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 i quite defections 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 we should see what does happen bruce always good to get your insights and opinion of course we'll continue to monitor events with you as the night proceeds you are watching al-jazeera english on social raman live in doha it's just gone 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 are voting on

a measure calling on vice president mike pence to remove donald trump from office then says already ruled out invoking the 25th amendment to declare the president unfit to hold office well here's how the debate has played out so far in the house mr speaker this is a sad day for our country that we have to come to the floor in a way to defend the constitution of the united states at this time the facts are very clear that president hold for this the dishes attack while section 4 of the 25th amendment has never been used a plain reading of the text coupled with the context of its ratification contemplates a very different scenario from the one we are currently in let's unite against donald trump who inspired terrorists to carry a confederate flag into this capitol display a noose and desecrate the people's house the vice president have given you your amp

for before you ask the question. no legitimate purpose to this resolution remains your ultimate m does violence to a core feature of the architecture of the constitution the devastating bruises on our nation so good only begin to heal but removing the weapon use to bludgeon us the vice president must invoke the 25th the memmott to immediately remove power from this dangerous president this is a deeply unpopular impeachment the public wishes we were here dealing with corona virus not the virus of trump hatred that you seem to have found no vaccine for by kind of joins us now live from washington d.c. with a quick update of what's happening in the house right now the voting continues for the moment mike. here is indeed and it does

largely here to be going along party lines all them democrats are voting in favor of the motion the majority of republicans of voting against although i notice that there is one republican vote in the gay column at this particular point but as i said the differences between the debate on this particular motion and the debate that's going to be happening on the impeachment may be substantially different in a number of ways a number of those republicans who are voting against this motion objected to the use of the 25th amendment as a tool of punishment a number of them not all of them certainly making this the reason for voting against the motion whether they have any reason to vote against impeachment that is something that we'll see in the next 24 hours but another element i must mentions that we haven't really touched on is that in the course of the day as well there was a briefing from the f.b.i. and the attorney general now this was significant because they had held no news

conferences since those events of wednesday so there were questions why they had been so quiet for so long given the enormity of what happened but the point i was trying to make is that among the points made at that news conference was that the crimes being investigated as a consequence of what happened last week range from a misdemeanor like trespassing right through the gamut up to charges of conspiracy . incitement and murder so this was just a reminder of exactly how serious this was and how seriously many of those in congress who will be debating impeachment tomorrow view the words that they allege president trump used to send people to the capitol to commit acts that the law enforcement personnel have on this day been saying covers the gamut of crimes including conspiracy. sedition and murder so there's

a lot at stake here and the debate that's going to be taking place in the house tomorrow is likely to reflect that new information that was given by the f.b.i. and the acting attorney general in the course of this day's yeah i was watching a press conference by can he talked about a strike force to pursue seditious and conspiracy investigations and charges against those who attack the u.s. government agencies and investigate public officials the phrase public officials has got commentators in the u.s. you might say on alert. indeed yes well it's made very clear that this is going to be a very very wide ranging investigation and the acting attorney general saying in fact that this is unprecedented the scale of the investigation in u.s. history now you mentioned strike forces there what was made clear is that the investigating teams are being broken down into specific areas of investigation so

you have for example any crimes potential crimes carried out by as that were public officials now that could once again cover a large range of individuals ranging perhaps from some politicians perhaps even the president's personal lawyer who also made what many would regard as inflammatory statements before the violence broke out but it also includes some members of the capitol police suv already been suspended or fired from the force because of their involvement in terms of supporting or condoning on the face of it those demonstrations but along with the strike forces as well is one for example that is investigating act acts against the media so the whole investigation has been broken down into elements where particular groups of investigators are focusing on particular areas of crime now what was significant as well that emerged from that news conference is that

a grand jury has already been established and prosecutors are already parading evidence before that grand jury now why this is important to in the context of the impeachment is that if or maybe when the house does impeach president at some stage whether it's the media too whether it's held back for a while it will go for trial in the senate now all of these investigations being carried out at the moment are potentially ammunition for evidence to be heard in a senate trial now that did not happen in president translight. impeachment mitch mcconnell backed completely blocked any attempt to introduce evidence or witnesses that may be very different on this occasion and what is being investigated at the moment is the type of evidence that could and i stress could be brought into a senate trial to be discussed to be debated to be heard so these investigations

that are going on at the moment may well to provide material for a senate to decide whether or not to convict president trump of impeachment just bear with us mind let's just remind our viewers what's being going on the vote is happening right now with just 7 days left before joe biden takes the oath as the $46.00 president of the united states now the president of the salt on the capitol last week has drawn house representatives to this moment these are pictures of the capitol police with guns drawn trying to protect lawmakers from protesters in the house the same place where the vote is taking place right now the democrats have been furious they want to hold the president accountable for inciting what they call an insurrection so they want the vice president to invoke the 25th amendment of the constitution mike beyond the you know there's a parallel you might say reality going on and that's in the president's head he has

been vocal on what's going on in the house and he's also been very vocal about his position about the events of the 6th of january. well once again president trump. phrase it as an alternative reality once again he has absolutely insisted that he has no responsibility for what happened last wednesday he has categorize the move to impeach him as another witch hunt now that's a phrase is used many times during the 4 years of his administration times in which he has come under investigation or under suspicion of conduct not becoming a president some may argue at particular points criminal or certainly anti constitutional conduct in each particular case he has captured to arise did as a witch hunt something that his supporters have seized upon and this brings it back to the importance of this process being as bipartisan as possible if it remains in

a partisan basis as the previous impeachment was that does give ammunition to president trying to continue to claim that this is all about a political witch and give some kind of fodder to his a base to argue to their president trump is a victim of political forces rather than a president who incited a crowd to commit acts ranging up to sedation and even murder so the whole issue of whether or not this is completely partisan process is very very important. that single vote that we see in there being registered by republican many in the house certainly democrats in the house would hope that the a lot more republican votes that appear in that column in the course of the proceedings or when the vote is taken after the debate about impeachment probably by the end of tomorrow i think that if my math says correct mike we can see that

there are enough votes now then for that resolution to have passed 217 so far against 204 the maximum that the nays can get is 210 so the vote has passed how it will be acted on as we know will be. for the politicians to discuss in the coming hours course will join mike and our colleagues in washington d.c. for more analysis as the day progresses but let's bring in dr ritchie historian an officer of the u.s. senate joins me now via skype from bethesda in maryland thanks very much for your patience obviously a lot of stuff going on the staging that we're monitoring before we sort of talk about the historical context of how this particular vote fits saying in terms of impeachment what's your impression about the basis on which this debate has occurred and the discourse that we're hearing well i think the majority party right now in the house would like the president to resign and

he's not going to do that so the next step is to ask the vice president to invoke what he thought that meant it doesn't appear that he's going to do that and the next step after there will be an impeachment and the house can impeach by a simple majority but the senate has to cast 2 thirds vote to convict someone so the less the president. trying to get removed because they fail to get the 2 thirds vote what usually happens is if there is a straight party line vote in the house it's almost impossible to get a bipartisan vote so if there's a very large bipartisan vote in the house then people have been removed in the senate have tradition trials and so it's very difficult to compare any one incident with those events of the past but one does sort of allude to the nixon era the andrew johnson era can we just start perhaps with the andrew johnson

a or and how that for our international viewers who may not know so much about president johnson's time in office how that compares to what we're seeing today. and there are a lot of similarities johnson was abraham lincoln's vice president when lincoln was assassinated he became president and he was out of step with the majority republican party in the house and in the senate they differed greatly over reconstruction policies johnson was much softer towards the south than the republicans in congress were and so they battled for years but in the last year of johnson's presidency when it was pretty clear that he wasn't going to be reelected or even read tom added the congress still must have faith in him and be so angry with him that they moved to impeach him and there was a very low and very arduous and pietschmann trial for the set the house passed by a very large majority and then it went to the senate where the republicans actually had 2 thirds of the vote in the senate and so there was

a very good possibility he would have been removed from office of his last months as president but about 7 republican senators chose not to vote to convict him on the grounds that they would weaken the institution of the presidency. then that johnson was essentially. out of office very shortly and he have and so that made people very reluctant to move to impeach when congress is unhappy with presidents until you get to president nixon and in that case the house was just about to impeach him and several senators went to visit president nixon and said you don't have the votes in the senate to sustain you you're going to be if you're impeached in the house you'll be convicted in the senate and with that information he chose to resign rather than to be removed how does that change that in the in the amendment the 25th amendment won't it's been in place but what 50 as well so now how is that the all you might say the legal process of the relationship between the

house and the senate. it's had very little impact up till now it was invoked after the assassination of president kennedy and their united states when for about a year without a vice president president johnson it had a heart attack a decade earlier so that people who worried about them and there were also some talk johnson had been in the same motorcade with kennedy would kennedy was shot suppose the vice president had been killed along with the president what would have happened and so the congress rather promptly in the mid 1960 s. connected the 25th amendment to the 1st part of it is to allow a president to appoint a new vice president if there is a vacancy the 2nd part of it is for the president to designate. the vice president the acting president if acim recently was incapacitated and the 3rd part

is for the vice president and the members of the cabinet to declare that the president is incapacitated to remove them at that stage so the only parts of this that have been invoked up till now are replacing the vice presidency when spiro agnew resigned gerald ford was appointed as viceroy elected as vice president elected by the congress and then nelson rockefeller was elected. those are the only 2 instances but there have been several 1000 presidents undergone some surgery and they've actually had active presidents during that period and he'd like president bush as pays radio as we look forward now there are a new chapters being written by historians about how this particular scenario is going to be perceived by future generations but how confusing an issue is it to. write about to talk about to think about how to put pen to paper in what has been a very divisive usa right now i mean and to be set of dean doesn't show you want to

be as neutral. exactly it's a very difficult situation and the united states constitution has a very short constitution it's one of the sureness in the world in fact it's shorter than any one of our state constitutions and therefore it's also a very ambiguous constitution and we've spent the last 200 years arguing over every sentence in the constitution so this is a new test for the 25th amendment is not been applied that way it doesn't mean that it's not necessarily. a valid use of the moment but certainly one way or another that what this debate will set a precedent and historians will be writing about that the jurist will be examining as well that history and certainly you know trying very hard to find examples in american history and they for the most part when i was senate historian i used to say that there was nothing that was unprecedented it to a good years but the last 4 years have been filled with unprecedented events and so

it's going to take us a very long time to sort through them and to see what kind of consequences there are and they the still 7 more days to go so who knows what might happen for the moment ted all right changes are you going to get your insight and your thoughts thanks for joining us from the festa in maryland my pleasure. let's just show you what's going on this is the house at the moment the voting seems to either continue i think is just about finished but the voting itself or the push to invoke the 25th amendment of the constitution to ask the vice president to remove the president has been. agreed to 20 yeah a to $205.00 nays a few still more votes to 8 more votes to go but that's not going to much of a difference whether it's actually impacted on the vice president it seems it's not going to happen the vice president certainly bussing it to one side for the way

will get more reaction on that vote and how and what happens next in both the house and in the senate in a few minutes time meanwhile let's also tell you that the u.s. federal prosecutors say that criminal charges have been placed on 70 people involved in last week's capitol attack and it expects of that number to grow into hundreds now the f.b.i. says it's already received more than 100000 videos and pictures to help identify the perpetrators and the justice department says that it's considering sedition charges of some of the rioters but is punishable in the u.s. by up to 20 years in prison the f.b.i. receives enormous amounts of information intelligence in our job is to determine the credibility and viability of it under the laws and policies that govern f.b.i. investigations we have to separate the aspirational from the intentional in determining which of the individuals saying despicable things on the internet or

just practicing keyboard bravado where they actually have the intent to do harm in the latter we work diligently to identify them and prevent them from doing so. the secretary of state says al qaeda has a stablished a new home base in iran although he hasn't presented any hard evidence in a speech 8 days before he leaves office might pompei is that the group was operating under the protection of the iranian government so iran has dismissed the claims as war mongering lies alan fisher has more from the white house. might bumpy or his spent the day in days of the trumpet ministration trying to burnish it and his foreign policy credentials in a speech at washington's national press club he claimed an old enemy had phone support from another longtime u.s. adversary al-qaeda has

a new home base it is the islamic republic of iran as a result dillard's wicked creation is poised to gain strength and capabilities we ignore this iran or qaeda nexus at our own peril. we need to acknowledge it we must confront it indeed we must defeat it president donald trump pulled out of the iran nuclear deal in $20000.00 finally fulfilling an election promise his administration then pursued a campaign it described as maximum pressure indeed forcing to iran back to the negotiating table imposing tough sanctions but others who negotiated the deal refused to leave with the americans insists other countries must wake up to the danger the iranians though have dismissed american claims the foreign minister tweeting that pompey or was pathetically ending his disastrous career with more war mongering lies relations between washington and tehran have deteriorated even

farther in the last 12 months. in january last year the u.s. carried out the targeted killing of kassam cilla manny the head of iran's revolutionary guard force in baghdad and the u.s. aircraft carrier his company in the region responding to what the americans call threats from people has claimed links between iran and al qaeda in the past without providing any firm evidence one expert says this is more of the same if there were any areas whatsoever they would have rolled that out very quickly and very early in order to further justify the maximum pressure campaign against you are they my pump has been cranking up the pressure on iran in recent weeks and is even fresh sanctions those close to joe biden believe that this is calculated the intention to make it more difficult for him to reengage with iran when he takes over on january the 20th alan fischer al-jazeera at the white house also jabari has more on iranian

reaction from the capital tehran. but the position here is that these are seen as and it really desperate attempts in the final days of the trump administration to try and really further destabilize this region and that's something that they have not been successful in doing to spite the numerous efforts that they've undertaken over the past 4 years but what was significant about the specifics speech by the secretary of state was that he drew links between these 2 between these 2 groups iran and al qaeda when they are very very different ideologies they have very different goals and iran has said in the past that these claims are simply false when it came to the assassination of the so-called al-qaeda leader on the streets of tehran in august the foreign minister jogs or effect said in the past recently

that you know those president like joe biden from his years of being a diplomat the range. representative to the united nations. the reef had met joe biden on a number of occasions welter of both working at the united nations so they do have some kind of a history and he said that he believes joe biden to be much more well versed in foreign policy and understands foreign politics much better than donald trump so there is a sense of optimism that the 6 months that this ronnie administration has left there could be some kind of. easing of tensions at least before iran has its next presidential elections so we're just hoping for the best at this stage but this latest claims are going to be completely dismissed by iran and seen as very ridiculous at this stage.

the window of lying to the u.s. will soon need to show proof of a negative test the covert 19 the measure expands on a rule already in place for travelers from the united kingdom but the centers for disease control says it's trying to stop the spread of more contagious variants of the virus the new measures take effect on january the 26. hospitals are overwhelmed and cases of covert 90 the surging is just recorded its worst days for health of the 4500 in the us and more than 200000 new cases but as rob reynolds reports from los angeles doctors fear of the worse is yet to come. at one of los angeles's largest hospitals co but 19 patients are packed for 2 or room with only one nurse to care for them waiting rooms have become treatment centers nearby multiple hospital staff reposition patients so they can pull enough oxygen into their lungs it's likely to get worse in a c. another huge surge upon surge it'll happen in the next $7.00 to $10.00 days some

are describing it as a viral tsunami across the u.s. more than 100000 people have been hospitalized with coded for the past 40 days in a row across the country mass vaccination centers are being set up including at disneyland and dodger stadium in southern california at a sports complex near fort worth texas and of football stadium outside of boston massachusetts plans to start out doing $300.00 vaccines per day but it's going to build up to administering $5000.00 vaccines pre-date so far the vaccination program has been slower than expected and with no nationwide plan in place often haphazard early tuesday morning in north carolina hundreds of elderly people waited for hours in a drive through vaccination center but many of them were turned away when supplies ran out the trump administration announced on tuesday it would no longer hold back

millions of vaccine doses it had been reserving for 2nd shots every vaccine dose that is sitting in a warehouse rather than going into an armed could mean one more life lost or one more hospital bed occupied the about face came days after president elect joe biden said he would do the same thing once he takes office 1000 is infected several gorillas at the san diego zoo safari park the 1st known transmission to great apes the gorillas tested positive after they began coughing officials believe an asymptomatic disease. who stand for unwittingly gave them the virus they're doing ok they're experiencing some mild symptoms and we continue to observe them but they're drinking they're eating and they're interacting with one another zubin or near eons expect the gorillas to make a full recovery but more than 376000 americans have no died from cold at

19 robert oulds los angeles 'd police in the united kingdom are set to get tougher lockdown rubra rule breakers as the country fights an infection surge london's police chief says police people who breach restrictions are more likely to be fined while the home secretary says the current rules are tough enough but always a dear of you there have been more than 83000 grow the virus deaths in the u.k. the european commission president is urging health ministers from e.u. member states to stick to a joint strategy on grow the virus vaccines the e.u. is negotiating contracts with vaccine developers as a block but some may be breaking away to make their own deals with suppliers it's prompted commission president is live all delay and to contact health minister small 27 member states for reassurance of their sticking to the joint plan china has reported $150.00 new krona virus cases lies daily increase in more than 5

months tuesday's figures are up for $55.00 cases a day or thorough tease of put 3 cities in hue bay province the lock down to curb the spread before the upcoming luda whole are today. president djoko were due to become the 1st person in the country to be vaccinated against quote a virus he was given the chinese made kuroda back job in plans to inoculate more than a 180000000 people about 2 thirds of the population by march next year pax nation of health workers will begin on thursday infections are at their peak averaging more than $9000.00 per day more than $24000.00 people have died since the pandemic because. what you have is there with means a whole rob a reminder of our top stories the u.s. house of representatives of back to resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to be used to remove donald trump office the president

is accused of inciting rioters at the capitol last week the request goes to the vice president mike pence but he's already said that he'll decline it house democrats are expected to pursue impeachment next and a growing list of republicans are saying they'll support it truck business his comments before the capitol hill riots were inappropriate appropriate part of the he's described proceedings against him in congress as another witch hunt the 25th amendment is a 0 risk to me but will come back to haunt joe biden in the biden administration as the expression goes be careful what you wish for the impeachment hoax is a continuation of the greatest and most.