why it's surely true that once he leaves office the number of quivers in that he has an order to attack his enemy plunges considerably he's off of twitter is off of facebook it's not clear how much he won't be able to offer you know any pardons is not able to offer any grants he's not a year old offer any political favors and he's not able to threaten with investigations or anything else he could utilize executive power for treats halley we know he's notorious for firing anybody and trying to isolate and fire from from positions of authority anyone who opposed him but that all vanishes once he leaves office he still will have a core of supporters but i think they will dwindle by at least half there are a large portion of the electorate who just wants to be along with the winner and trump keeps talking about himself as a winner well he's a loser when he's out of office mr biden won and mr biden is no george washington

as a candidate he lost to a candidate in my judgment is rather mediocre and that is a cast of aspersion i think on on trump's credibility and candidacy a so when he loses all of the regalia of the presidency i think we'll see his base shrink it will not evaporate bennell shrink fast and shrink even faster if what i believe is going to happen he will be criminally prosecuted for the multiple crimes he committed well president he loses any munity shield and once he's a convicted criminal and felon then his luster will d.m. even further so even if we do see 2 inside and out of the picture he still has children he still has other people that support him like ted cruz that you mentioned where does the you might say truck base if it wants to follow who do they move towards gravitate towards because inevitably that not going away. it's not clear to me that they will have anyone after all trump was unique

a narcissist we have the trump supporters pledging to try to execute vice president pence who stood by trump from beginning to end and is still doing so now with the 25th amendment and so if they want to execute you know the inner circle if you will of mr trump i don't think they have anybody but just a personality and when the personality goes i think they will fracture they don't have any particular etiology or philosophy it's just a personal loyalty for whatever reasons which is the cult of personality that we see in dictatorships that have sprinkled throughout history whether between the wars or otherwise so this idea that there's going to be someone who stands in trump shoes i think is a delusion or there isn't anyone else and trump has made clear he does a lot anyone else because it's all about him in terms of where we are now with the

united states the way the world is watching and if you watch any international channel at the moment or even any domestic channel they're all dipping into what's happening in the house and have been since well before the election process. from international audience how is the debate about how the u.s. is perceived joining this very difficult time being relayed to the american public or do americans the heart really care about what the international community think or are they really more focused on what is going on right now in terms of democracy and how they move forward if the council. well the americans are very procul in all circumstances so we largely disregard you know what foreign feeling is and i think that was clearly an earmark of the trumpet ministration if you will and fortunately we have this empire arrogant mentality where we think we rule the world and so who cares what anyone else thinks whether it's nato whether it's the middle east and we

do what we want to do we list people as terrorist organizations or take them off at will just today we decided that you know he ran as housing al qaeda and we put cuba back on the list of terrorist organization with the houdinis irrespective of what sentiments from abroad were heard so i think that the american people are not influenced by the views from abroad i do think the american people however are concerned because they saw right before their eyes an assault on the citadel on the temple of our constitutional dispensation and what was so grievous was that those who assaulted the capitol were given every conceivable 1st amendment opportunity to voice their grievances and a peaceful way marching shouting and singing in slogans up on capitol hill i know because i've been in the midst of them a half a dozen times in the last several months so they had opportunities to try to

persuade urge others that they should be supported they had opportunities in 2024 to try to oust mr biden through a peaceful process they had 60 opportunities in courts to have their claims of fraudulent voting consider they lost all of them including in the united states supreme court they do not confronting red square tinana mean square and despite the greatest openness probably in the history of the world to political dissent even on the far right they resort to violence and part of it and for not most of it. from president trump's incitement and with his personal attorney rudy giuliani saying it's time for a trial by combat namely we need to use force and violence to decide this dispute not due process and that is what is so concerned the american people and again. bruce if we just take a sort of a micro vision of what actually happened slowly as as these house lawmakers have

been speaking at the podium more of more details have emerged of what happened on the 6 i mean gay scandal and the democratic house representative talked about you know police being tasered potentially with their own guns one shot with his own gun one officer lost an eye we already know that one officer died i mean these details are only emerging now in the last 24 hours because lawmakers are able to you might say paint the picture that they experience to explain to the american people this is what happened how shocking is it that we are getting this sort of detail that we didn't get maybe 4 or 5 days ago. well i don't think the belated this is shocking after all you're trying to you know put together a huge jigsaw puzzle if that doesn't downplay the enormity of the horror and the

crimes but it isn't as though you can interrogate you know everybody at once the initial focus is the culprit sue needed to be apprehended and caught and certainly there were capitol police who were fraternizing with the enemy but i do think that the detail that's coming out now does impact because people are riveted by these personal stories that given this to the tragedy that occurred the crime of criminality that occurred and it's not only just the members and what happened on capitol hill but the stories now emerging that president trump unself was fixated on watching what he had awakened insurrection and crimes on t.v. and he was immune in deference to pleas from his own party leaders you need to help us you need to call off the thugs you need to send troops to the guard to prevent this vandalism from destroying the capital and he was indifferent to all of it even

to pleas from his daughter and son in law and that is what strikes home the american people don't need to be high quality lawyers to understand the horror the moral reprehensive building of such indifference in these kinds of circumstances and that i think is going to move the country each day in more detail comes out to further and further insist that president trump be impeached convicted removed and disqualified in 2024. bruce fein the former us associate deputy attorney general good to have you inside i'm sure we'll be continuing to get more comment from bruce as the evening progresses thanks to your time for the moment it's get back to proceedings in the house of representatives where the debate continues on the democratic resolution calling on vice president mike pence to invoke the 25th amendment to dismiss donald trump we expected to be passed though there is staunch

opposition from republicans just listening pursuant to house resolution 38 the previous question is ordered on the resolution and on the preamble as amended the question this question is on adoption of the resolution those in favor say aye. those oppose no. knives at it have a resolution is agreed to as the speaker. and speaker and as for recorded are restored to section 3. of the house resolution 8 the yeas and nays are order members will record their votes by electronic device. so the house speaker it's right about what $1014.00 leaving washington d.c. is now taking an electronic vote of the resolution to invoke the 25th

amendment there was of course a vocal vote which seemed pretty equal and for the not in the electronic but let's bring in mike and mike it does seem that the debate has certainly ended so now as the vote continues just talk us through the process of the timeline. well what is happening now is that the vote has been called for an electronic vote they will be tabulating that both over the next few minutes the bender's of the house will come in as they have been throughout this debate they cannot all be in the house at the same time so they will not be taking this electronic vote what will happen we know already vice president mike pence has said that he will not comply with the motion that is about to be passed in the house of representatives nevertheless the representatives went ahead and voted and we do know that given the

democratic majority in the house this motion will pass but given mike pence his refusal to take any action in terms of the 25th amendment something that he said in the letter to the speaker of the house nancy pelosi what we will now see is an immediate will virtually immediate move to an impeachment process the debate will begin 1st thing tomorrow morning last through the day the impeachment managers have been announced by the speaker of the house so there will be an impeachment process in the house of representatives regardless of what happens with this motion in the next few minutes of course has been impassioned speeches made at the podiums for and against this resolution and a very clear you might say divide certainly between democrats and republicans on what happened and who instigated it.

very much many republicans are trying to absolve president trump of any responsibility for the events last wednesday speaking about the mobs acting as though they were acting independently of the words spoken by the president shortly before all that violence broke out at the capitol the democrats on the other hand absolutely insistent that what the president is guilty of is incitement that the speech that he made before the events that the capital incite to the crowd the words that he used to inflammatory and it was his intent many democrats argue that the crowd proceed to the capital now this is the divide between the 2 but it's an important point to stress here so that the comments being made during this debate on this particular motion may be slightly different among some not all but among some republicans during the impeachment debate the reason

a number of those republicans in addition to the objections that you mentioned a number of them as well also made reference to the point that mike pence said made that the the 25th amendment is not designed constitutionally as a weapon of punishment that 20 for the men been to the forethought to kill of the 24th amendment is put there to deal with the incapacitation normally the physical incompetent capacitate sion of a president so some of those republicans who objected to this motion may well a shift or rather not shift but on a different emotion and that is that of impeachment for the for incitement as the article has put it they may be a different vote not now at this stage we know that at least 4 republican representatives have already said that they will support impeachment now this is a very important point because it moves us away from any comparison to what happened last time. president trump was impeached in the house then it was an

actively part of that process all the democrats voted to impeach and all the republicans voted not to the republican whips absolutely insisted that the party line be towed and nobody was allowed to move out of that particular republican position now the minority leader in the house is saying that members must vote with their conscience he himself has said he will not support impeachment but unlike the previous occasion he is saying that members must vote with a conscience that there is no over rocking guideline being put down by the republican leadership in the house whether that happens in the senate if or maybe when it goes to trial that is something that we'll see it is significant that there has been no public statement from the majority leader in the senate mitch mcconnell on his position on the whole matter whether or not he will allow members of the senate to vote their conscience just as is happening or has been recommended in the

house and of course outside of the capitol we saw the president had to texas absolving himself of any blame of what happened on the 6th of january. well he continues to insist that what happened at the capitol had nothing to do with him he said so yes absolutely no responsibility he said that his speech was and here's another word perfect it's a reference e. made to a phone call that he was impeached for the last time so the president trying to absolutely and repented and this is actually an interesting point too because there is the possibility that a number of republicans and one at least has stated this specifically and that is that president trance lack of contrition for what his actions allegedly led to has actually made her want to support impeachment now there may be other republicans who feel that particular way because the president from statements show absolutely

no contrition whatsoever for what happened at the capitol he says that he's against all violence and yet at the same time you still cannot get away from what he said during that speech so there are ways that president trance comments in the course of the day may actually work strongly against him certainly in some individual cases we know that they have and we will see in the vote on impeachment tomorrow just how much of an impact president trances lack of response of contrition his lack of willingness to accept any form of responsibility for what happened will further drive a witch in the republican party and may be great at defections from the position that he should not be impeached may occur over the next 24 hours or so as the house debates the impeachment article. and this is why the vote is happening right now an

assault on the capitol last week let's remind you of what happened these are the pictures of the capitol police guns drawn trying to protest to protest lawmakers from protests to protect lawmakers from protesters democrats have been furious and of course they want to hold the president accountable for inciting what they call an insurrection really serious scenes that were played down on live television not just across the u.s. but across the world mike and again outside of the capitol even we could say today we've had a or read about a memo from the military leadership the joint chiefs of staff they get very clear to military personnel in the armed forces about what their role is in the united states of america in 2021. well that was a very unusual move by the joint chiefs of staff and one that i cannot recall having been made before where the joint chiefs of staff has to remind the members

of the military what the obligations are in terms of serving and protecting the people of this country but it was significant as well that in that memorandum distributed throughout the department of defense into all branches of the department of defense throughout the united states and further afield it was stated too that joe biden will become the next president of the united states now the military leadership making very clear there that they are going to follow the constitutional provisions that they will not in any way support any form of protest against the constitutional right of the new president the president elect to formally take office on january the 20th i must mention as well so that a few weeks ago all living 10 members of the former secretaries of defense wrote a joint letter to the media in which they heavily criticized president trump making

very clear that they believe that he was unfit to govern now he got the joint chiefs of staff basically not stating that directly but in this unusual move sending a signal to the men and women of the armed forces of the united states reminding them of the constitutional obligation to protect the constitutional process and reminding them very importantly that joe biden is going to be the next president of the united states it's basically very subtle dig at president trump and a very strong reminder that the u.s. military will remain. in the p.d.s. to the constitution and to who is going to be the commander in chief in this case the servicemen and women are reminded that that is going to be joe biden. on january the 20th mark thanks very much for the update of course we'll continue to monitor what goes on in the house over the next few minutes while this vote

continues on the resolution to invoke the 25th amendment let's go back to bruce fein also in washington d.c. bruce again you've been monitoring events for us and watching what's going on right now the vote proceeds here in the house we're also still seeing congressman speaking at the lectern what will they be saying despite the fact screen there. we haven't quite got bruce there at the moment of course what you're seeing here live on al-jazeera in that we are watching the house of representatives and the legislators there vote on the resolution to the 25th amendment the 4th article of the 25th amendment which would request that the vice president of the

united states. convene the cabinet to gain at least 3 quarters of their permission to remove the president for being incapacitated for want to the better word the debate really is where the 25th amendment can be used as a punishment or it is in fact used for medical purposes to remove the president when they are medically incapacitated. i think we can join bruce fein again back who's been monitoring it for us bruce good to have you back with us obviously the vote continues at the moment to it has been a debate for the last several hours on the issue of what the 25th amendment is all about just briefly for our international viewers why is it so contested in this particular debate about whether this should be a vote and why the vice president is not entertaining the idea. well 1st why does it matter the reason why it matters is that under the 25th amendment.

the power immediately could be moved to the vice president. from the president by a simple letter from the president and vice president and a majority of the cabinet stating that in the words of the 25th amendment the president is an able to discharge the duties of his office the language of the 25th amendment nowhere uses the words incapacity says unable to discharge the duties and the reason why it's relevant is that the 25th amendment can take effect immediately so mr trump would be disarmed from issuing pardons to the thugs who assaulted and stormed the capitol and pardons to himself is arm mr trump from trying to utilize the military to interfere with the elections or even attack an alleged foreign foe like iran or use the bully pulpit to embolden

incite his supporters to again storm the capitol at the time of the inauguration so that's why the 25th amendment is relevant however the 25th amendment is a decision up to the vice president and the cabinet to make and not the house and i do believe that because of mr trump mr pence a statement that he's not going to invoke at this exercise this evening has really been an exercise of debating points it's kind of a dress rehearsal for the arguments that will be advanced when it comes to voting on the impeachment articles. and of course as the vote continues not there's less than what 2 minutes of time remaining for that vote to proceed we have just wires dropping i'd like your comment on bruce the u.s. capitol police warned congress in july that rebellion against a covert 1000 precautions could accelerate to violence and that there was also the

threat of revolutionary extremists that's coming from john donoghue who was the head of capitol police is now recruited by them as a consultant i mean the warning signs about an insurrection or about a mob violence near a towards the election near a towards the inauguration was there has been there for months. well that's true but i view what transpired like you know a hurricane that's once in a 100 or 200 years i know because i live right on capitol hill right behind the house and senate office buildings in the u.s. supreme court and i walk to my work every day right in front of the capitol where half a dozen or more trunk demonstrations occurred during the months that these warning signals happen you're getting warning singles and chatter all of the time but it was generally uniform throughout these half dozen or more. demonstrations

that other than small episodes of violence or disruption it was largely peaceful and you always have rockets voices and it's oftentimes difficult to discern the difference between someone who's letting off steam and someone who really has a criminal intent and remembers well the capitol has been unique in displaying an openness that's unlike the white house and freedom of expression and opportunities to exercise 1st amendment rights because it's a symbol of who we are as a people we don't have a pretty you don't have all of the barriers that you find around the white house so there's a reluctance you know to anticipate something that is a happened hadn't happened in 230 years certainly not with a president inciting a seditious conspiracy an insurrection with a personal lawyer calling for trial by combat those aren't things you can to say and so yeah you had warning signals and there were course warning signals about 911

there warning signals almost all the time about something because there are all sorts of chatter and people engage sometimes in idle chatter and sometimes not so i didn't want to be overly strict and say well they're to be faulted because they didn't come out you know armed in advance i would have rather have our country err on the. i had of acknowledging and giving an opportunity to exercise 1st amendment protest activities then at the 1st sign of any conceivable alarm no turning out the national guard and and weaponize ing at the capitol police and shutting down the demonstrations i believe their therapeutic about obviously this one went too far but it went too far because the president incited them and some of them to violence and to combat it in what we what we watched in horror and indeed way way to see now at the moment the way the republicans are behaving all the discourse is because obviously in the house it's quite divided at the moment in the way that they've

been debating the amendment of the. invoking the 25th amendment such yet they're all rumblings over in the senate that there is a great deal of unhappiness with the president and people that are changing that attitude mitch mcconnell liz cheney mitt romney was always the. well i think that the tide is turning against mr trump and his crowd he certainly does have supporters but i think it will dwindle substantially when he loses the power of the presidency because he no longer has the ability to threaten or to offer rewards and to his supporters outside the white house no pardons no money no vetoes of bills no executive orders all of that vanishes and the dish and all element that i believe is critical in some sense of having the republican

party move on is holding president accountable to the criminal law and that would be the final nail in the coffin there still be a few hard injures and call even a jury verdict beyond a reasonable doubt is another which one but he has committed virtually scores of felonies well he's been in office and just one would be sufficient i think to end his political career and the republican party then could start to move forward until that happens no matter what the outcome of the pietschmann they'll be sufficiently large republican support for him and his supporters to keep the knee keep the party fractured and make it very difficult for them to recover 2022 or 2024 we're seeing certainly in the last few days or the departure of such a couple of members such as the secretary of transports the education secretary and also news also dropping nothing in the last 24 hours of the director of communications resigning from ted cruz's office ted cruz of course being

a staunch supporter of the president but there are many people you might see in the background that just aren't happy with what's happened what they've seen what they're experiencing on the messaging from the republican party on the front was beginning to appear deeper than just what we see on the surface. well i think that surely true there are some people who are reluctant to be vocal and i have some sympathy because trump has trained to supporters to threaten such people with retaliation including death threats against even the vice president of the united states so you can imagine the kind of. of resentment and and hostility that trump has tried to awaken towards anybody who says anything against him. and his supporters being willing to resort to violence you really

think you're going to get people wanting to jump up and down and expose themselves when they see even the vice president of the united states could be targeted for execution and that's why i think even though there's a defection and a quiet defection from trump it's going to be remain by and large low key until we put these thugs in prison and we enable people you know to act politically without fearing you know that they will be subject to some kind of physical retaliation if they stand up and exercise their common rights as u.s. citizens you know to follow their political principles and ideas were to see what does up in bruce always good to get your insights. opinion of course we'll continue to monitor events with you as that i proceeds you are watching al-jazeera english on social raman live in doha it's just called over 400 g.m.t. that's 11 o'clock in the evening in washington d.c. let's bring you the latest members of the u.s. house of representatives.