can be mint. impeachment is a rarely used tool in the united states president andrew johnson was the 1st to face impeachment in 868 for firing his war secretary his presidency was saved by one vote in the senate then came richard nixon in 1974 people have got to know whether or not their president the crupper well i'm not a crook who resigned as the house was moving to vote on articles of impeachment

against him in the watergate scandal evan davis investigated nixon for the house judiciary committee in the case of nixon there was no evidence of the president was actually responsible. for the underlying crime knew about it in advance approved it planned that meeting the burglary of the democratic national headquarters davis says president trump in comparison has more evidence against him there is abundant evidence that he welcomed the russian interference in the election and that in the case of ukraine he initiated and was the prime mover in the effort to get ukraine to deliver political information on his opponent but nixon had the so-called smoking gun tape a white house audio recording of nixon ordering the watergate cover up nick

ackerman was a nixon prosecutor he says though there's no audio tape of trump the white house calls summary of trump asking for political favors from ukraine is damning it's almost like what i used to listen to with mob tapes where. bob stars were basically trying to extort people and to get them to go their way but to nixon experts say there is a slim chance the senate could convict and remove trump from office that's despite his own party holding the majority in that chamber now no one is going to say that it is even likely today that you could say that 20 senators would vote for removal but we can't be sure that there will not be. enough to break through the partisan divide robert ray though agrees with the more popular prediction that trump's impeachment will not result in removeable conviction in the sun it will fall well short of the 2 sortes requirement to remove president trump from office and i think

you would likely expect that it would be entirely a partisan vote ray with the whitewater independent counsel who investigated president bill clinton did have a relationship with clinton was impeached and acquit. it in 1999 for lying under oath about an extramarital affair raises clinton's perjury was clearly a crime but for trump the charge of abuse of power is too vague my view is that in this case since you can't show that a crime was committed you don't even get to the question about whether or not what the conduct here constituted an abuse of the president's office and there's also a difference in the public's response to trump's impeachment in the proceedings against nixon and clinton americans were glued to their television screens the polls show that this time around people just aren't paying as much attention to the effort to remove trump from office and those who do care made up their minds long

ago to support their political party now trumps impeachment whatever the result is destined to be part of his presidential legacy to be studied by historians for years to come. and heidi is joining us live from capitol hill in washington d.c. heidi it's been a long day and a long few months covering the impeachment inquiry the proceedings and the vote in the house of representatives tonight very much going as expected. that's right straight down partisan lines nearly with only 2 democrats voting against the article alleging abuse of power and 3 democrats voting against of struction of justice with all republicans voting against us of beachfront but democrats of course still having the majority numbers to officially impeach the president afterwards we did hear from nancy pelosi the house speaker who gave a press conference and she said something at the tail end of this that may make

a big difference going forward she was asked what exactly the next step will be the constitution says she needs to choose the house managers will be in the the. peter managers rather who will be the prosecutors in the senate when this goes to the set if for a trial they asked when she is going to do that and she answered that she will not send these articles of impeachment over to the senate until the senate proves to her that they can hold a fair trial she refused to give a timeline or really follow up on detail questions after that what does that say well if there's been reporting all day long that there is a certain wing among the democrats who had were lobbying for these articles to stay within the house of representatives in order to pressure and give time to the senate to negotiate with democrats within the senate to make the trial more

fair which includes calling witnesses that democrats have still yet to hear from members of trump's inner circle who have thus far been blocked from testifying is so speaker pelosi now suggesting that she may indeed hold on to these articles which means that this impeachment is not going to progress or she may at least of the lay of the progression until she gets some sort of answer from the senate and as you well know it is a partisan fight in that chamber as well and there's really there's very little reason to think there's going to be a quick consensus on exactly how this trial will show really what's going to happen next and how long is it going to take we are in uncharted territory here impeachment as you just heard are so rare in the u.s. history so we just have to wait and see heidi thank you for that with the latest

live on capitol hill. thank you let's take a look at some other news now lebanon's former prime minister has announced for the 2nd time that he doesn't want to lead a new government saw 3 d. resigned in october after weeks of anti-government demonstrations on monday the president planned to hold consultations with political parties to decide on a new prime minister but that's been postponed until thursday where people have been voicing their anger against corruption and sectarian politics governing the country for decades rami cory's a senior public policy fellow and professor of journalism at the american university of beirut and he says her decision is a signal that political leadership is starting to listen to public sentiment. well he's done this several times before e's announced his candidacy that said he's not going to be a candidate then he was working behind the scenes to approve the candidate so with

these leaders who are now part of the old guard oligarchic system that has ruled lebanon for many decades you never know what is the real significance of what they are doing one thing is clear though there is a new element in the political arena and it's the element of massive popular this pressure on the street against the political traditional owners archaic sectarian leadership and maybe heady it is decision now because he said in the last week that he was expecting to be prime minister he started consulting people maybe his decision now actually means more than it would have meant before because he probably is aware that the popular sentiment among the protesters on the street is that he would not be acceptable is part of the old system that has failed and has bankrupt the country and sent half the population into poverty so probably his decision is more meaningful he will he opens the stage now for real consultations

among the parliamentarians but also among different political groupings and the country and this is really unprecedented in lebanon. at least $23.00 civilians have been killed in the latest round of russian attacks on rebel held areas of northwest and syria was shelling and as strikes an adlib province 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 where diplomatic editor james basis at the united nations and he says the divisions and the security council of how to move forward on syria remain. for the last 6 years the u.n. security council has authorized humanitarian aid going into syria from iraq jordan and turkey the u.n. says this authorization is vital because it's the only way to get that a into opposition controlled areas every year this needs to be renewed with

a new security council resolution but behind the scenes there is a route russia says the situation has changed and it's looking like russia might use its veto there is a. is not is not the one that reflects neither the image this is not about even the cumulative emissions we have to recognize that things are changing the british ambassador was listening to that and quickly responded things are changing because these resolutions have been going down year after year so i think that's point one point to anything less than 4 crossings and 12 months is a vote for saving lives it's not yet clear when the vote will take place but if russia blocks the resolution it will be the 14th time that russia has used its veto since the syrian war began one years ago michael had on fighters have killed at least 14 civilians and injured 5 others during a raid in chad

a fisherman's camp was attacked on the banks of lake chad another 13 people are believed to be missing the vision has seen attacks from the group for about 10 years with more than 30000 people killed. protesters have rallied again in new delhi after india's top court postponed hearings on a controversial new citizenship law until january it says it needs more details from the government that all makes it easier for non muslims from of danced on bangladesh and pakistan to gain indian citizenship. bolivia's attorney general has ordered the arrest of former president evo morales on charges of sedition and terrorism morales resigned and left bolivia in november after protests and allegations of irregularities in the presidential election he fled to mexico but has since flown to argentina where he's been granted asylum he says the protests which falls to him from office after nearly 14 years were part of a right to include. now one of the world's most watched football matches was

brought to a brief halt to barcelona after his protest is through inflatable balls up to the pitch where thousands of police were deployed around the new camp stadium as pro independence demonstrators plan to disrupt the game known as el classico on the field barcelona and real madrid played out the 1st goals drawn in 17 years for protesters wanted to take advantage of global media coverage to promote their bid for catalan independence the state of emergency has been declared in new south wales with extreme heat and strong winds expected to fat dozens of uncontrolled bushfires firefighters battling nearly 100 blazes across australia most populous state more than half are out of control with temperatures are expected to exceed 40 degrees celsius over the coming days and residents are being warned to stay alert.

we are going back to our top story now only the 3rd time and u.s. history of president has been impinged following a heated debate the democratic controlled house of representatives voted to formally charge donald trump with abuse of power and obstruction of congress the $230.00 the nays are $197.00 present is one article one is adopted. where democrats and republicans made their case for more than a tell us about whether donald trump violated the constitution it paves the way for a trial in the senate where republican majority is expected to block trump's removal from office well let's get more on this now we're joined by karen greenberg the director of the center on national security at fordham university school of law

and she's joining us live from new york this greenberg thank you very much for staying with us on al-jazeera miss fane but can you hear me. miss greenberg this is elizabeth pran in the presenta and just checking if you can hear me ok i apologize we don't have a connection with karen greenberg a new in new york let's go to see what the u.s. president is saying in battle creek michigan. what. people. i think one of the best things i did as president a lot of people would say you know what we've done for the economy but one of the best leagues is firing james yellow me. who is imports are cut did you see the other day well 1st time now it's never wise

is 50 percent there for. the golden. anyway. so what we're doing is we're doing things that are going to make our the you know it's like a tree we need that extra for us with so much even right to try you know right to people who are traveling the terminally ill. that's the president and vettel creek michigan let's try reconnecting with our guest karen greenberg the director of the said to our national security at fordham university school of norman's queen but can you hear me now i can hear you now good to have you with us so i want to ask you what you made of house speaker nancy pelosi she didn't seem to have it on so on when these articles of impeachment bowlby sent to the senate for trial. yeah i know there's been a some discussion today in maybe

a little bit before today about whether or not it would be a good strategy to hold up on delivering these articles of impeachment to the senate this is a political she's viewing it as what she said tonight was she wants to make sure it's going to be a fair process that's a very high bar given the current partisan circumstances to have said she may be buying herself time she knows that the senate has made it very clear the republicans in the senate that they want this to happen quickly she may have determined that she has some leverage that if she waits there will be evident there will be witnesses perhaps pending certain decisions by the courts but she may just want to pause and think about what has happened remember if she doesn't deliver them then it's a kind of leverage that she has going forward about when she will deliver them so i'm not sure which way shall go i think what she may do is being listening to some of these legal scholars and legal experts who have put forward the idea that maybe

it's a good idea to wait and she's added on to wait until i'm assured a fair process which may very much bringing more witnesses to her then were present and available during the house hearings but that seems so unlikely doesn't it given that we've had the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell saying. you know that there's no guarantee that witnesses will be allowed that he's not going to be impartial in this process we've also had republican senator lindsey graham who's a staunch trump ally and a prominent republican saying that they just want the straw to be quick. right and that's where you get the difference between the process and the judicial part of this process the congressional part of this process and the politics of it and i do agree with you i think it's surprising but we know nancy pelosi she likes to think about things she likes to do things in

a deliberative fashion and perhaps because this is become an argument that suddenly out there in public and being embraced by some top legal scholars that she may just want to think about it steady her hand and gather her sensibilities and her forces before she goes forward but i agree with you it would be a surprising move given the trajectory the momentum and the importance of the momentum that we've seen to this point in time mr greenberg thank you so much for your analysis and for staying with us on al-jazeera that is karen greenberg in new york as we have been covering this historic day in u.s. politics only the 3rd president and u.s. history to be impeached there he is donald trump speaking in battle creek michigan saying bet it doesn't feel like we're being impeached that's despite the house of representatives voting on 2 articles abuse of power and obstruction of congress to

charge the u.s. president with both of those. capturing a moment in time. snapshots of other lives. other stories. providing the clips into someone else's world they. do day for. inspiring documentaries from impassioned filmmakers. like witness on al-jazeera. and the slaughter of the most incredible stories are often true. and cheering go on experiences. makes the unfamiliar for me. in this life diversity makes

a difference understanding the importance of being part of something much greater than all souls in this laurie what is freedom of expression. the right to mortgage. sean and a lot into the darkness. because you're destroying the desire to understand that. makes us human. and the human condition is universal. for over a year protests across france have demanded economic justice police have responded with mass arrests m h a great weapons to constrain the 00 movement do you think he could have been mistaken between aiming at your head or your access to all those people in power

has been. impounds to investigate the escalation of violence in darfur what this means could free speech and the democratic ranks of its citizens police on trial on al-jazeera. donald trump is impeached he will face a trial in the senate after the democrat controlled house of representatives indicted him on 2 charges. the former 18. a great day for the constitution of the united states. from the president he attacks his political rivals at a campaign rally. crazy nancy pelosi as house democrats. with any market share it really is it's a disgrace.