the special suspension of the joint session of congress to certify the presidential election results in skirmishes between police and protesters inside and of course just a few hours before the president himself had that dress the thousands of people gathered there saying that the election had been stolen. stay with us here now jazeera for more on this developing story with our correspondents live in washington d.c. and my colleague ali vegetable in doha barbara thank you very much indeed it is 2100 hours g.m.t. 4 pm in washington d.c. and some unprecedented scenes in the capital of the united states this is a wednesday where supporters of u.s. president donald trump have stormed the capitol building on the day the u.s. congress was to certify the victory of joe biden as president of the united

states they stormed the capitol building some even managed to get inside the building which is now under law down. there were some scuffles we hear but certainly quite a fluid situation unfolding in washington today the national guard we hear is being deployed after the crowds of supporters of president trump stormed the building you can see there were some clashes earlier inside the building itself with capitol police trying to push back donald trump supporters and this all happened again when members of the senate and the house of representatives were debating the certification of president elect joe biden's victory other members of congress were evacuated the building now in lockdown security officers inside one of the congressional chambers have. day guns are on at one point as protesters try

to enter there are reports that one woman was shot and is in critical condition president. early address the crowds repeating his unfounded claims of election fraud since sweetie calling for his supporters to stay peaceful but he's not asked them to stand down and they are a still as you can see on the steps of the capitol building the building itself in lockdown we hear that the national guard the governors of maryland and virginia neighboring states to the capital. to be sending national guard troops to washington d.c. let's bring in our correspondents one of the many correspondents we have covering this incredible situation for as in the united states capitol today. is with us she have you are at the white house just bring us up to date with what's

been happening how all of this has unfolded in the last 2 hours or so. the context perhaps because a few hours before that because everything sort of began with the protesters beginning to have several protests protest of a planned around d.c. one of them was here at the white house at the ellipse president trump addressed the protesters here and then there was another one at capitol hill after this protest was over people walked to the one on capitol hill around 18 g. was when the certification process began which was just. as the next president elect it was in previous years it's a ceremonial affair where the certified vote a brute officially to congress. and are accepted by congress if there are any objections. you need both the house at a member of the house and the senate to raise an objection that has never really

happened before i think in one occasion it happened but the. but all as that process began with the objection that we knew was going to happen for the electoral college votes from our zona that's where. the protesters who are outside the capitol hill because of attempting to breach the barricades and try to enter. into the capitol hill as well as the house. itself which is a pretty shocking affair because it really did appear that there were barely any police. to counter what had been a widely expected movement would have been rather telegraphed in fact in many ways indeed. indeed no i was going to say they had been some warning signs she have i mean january 6th even downtown that said that january 6th would be a day of reckoning they had been some warning signs it was perhaps inevitable at some point that something like this would happen question will be why where they

know more. additional police on the capitol building today what actually went wrong i mean why you know in the face of these tension is ratcheting up in the last few weeks were they not more prepared better prepared to handle a situation like. right i mean there are lots of talks about having a commission normally maclean's of election fraud which have already been litigated by think this commission might be a little bit more. right now especially since as you say we knew donald trump said there would be quite wild protests around the capital during the election certification and sort of the cation process and when you met here in d.c. you had actually also for the national guard to be stationed place to d.c. for deployment in the event of trouble around $800.00 were allowed to be part of that you say that they are now on their way we have conflicting reports of what happened when there was trouble it appears according to the d.c. city council and the mayor they all asked for the national guard to be deployed and

the pentagon said no they refuse to allow the deployment of a national guard beardy denies that and we understand that the national guard rumbling through but the comparison that's being made clearly if. she had i'm going to interrupt you i apologize for interrupting you because president elect joe biden is speaking right now found his hometown of a den away let's listen in to what he has to say all of you've been watching i've been watching at this hour our democracy is under unprecedented saw unlike anything we've seen in modern times. and assault the citadel of liberty the capital self an assault on the people's representatives in the capitol hill police sworn to protect. the public servants who work

at the heart of our republic an assault on the rule of law like few times we've ever seen an assault on most sacred of america not undertake it's the doing of the people's business. it may be very clear. the scenes of chaos at the capitol do not reflect the true america do not represent who we are what we're sane or a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness this is not the scent is disorder it's chaos it borders on sedition and it must and now i call on this mob to pull

back and allow the work of democracy to go forward you heard me say before a different context the words of a president matter no matter how good or bad that president is at their best the words of a president can inspire at their worst they can incite therefore i call on president trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the constitution and demand an end to this see each the storm the capitol to smash windows to occupy offices the floor of the united states senate rummaging through desks

on the capitol of the house of representatives threatening the safety of duly elected officials it's not protests it's insurrection the world is watching. and like so many other americans i am genuinely shocked and saddened that our nation so long the beacon of light and hope for democracy has come to such a dark moment through war and strife america's endured much and we will endure here and we will prevail again and will prevail now. the work of the moment and the work of the next 4 years must be the restoration of democracy of decency honor respect the rule of law just plain simple decency. reno all of the

politics it's about solving problems looking out for one another that's stoking the flames of hate and chaos. as i said america is about honor. decency respect tolerance that's who we are a salute always bad. the certification electric college the electoral college vote supposed to be a sacred ritual to affirm purposes go from the majesty of american democracy. to days reminder a painful one at the marcus is fragile and to preserve it requires people of goodwill leaders of the courage to stand up who are devoted not to the pursuit of power of or the personal interest pursuits

of their own selfish interest at any cost but of the common good think when our children watching television is thinking think with the rest the world is looking at for nearly $2.00 and a half centuries we the people in search of a more perfect union ever kept our eyes on that common good. america's so much better than the seen today. watching the scenes in the capital. i was reminded as i prepared other speeches in the past of mind of the words of abraham lincoln and examine your message to congress. whose work has today been interrupted by chaos. is that lincoln said. he said we shall mobilise say or merely lose the last best hope on

earth went on to say the way is plain peaceful generous just a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and god must forever bless the ways plain here to actually are it's the way of democracy of respect of decency of honor and commitment as patriots to this nation notwithstanding what i saw today we're seeing today. i remain optimistic about the incredible opportunities there's never been anything we can't do when we do it together and this god awful the splay today is bringing home to every republican and

democrat independent in the nation that we must step up this is the united states of america there's never ever ever ever ever been a thing we've tried to do. we've done it together enough and able to do. a president trump step up. to god bless america. to god protect our troops. and all those folks in the capitol are trying to preserve order. thank you i'm sure you've kept you. all right you heard it there president elect joe biden calling on president donald trump to step up to go on national television and demand an end to the siege of the u.s. capitol the 1st reaction from the u.s.

president elect on the day the u.s. congress to certify his victory election victory in november in the u.s. presidential election joe biden sounding very grave very solemn saying democracy is under unprecedented as sold this as pro trump protesters violently occupy the u.s. capitol building these are scenes from earlier of scuffles between supporters and police inside the building at this hour at about $42415.00 pm eastern standard time they are still outside the capitol building as you can see on these live pictures hundreds of them on the steps there president trump urging supporters to go home. saying this is not a protest it's an insta wrecked insurrection but most importantly his message was

directed towards u.s. president donald trump calling on him to go on national television and to call on his supporters to end this siege let's go live to christine salumi who's in delaware where president elect joe biden spoke just a few minutes ago joe biden sounding very great a sense of urgency his message again christine directed to president specific. absolutely this was supposed to be a speech about the economy on the day when his vote was supposed to be certified by congress and the senate looked to be headed in the democrats favor with races in georgia all but certain to hand his party the majority in the chamber but all of that being overshadowed by events in the

nation's capitol protesters storming the congress building where that hearing was taking place where that vote was supposed to be taking place and we heard president elect joe biden there describing what was happening as democracy under assault he said this was not a protest this was an insurrection he said that it was an assault on the people who are elected to represent americans it was an assault on capitol police an assault on the rule of law and went on to say that this is not representative of the united states and as you yourself mentioned his message there was for president trump himself he said president needed to step up a pair on television and call on people tune back down to. capitol. and put their differences aside. this would have been

a victorious day for joe biden someone who's been calling for unity in the country even as the president has continually tried to undermine the results of the election which by all official rulings in the courts by even republican state officials have been certified right so we're hearing very somber tone scumming from the president elect at his headquarters and. putting all of his other messages aside to focus on the need for common unity. and he said something very important i think and this i think would reflect the sentiment of people around the world today. and this shock he said i'm deeply shocked america has come to such a dark moment and i think you know for people around the world watching the scenes outside the u.s. capitol today this is unimaginable this is supposed to be the world's biggest

democracy and yet we see these scenes this chaos in the capitol building joe biden as you said christine has a very difficult task ahead now and that is uniting this deeply divided country this is going to be his number one challenge isn't it when he's actually sworn in on january 20th as expected. absolutely and whether you're watching television listening to the radio talking to your friends on twitter i can tell you that americans are glued to their televisions right now watching this no matter which side of the aisle they're on this is something we've never experienced here before and joe biden acknowledging that in his remarks as well and he does have that incredibly difficult task. head how do you unify a country how do you rally republicans to get behind what he says are much needed

economic stimulus plans to get this country back on track after the pandemic has taken such a toll on the economy he'll need republicans to do that even with the majority in the senate and the house he'll need some form of unity but any talk about the future any plans to move forward all being overshadowed and undermined as they have been since election day by attempts to discredit the election results as we're seeing play out here and frankly it's something that many americans thought they'd never see here or. even going back to the bush gore that extended election recount you know people have had strong faith in the u.s. institutions but all of that now being called into question by what we're seeing play out in washington d.c. and joe biden attempting to sound

a note of calm while acknowledging the gravity of the situation. the way thank you very much for the moment check in with patty culhane outside the u.s. capitol building in washington d.c. the. supporters are still on the steps of the u.s. capitol building patty is somewhere else in a different location patty i don't know if you can hear me tell me about what is happening around you as we continue to watch these pictures of trump's supporters on the steps of the building still $100.00 hundreds of them i think there what is happening around you is it calm and now is it's 10 said it is as it was a few hours ago still. but. apologies we seem to have audio issues with patty calling. patty can you hear me or not. ok well listen well we'll try to get back to you in

a 2nd because we can't hear you but we do have now reaction from president trump to joe biden who called on him just a few minutes ago you recall to call on his supporters to go home while chum in a tweet has done just that he says i'm asking for everyone at the u.s. capitol to remain peaceful no violence remember we are at the park we are the party of law and order respect the law and our great men and women in blue thank you so he's calling on his supporters to remain peaceful and no violence but he's not exactly telling them to go home as joe biden asked him to he's not calling on his supporters to necessarily go away from the capitol building as joe biden has asked him to let's go to john hendren who is on the phone john tell us about your location where you why exactly i know it's in the vicinity of the capitol building and tell us about what's happening. i am on the north. building just

about 4050 feet away from the building where people are trying to break in to the north entrance and cheer. leading from your way there's clearly a standoff between people trying to get in and with the law enforcement people inside. heard people say they're afraid of when we come back. really know. that people out here are fired up ok. we had a little ok john just stand by for a 2nd because we have now a video tweet from president trump this is the actual reaction actually to what. to what joe biden had called on him to do and this is donald trump apparently telling his supporters on the u.s. capitol to go home let's listen people in law and order we don't want anybody hurt

it's a very tough period of time there's never been a time like this where. such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us from me from you from our country this was a fraudulent election but we can't play into the hands of these people we have to have peace so go home we love you you're very special you've seen what happens you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil i know how you feel but go home and go home and peace. that was a message chests recorded just sent to us of us present donald trump a message on twitter actually calling on his supporters to go home i know how you feel he says we know of you but you have to go home he continues of course to. deny

joe biden's victory saying this was a fraudulent election but nonetheless asking on his supporters to respects no an order and to go home she had returned the so the 1st reaction i guess the 1st video reaction of the president to what's happening and heating joe biden's call surprised me. i don't think it was joe biden's go but we promote we understand advisors have been trying to cajole him but this is actually getting maggie haberman here in times like this tends to be the person with the inside white house sources so we should give credit where credit is due back in a moment of the new york times who is saying that sources are telling her that advisors have been trying to get him to say something for a very long time now people close to the white house several official and unofficial aides are trying without success to get the president to issue a stronger statement he's simply to do it he's been furious at pence for refusing

to do something he doesn't have the power to do and that's that that adds on to report that we had was that before donald trump gave his address at the ellipse here at the white house around this morning local time so that i was 11 am local 28123600 g.m.t. but just before he went on mike pence finally told told. in a telephone call i am just not going to do what you are asking me to do consistently in the previous i was out at the speech at the ellipse all told him he was going to do. to disqualify the electoral college votes. might get said look i can't do this you need to release a statement saying he did not believe that it was constitutional right to do that for the vice president have has complete control over the democratic election you know for the president of the united states donald trump was fuming about this as he went on the stage he continued to say pence you've got to do it you've got to do

it to the audience who was here at the ellipse then he came back still very angry we understood and then as the scenes were unfolding on capitol hill we are in the standing is he was still fuming and refusing to say anything because he was so angry frank pence have not done what he had instructed him to do so basically what we had from the president and why is that you know him. i guess not necessarily wanting wanting to do this but forced i guess by his advisors to say something the question you know now is she whether his strums and his call on his supporters to go home can't can stop all this now. put it was a pretty effective media i think joe biden in his own way was saying go on television and do this because i know it was going to watch television and they were probably all looking at their social media and their twitter feeds so this is a more effective media but please the point is they're not only what is you going to do now but never just listen to the tone go the tone of that was look very similar to some of the other tweets we heard from those around the world ivanka

trump called the protesters patriots as they were scaling the walls of the congress and breaking in they vandalize nancy pelosi office but they're still being called patriots and they we understand your rage again we think back to rage no doubt for claims of election. my mouth reasons but but simply her tests against the police killing all of them black people and all troubles off with all of the very idea of this happening around. you know any any sense of any sense of action was was was it was it was on paid patriotic as far as. clearly he understands what has been done to the congress by his supporters but he says it's time to go home yet is the big question now that it's still there still that to an organization exactly that is a strategy exactly and i was going to ask you just that i mean the protester is you know i guess a short term goal of disrupting the certificate of the election results has

somewhat succeeded today but what is ultimately the long term goal what is some supporters long term strategy and his strategy himself he's thousands to go home but says i know how you feel we love you and so on what is he going to do from now . on the reports that we've had for so long in the hall he goes. his moods change and although he knows it's all over he knows however that he wants to keep his supporters in gage and every down them again from those close to trump who have been telling reporters he does every one of them seem to actually believe that maybe there was a chance to overturn the election you know he goes through through these different cycles in the end what has been very clear doesn't want to lose any momentum he doesn't want to be out of the headlines he doesn't want to lose the charge will be the energy of a base the feels that he is the all for 2 of our problems and that is that will

help him decide what he does next after he does leave office which we understand he only knows he will be very shortly the point is there how much of this the constant keeping everything on the boil is simply about donald trump working out his options post presidency and keeping the leverage do we have in place chad thank you very much for the moment i want to speak some more about all this to glenn kahl who is a former deputy national intelligence officer for transnational threat at the cia he is live from boston in massachusetts very good to have you with us thank you for your patience as we continue to watch these unprecedented scenes unfold in the u.s. capitol where if you're just joining us on al-jazeera supporters of president donald trump has stormed the u.s. capitol building today and are refusing to leave so far. on the day that the congress was to certify the election victory of joe biden president tom just

a few minutes ago posted a message on twitter a video message calling on his supporters to go home but telling them at the same time that he knows how they feel he loves them that this was a fraudulent election but to go home a few minutes we've heard from joe biden the president elect who had called on don . to come on national television and tell his supporters to stop and to go home so far nothing seems to have changed still trump's supporters on the steps of the u.s. capitol building again call you know for all of us outside of the united states watching these images this is shocking i think for many people around the world the u.s. is supposed to be the beacon of democracy and today we have what looks like an insurrection really would you have ever expected to see such the scenes in the united states.

well sadly i have to say yes i had expected that this would happen words have consequences. i and many others frankly predicted that the point of the statements made in the actions taken by one political party rank about this there's not a person statement that could only lead to this kind of crisis which is. not to mince words is an insurrection says happened once before the united states is anything $61.00 country split in half and you massacred or each other for 4 years that's not you're not at that point but it was quite clear from the beginning of the trump phenomenon that he embodied a populist. rejection of reason and the trends of society. not only aided and abetted but actually engendered them largely by the

republican party so this is not a surprise is not a surprise you see ed indeed even before the election donald trump you know when he was asked whether he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power had had refused to do so if this was not you know if this was expected and they have been signs in the last few weeks then call. supporters saying they would do something big on january the 6th where was the law enforcement where was security were why were they able to get into the capitol building which is supposed to be one of the most secure buildings in washington d.c. . yes well there's that you raise an important point the the the proximate issue you touched upon which is how could this happen today will surely learn the answer here it is astounding that what was clear to everyone anywhere. was

a clear and present danger was not prepared for today so there's a that is there every series of gaffes made there however i think the larger point needs to be made also and it's an important one that you touched upon and that is that for 20 years now literally 4 for 25 years and more i would say 28 years of as i think of of my work the federal government law enforcement and intelligence. organizations office yes cia what's now the department of homeland security have all assessed every year that the primary threats to american institutions and citizens are right wing native american militia and organizations right when the government agencies said this however the republican leadership at the time and i'm speaking factually i'm not making assertions refused

to let the intelligence community say that we can only say that there were islamic terrorists in there were who were the primary threat so if you refuse to acknowledge reality and you have bet their behavior this is what you get every few zing to acknowledge reality but you know some pictures have been 2nd meeting on social media that we can't obviously independently verify it at this stage you know of today's events and. some people are claiming reports some reports suggest that some of the protesters were able to enter the building because the police opened the gates i mean this is a complete breach of security i mean how again we come to the immediate situation of what's happening today and the question of how they were able to get in the building in the free space what went wrong you think it. well you raise

a very disturbing possibility but i don't i have no information of course on that which would be that they were the demonstrators or rioters he's a dish an ist so traders. were abetted by officials we don't know that. but we have had reports that a number of secret service officers were changed in their assignments because of can from president biden's the to president elect biden's didn't because there had been concern that they were supporters of trump and the opposition to the legal processes of the government i read that in the media from multiple reports that's the only thing that i know right. i'm inclined to find if i may just add one thing i'm inclined to think that what happened however was the police the law enforcement officials choosing not to use violence which is probably the right decision in most

cases so as not to escalate and that was taken advantage of by by demonstrators and that's how the breach may have occurred i do not know but i'm inclined to think that that's a more likely thing approximate xmas certainly a lot of questions that are going to be asked in the next yars the next few days as to how and why these supporters were able to enter that building and then call thank you very much for speaking to us if you're joining us on al-jazeera has gone past 2136 g.m.t. 4 36 pm eastern standard time in washington d.c. as well the capital of the united states where the scenes have been just incredible in the last few hours a knowledge group of supporters of us present donald trump stormed the u.s. capitol building forcing congress to suspend the formal setting cation of joe biden's election victory politicians and their staffs were evacuated and they've even been reports so on. gas being used net lease one person being shot inside the

building the white house has said it was deploying the national guard and federal police to end the occupation of the building by trump supporters a short while ago president trump posted a video online on twitter calling on his supporters to stand down and to go home but at the same time telling them that he understood them that he knew how they felt that he loved them and called them very special people president elect joe biden has also reacted to the situation from delaware his hometown where a few minutes before trump's video was published on twitter joe biden called on the u.s. president himself his message was directed to donald trump called on donald trump to tell his supporters to go home said that this was an insurrection those were the words of joe biden an insurrection which is a very heavy word a very grave word to use in

a situation like this but i think probably many people would agree given the scenes that we've seen in washington d.c. today let's bring in patty kohan one of the many correspondents we have covering this breaking news story for us patty is outside the capitol building patty just looking at the pictures behind you it. looks a bit more calm. than it was just a few hours ago ok we've lost our connection to patty. again we apologize as you can imagine very difficult in this situation to have proper connections we will try to establish re-establish the link with patty and also other correspondents on the ground if you're just joining us let's listen in to the sound byte of president. who spoke again a short while ago i actually posted a video message on twitter a short while ago here's what he had to say. i know you i know you're hurt. we had

an election that was stolen from us it was a landslide election and everyone knows it especially the other side but you have to go home now we have to have peace we have to have law and order we have to respect our great people and law and order we don't want anybody hurt it's a very tough period of time there's never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us from me from you from our country this was a fraudulent election but we can't play into the hands of these people we have to have peace so go home we love you you're very special you've seen what happens you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil i know how you feel but go home and go home and peace. go home and go home in peace the

words of president trying to his supporters who stormed the u.s. capitol building this wednesday january the 6th there seems to be some movement now i mean these are live pictures of. one of the areas outside the capitol building earlier we saw some people coming out of. the building it would seem unclear at this stage whether present supporters are heeding his call to go home but many of them are still camped outside the building itself waiting for lines as you can see americans lined donald trump. pulses and so on wearing the red monga hats as well the symbol of donald trump's supporters. so unclear at this stage whether they have heard his message to go home or not but we have seen some people come out of the building just a few seconds ago we'll keep you posted on what's happening let's bring in gabriel is own doe who is outside the capitol building tell us about way why exactly and

whether you're seeing any movement from inside the building of people actually coming out. people are not coming out of the capitol just to give you an idea now this is the capitol we are on one side of it here and this is where the most intense situation is going on right now yury camera the follow me around going to kind of give you a scene of what it looks like right now could see that there are capitol police up on the steps there many of the people that were there confronting them have moved away but if you crawl over your news direction you could get it if the building is where the biggest potential confrontation. that you can't really be. we see a heavy police presence there then there was a few hours ago. oh. we heard that the national guard from maryland and virginia

were to be deployed any signs of of them any signs of a more heavy police presence. no. no not at all not at least from my perspective where i'm at now there are certainly police are guarding it in a very careful and we saw some. sort of tear gas being shot in the last few minutes but for the most part. they're angry and very simply saying they're just not going . from the president to release but they are just at this juncture. not. heard about. curfew goes into effect a little over an hour and a half from now some people some. here if you can see from the scene right i guess from your vantage point from your vantage point you can see everything on the gate but we do have pictures of of the national guard i understand moving in moving

inside of the building. you'll recall that the governors of the states of maryland and virginia neighboring states. said that they were going to deploy the national guard to help contain the situation inside the building well you can see them now inside the building themselves inside the building and going in a few of them some reporters also inside that building these are the latest pictures coming to us from the associated press i believe and unclear if they were able to get close to the supporters who stormed the building and who were inside but there is now an actual presence of the national guard inside the u.s. capitol building supporters still outside as you can see given elizondo just updating you on what the situation is inside the building tell us about what where you are and what's happening there i believe you're speaking to somebody tell us

about. what he's saying there we go. for. a look gabriel can you hear me yeah that's right we're outside the capitol here and you skeet see there are a lot of trump supporters still out here as you can see there very angry quite frankly is what are they telling you that they say that they want to get their message out that they believe that their. if they believe that clearly there was election fraud in their opinion and that's why there are so many people out here outside the capitol right now a lot of these people say they're simply not going to tell you or say they're not going to give you president trumps words to leave it there and that's why you're seeing so many people out here right now as you can hear chanting usa usa. so some support as they have heard it messed his message it was seen gabriel they've heard his message to go home but they're saying they will not go home.

will not all of them now i mean clearly they're still here as you can see these are the most ardent supporters as you might be able to tell and does not have been. been tear gassed as you can see from this man here it appears that he was. tear gassed a few minutes ago but some of those are not going to go home right now that they're upset and they they said this is their chance to let everyone know in their opinion how man they are and they said this is their side of anger that they're here and getting their message out so i saw thousands of supporters leaving the capitol over an hour ago. but there's are some of the ones that are still obviously here and you can see they're confronting the capitol right police that are in gear there at the at the bottom of this side of the capitol we're at right now yes that all sides you can see from. nice pictures between riot police and supporters

a few hundreds of them from what we can see on this live picture and they're just facing off really waiting for one of 11 or the other side to move right now this is a situation there inside the building itself the national guard has been able to get inside the capitol building but as you can see hundreds if not thousands of supporters still on the steps of the u.s. capitol despite the president calling on them to go home to end. this you know situation and president elect joe biden also calling on supporters to stop their insurrection in his words and calling on the president to urge his supporters to do so as well let's speak to adam goodman now who's a republican strategist he is live from washington d.c. my god adam goodman when i say when everyone is looking at these pictures for them i guess it's unbelievable to see such scenes unfolding in the united states i'll

just ask you 1st for your initial reaction and who is responsible for what we're seeing today who is to blame. my initial reaction is it's a it's horrific and world of blame i mean this is a very dark day in a very dark year for democracy in america i mean there's no other way to put it and one of the things that's been uttered a lot in the last couple of hours are the words law and order i think you know this country has lost its ability to protest without violating lines of law and order and decency and propriety and and safety that we were able to do when your is passed and so we see you know in america you know it doesn't absolute avalanche of incivility incivility creates intolerance intolerance starts to read all sorts of things including this sense of conspiracy i heard one of the the interviews a couple minutes ago on your show. where there's

a suggestion that maybe some of the law enforcement personnel in the capitol had somehow participate in letting some of the protesters into the capitol itself i find that unbelievable that kind of conjecture but it is also understandable that may may say in a culture that it is now become one where all of us in america seem to be at each other's. rhetorical and collective throats on anything and everything and i think again this is an incredibly disturbing dark moment for all of us who is to blame for this doc moment in your view i mean there are many who are saying today that this is a bed that the republican party made and that they're now in it. well answer your question were all the blame you know you might have forgotten but on election night last november in washington d.c. they ordered up half a downtown fearing that if president trump won reelection there be riots so are we

are not capable right now of accepting i think you may say the verdicts of democracy elections where a year ago not 3 months ago not yet last night a year ago for it it's kind of americans did not trust the numbers in an election which put us on the ranking of confidence in democracies 27th among nations in the world 27 barely above turkey so 1st thing we have to do is we've got to clean up i think our election system to be able to create trust whatever that means number 2 is we've got to find a way to be civil with each other again because unless we do we got this what our party maybe in power i think everyone's going to feel powerless to prevent moments like this which we saw shades of you might say in some of the protests that happened in america last year in america's cities it is wrong it's got to be addressed and the answer begins with all of us as americans and. selves in the

mirror and saying we're all someway culpable we've got to do something about this and we have to do it now while the picture of the merry showing right now is of a deeply divided america adam goodman thank you very much for talking to us as bring in patti culhane once again patty just update us on your situation of what's happening around you. well i just saw a lot of police officers come looks like there might be some activity but the scene is really calmed down since we've been here for the last couple of hours and you can see one of the stair stairs has been pretty much emptied out the main staircase case into the capitol still has some trump supporters but more than that we've basically just seen them start to clear out now an alert went out to every cellphone saying it's 6 o'clock there's a curfew and at that point police can start to arrest people but i want to just point out what an amazing scene this has been we started our day and i would take you for a little tour just shows what an a virtual scene this is the entire streets are shut down with emergency police

firefighters ambulances and we started our day in that building that you see right there that's cannon house office building and we were evacuated just as they started to protest the vote to certify the election the police came in and they said there's a suspicious package you need to get out now and they were everyone ran down into the basement because there's tunnels all throughout this complex and they moved us to a different office building so we came out here the other side of the capitol let's not forget donald trump came and spoke to supporters who were closer to the white house and he said i want to march to capitol hill with you so we saw basically as soon as he was in speaking a wall of people just it was a sea of trump supporters and they came up to the capitol and they we saw a tear in here yes deployed flash bangs and then we saw a lot of people move over this way one of the protesters said it's time for us to surround the capitol and what we saw here on the steps is initially there was a line of police officers and they were keeping them back and then the crowd just

literally forced their way in and actually were able to get in to the united states capitol hill i said earlier in the day that i've covered a lot of events in washington state for the union inaugurations and i had you remember seeing a police presence quite this this significant so the question is going to be how did this happen. aljazeera knew that this was a risky situation so they provided me with a security guard so obviously people knew they could get tents the fact that they were able to breach the building get into the chamber is absolutely astounding we're going to be questioned about this these are people are going to lose their job just to see right now although 2 a lot of people started to dissipate they started to head home of course yelling at the media the whole time we've seen now the national police helicopter out rob i don't know if you can pan out. helicopter that goes whenever the president goes usually they scan the rooftops we've seen security capitol police on the roof of

the building so there's going to be a question about how the police responded here and specially if you remember with the summer of the matter right i was going to ask you about that i mean you know when we recall the pictures from this summer and the national guard being deployed the black on the steps of the capitol building there was an incredible picture of you know all these national guard troops standing on the steps of the capitol building block lies matter protesters being tear gassed and so on and here you have . a police presence a lot of security presence almost unique in the 1st hours of this situation unfolding. and that's the prisoner prizing part it wasn't a lack of presence there were a lot of police officers here i can't tell you how was it a lack of action. ok thank you so much. sorry it's

a lack of action i mean the police they might have been outnumbered but they were outgunned nobody is walking around with an open open you're not allowed carry guns in washington d.c. so the question is going to be is why didn't they respond more forcefully i mean and a given given day you can't just walk into the capital there's intense security around here so it is going to be a very serious question of how they let this happen because we knew president trump was fermenting violence since the election he kept saying that it was stolen and again to put this in context and this will we'll see if there's a backlash if you lose some of his base because this is unheard of he is the only president in the history of this country to not only refused to concede but to say the election was stolen from him and these people believe it they've been shouting that were fake news that will roll will report the truth that he actually won the election he didn't win the election he had almost 60 chances in court say to prove

that he lost that it was stolen from he didn't do that he didn't succeed in any one of those challenges so he said you know he told his supporters to stop the steal and what we saw them come here and try to intimidate lawmakers to basically kill democracy and the peaceful transfer of power which they can't do under the constitution so it seems on this side of the capital anyway to be calming down but it has been a remarkable day in america this is the 1st time a president has stoked this sort of action it's the 1st time we've seen the capitol hill overrun by this many people and it is unprecedented it is. patty thank you very much for the moment. these are live pictures of from supporters attacking the media received outside of the capitol building there

destroying equipment i understand from the associated press. is the anger still as you can t. very probable especially towards the media this anger is directed destroying their equipment it is quite incredible that the media is coming under. direct attack from time supporters but at the same time not surprising i guess given that the media has been attacked throughout president presidency let's speak to mabel baer is in who's a professor of sociology at cornell university she's live from new york by skype. a remarkable day in america mr baer is in our last q. 1st for your initial reaction of what we've been seeing the mass chaos on capitol hill and now present supporters attacking the media destroying their equipment what do you make of all this how could this happen in a country like america. well this is very interesting in the sense that

i have spent my entire career studying fascism and right wing populism and i always thought about somewhere else on until the presidency of trauma and i'm not going to actually call me a fascist because i don't think that's a very helpful way to think about what's going on here at the moment. first of all what i am going to say is that on the hopeful side i do think our democratic institutions are going to hold but i also have said that i fully expected violence of some sort on january 6th and there are several reasons for that one of the most obvious is that ever since the election trump has been holding these rallies and every rally he says the election was stolen and on and is we really a protein january 6th that has actually accelerate it. certainly the election that

the rally that he had in george or before the georgia election definitely. was basically planning it to tell people i mean if you plan to read a group that says stop the steal and you buy people to washington d.c. how could you ever expect that to be a peaceful event given the kind of language that he's using so that's the 1st thing you said oh i mean i think it was pretty obvious that something like this is going to happen i have to say having said that i've been i've been surprised i've been watching the events just as everybody else has on me that you've been interviewing the 2nd thing that i think is of great concern in the united states at the moment to say and one of your other one of the other persons that you interviewed actually said this but these groups these kind of fringe groups violent extremists they've been around for a long time united states and they were always considered exactly that missed by

these bears and i apologize i'm going to interrupt you. because we are going to be hearing right now the mayor of washington d.c. . ok the chief of the police and the mayor of washington d.c. are speaking about the situation let's listen in so our jurisdiction they will be under my command under my authority and they will be deployed 'd to assist us with the clearing operation. ok here's a mare d.c. mariel browser who is going to be speaking right now. we have a curtain. apologies we're having sound issues there the media d.c. mare. giving a news conference there as present supporters continue to occupy the steps of the

u.s. capitol a curfew has been announced in washington d.c. starting at 6 pm which is in about an hour from now it's now 5 pm in washington d.c. coming up to 2200 hours g.m.t. if you're just joining us on al-jazeera this is continuing coverage of the incredible situation unfolding in washington d.c. this january the 6th on the day that the u.s. congress was to certify the election victory of joe biden president supporters stormed the congress building. and are now still out on the streets. rejecting the victory of joe biden and saying that this election was stolen from the president from. let's listen to the police chief of washington d.c. once again. you're you.