a police car almost at every corner the security is incredibly tight we've never seen anything like it and of course you have to remember that donald trump has said he will not be at the inauguration so the question is where will he be when will he leave the white house is he going on the 19th of january as has been reported with an intention to fly to scotland to play golf or his golf course on the issue of cost on the west coast of the united kingdom or is he going to stay in washington until the morning of the 20th and then fly to his private estate in mara lago no one quite knows what he's going to do but we know that for the 1st time in more than 100 years he will not be at an inauguration the way that every other president has attended their predecessors the last one not to do that andrew johnson back in 869 so it's going to be thank you for the time being an interesting final few days just just people are just joining us at 21 g.m.t.

just to let you know we're in the u.s. and the debate has ended and the vote has begun on whether to impeach the u.s. president donald trump is accused of inciting incident or action by encouraging his supporters to attack the capitol building a week ago. well let's bring in castro who's also been watching about a development so heidi the vote was just a short time left and tell us how this will work. let's try this this vote will actually be a little longer than what the screams of jess that's because every thing procedurally went out the window with cove it so votes are taking much longer with these proxy votes but what i'm really watching is that number under the a column for republicans as of now looks like that's 4 well we know of 7 house republicans who have gone on the record to say that they will vote to impeach president trump that combined with the unified caucus of democrats in this chamber

who are the majority well we already know that the the conclusion of this vote is almost foregone that trouble will indeed be impeach the arguments that we've heard for these last couple of hours during the debate have really surrounded one central question and that is what is more dangerous at this point for the nation this impeachment or not having this impeachment and democrats again very united in their argument to go forward with this saying that each day that trump remains in office is a national security threat nancy pelosi the house speaker calling him a clear and present danger and we heard many democrats recounting those terrifying moments a week ago when they were hiding fearing for their lives as that violent mob attacked congress as far as that of argument goes though for republicans well we heard from some of the most ardent defenders of trump speaking during this debate and there

has been. quite a defied a few different fractured arguments against this impeachment some are saying that this is again a rushed process echoing the criticism they had of the 1st impeachment will this one in comparison is break now. speed there was no hearings there was no inquiries were already in the voting stage and republicans saying that this could set a dangerous precedent going forward more of them though are also arguing. that proceeding with this impeachment would divide the country further at a time when unity is called for essentially telling democrats hey you won already joe biden is going to be the next president in just a week's time let this go and look into the future well that is a remarkable argument given that it took many weeks for republicans to recognize that biden even won in the 1st place and democrats have taken that argument that

republicans say that this impeachment would divide the country further and simply said crocodile tears because it is those very lies that the election was stolen 1st stated by trump and then repeated hundreds of times by his republican supporters that has sewed the to this division in the 1st place and what does that bring us to now we're still so. sorry go on just to just give us the figures and i wanted to move on to what happens in the senate off towards. absolutely and we're looking at those numbers now 119 it appears have voted gave to impeach the magic number we're looking for is 218 a simple majority in this chamber and again it is expected that the vote will be in favor of impeachment and then on to your question about what happens next well we're hearing reports that nancy pelosi the house speaker has already set up electron outside of the house chambers to enroll this article but will she marched

them across the returned to the senate side which is the next step in this constitutional process we don't know what we know she will do it but we don't know when rather if she does it now. then it will be up to the senate to convene a trial however the senate is out of session until january 19th the day before biden is inaugurated and it would take the leader there mitch mcconnell the top republican at the moment in the senate to call his members back into session and he has reportedly said he's not willing to do that however if this trial happens after the inauguration well we're going to have a completely different make up in power structure in the senate of course because that is when the democrats will have the majority in the senate and mcconnell is still very much

a leader of his party there reportedly saying that he has not made up his mind yet about how he would vote whether or not to convict trump once this trial gets underway and that is notable he said he's willing to listen to the legal arguments before making up his mind and i will tell you if mcconnell says he's open to conviction that sends a very important message to his republican. caucus members that if their leader is willing to consider this that they should be open minded or allow to be open minded as well. in the meantime the the situation that has been raised very different now from what it was even just a week ago a national goal don't. tell us what it's like inside the. that's right in fact in the capitol visitor center which is a short walk away from me this is a huge complex connected by tunnels and buildings well that's where national guards members have been sleeping overnight and they with their presence are is

omnipresent and they will remain here until after the inauguration as you were hearing out alan say earlier this is something that's that hasn't happened in the nation's capital to prior to any other inauguration in recent history in fact the military fortification here around the capitol not said to have been like this since the u.s. civil war some 20000 national guard troops are either here already or on their way here and you cannot walk more than you cannot look out the window you cannot walk as a block away without seeing that troop presence some of them carrying their rifles on their shoulders certainly the major point of them being here at this point is as a deterrent what the f.b.i. issuing warnings that the potential for more armed riots in violence both here in the nation's capital and in all 50 u.s. state capitals that that is a real possibility and something that law enforcement is taking very seriously

given the security failures of a week ago here on capitol hill. thank you very much indeed to the time being let's bring another official who's also monitoring this from the white house many of the speakers is on the side of said today that this was a potentially divisive move. how much is that that your impression that actually the divisions that there are in the country could actually get worse as a result of this process. well after what we saw a week ago i don't know if we could get much worse i mean there will be criticism of republicans who are saying look you can't do this because you could spark more violence which is essentially them seeing in the words of the democrats look you can't vote against this president or remember the violence from a week ago will do that again and they see that they can't back down in the face of that sort of intimidation certainly the there are divisions there we had them again from a number of congressmen and women we had much gates from florida for example saying

that it was his intention that he would go after what he called the biden crime family he said they hadn't forgotten that so all this message of trying to bring the country together was forgotten by one or 2 members of congress what is interesting is that just after the election mick mulvaney who was of course was his chief of staff wrote in an op ed that he believed that donald trump would leave the office with grace and dignity and in the end given the way that this vote is likely to go it looks as if donald trump will be leaving the office with disgrace and indignity and we were talking earlier and remind us what kind of damage it's done to president tom terms of his brand and his and his future perhaps with the number of companies freezing him out. well there's certainly a feeling that the trump brand has become toxic for want of a better word certainly has global law firm has in the last hour announced that it

was cutting all ties with the trump organization we know that he's been banned from many social media platforms just in the last 1218 hours or so you tube announced that the donald trump channel would no longer be welcome there he said problems too with golf feel loves golf his golf course in bedminster where he often spends part of the summer it was his intention that it would hold the p.g.a. championship one of golf's majors in 2022 the p.g.a. of america has no said that because it would damage their brand that was not going to go ahead there's probably going to be legal action around that in the united kingdom the royal and ancient the governors of the game and said they won't take the open championship to tunbridge very famous course famous for many many big open championships in the past they say they're not returning there will donald trump remains in charge of that and then in new york city that donald trump calls home just in the last 12 hours or so the mayor bill de blasio announced that the city

was cutting all ties with the trump organization ties what their own $17000000.00 a year in a statement from the trump organization they said wait a minute you're actually yours about 30000000 from running what we do for the the city and that includes 2 a shrink's a car a cell and a municipal golf course and they see that this is political prejudice so they will be going to court to try and challenge that decision by new york but a number of other organizations have said that they will no longer be meeting making political donations to those who stood up in congress just a week ago and said that there was a problem with the way that the election had been carried out and therefore they were voting against the certification of the electoral college so big companies like the telecom giant a.t.m. . or marriott hotel chain there are just 2 of the firms that said they will no longer support what has become known locally as the the caucus that

supported donald trump so they're not going to. support them financially which will hit many of these lawmakers in the pocket so you can see that there is a difficulty for donald trump that his brand has become toxic for many critics they feel that it's incredible that it's taken this long and what happened exactly a week ago when you go through what has happened with the the trumpet ministration even before the election and some of the the infamous television tape that was caught or the fact that he criticized prisoners of war or that he attacked john mccain there are many many instances where people said that this is the moment and there were many same ports along the way but clearly there was a breaking point and for many companies many organizations many cities it was last wednesday and what the congress is no voting on alan fischer thank you very much indeed for the moment while we wait for the result of that vote and let's bring in

harry lipman he's a former u.s. attorney is a contributing columnist with the washington post and the host of the talking feds podcast he joins us via skype from not in california thank you very much indeed for being with us so we've had this extraordinary moment and it could still be and then to history the 1st president to become to be impeached twice what what what did you make of the proceedings. well there very sort of sober and methodical on the one hand but you're right there's this underlying current history and sort of personally utah go back and forth on days like this from just 0 in and seeing the news kind of develop into what's actually sort of a boring tablo and then shaking your head and realizing wait a 2nd this is the stuff of history books and they'll be teaching this you'll be telling your children about it it's i think it's momentous however you slice it whether or not there's a conviction it has been

a remarkable kind of political fissure now forming within the republican party and all triggered by stunningly dark and harrowing events that were only a week ago telling but you mention official in the republican party at the moment it seems as though around 6 republicans will vote to impeach him i mean for now outside looking in that might not seem that many might it explain why it's such a simpleton. sure 1st given recent american history it is fairly many it was significant that one senator for example came over to vote to convict in the previous impeachment with clinton it had been exactly party lines and with nixon famously what really doomed tim was the march of just a few senators employing still 2 or 3 to him to say your support is eroding but i think the bigger dynamic in this country has been over the last several years where

senators and congressmen who obviously thought poorly tromp on a personal level even the loath tim had become must toadies given his great power within the party and those people are now being punished and some traditional republicans are now emerging like mary cheney to actually take trump to task in opposing him so that hammer a lock that had seemed you know inescapable the last few years is rapidly loosening it seems to me every half hour and it has great implications for not to part of the republican party and the country going forward talking of republicans and senior ones in the senate we've had the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell saying he hasn't made a final decision on how he'll vote on impeachment and we see that that presupposes that there's a that it goes to the senate and that there is a trial but how important is that in the bigger picture. enormous he's

a very savvy person obviously and the fact that that came out not from his mal but nevertheless was very much within his control so that was a sort of seismic signal that when that time comes and it will be in front of a democratic congress he adam in a moment could could let his members vote their conscience is which is something a decision that sort of lies with him or even himself vote for impeachment trigger and that kind of cascade so i think that is probably the most. ominous thing that's happened to the president in a in a you know 48 hours of a lot of ominous events has mcconnell's potential defection that changes the entire dynamic to tell me a little bit about the idea of being talked about this kind of council culture idea and the republicans were claiming during the debate that actually says what about

political retribution and and kind of a stream form of cancel culture. doesn't get it does the closing off of trump on social media and so on have a wider effect on freedom of speach. yeah i mean 1st there is an irony here given given that they're now defending you know what have what they sort of fomented with their own over the top speech look i see the point there we are in somewhat risky territory when big companies that are not the government can kind of shut people down but there's obviously a lie that makes sense between political speech which should be robust and and not lightly suppressed and what the line that amazon and google are actually drawing which is comments that are indeed inciting violence if you read some of the things that on parlor and from the kind of insurrectionist you wouldn't think oh these

sound like rational political speech you would think where do i go hide and that's that's something that's on the other side of the line and i don't i'm not surprised that republicans and trump eventually if you ever goes to trial will portray this as a free speech issue but from everything you know the political culture in england and the u.s. has stated you know this is something that seems to have gone over that line a line that should be policed which is incitement to actual insurrection thank you very much indeed terry littman really appreciate your time that you know just bring in now it shows that he's the editor of congressional quarterly magazine joins us via skype from washington d.c. thanks very much for being with us so there was the single charge was an incitement of insurrection in the voting at the moment how what does it make you feel when you watch something like this you know give us

a sense of the the moment while we're at a very critical point in politics. as your previous guest mentioned the republican party is facing a fissure they're potentially facing a civil war over how they go forward whether they go forward as a trumpet party or whether they use this moment to break with donald trump and go back to the more traditional conservative values that mark them before his rise in 20152016 so that's what i'm interested in and as this plays out i think that will become a lot clearer. how much pushback is that being from his supporters i mean it would you could you have an idea of whether his supporters is still with him or whether the fact the events on capitol hill actually made them want to split away from trump as well well we saw his most devoted supporters last week in washington on january 6th they're certainly still with him but that said his public opinion

rating his approval rating has declined about 10 percent since the election and i think that indicates that his base is certainly still with him about 30 percent of the population but a lot of conservatives out there who maybe voted for donald trump because they reject democrats and they don't agree with joe biden on the issues but i always had concerns about donald trump and his way of governing is bombastic and caustic approach to politics those people i think are leaving him now tell me what you think might happen if it if it does go to the of a trial in the senate if he's been not convicted would he be able to stand again. he would and i think a lot of republicans are concerned about that about seeing him dominate the oxygen for the next 4 years and win their nomination for the presidency in 2024.

he just lost and i think as a result a lot of press republicans fear that he won't be able to win in 2024 and as the georgia senate elections and the stated that he may bring down their congressional party the party in the congress as well is that a scenario where the democrats might decide well look we've he's impeached and see that it's not really worth while going through with it with a trial in the senate would you think they would still want to go through the whole hold it's a difficult question for the democrats there had been some thought raised of waiting perhaps a couple months or 3 months before sending the articles over to the senate for a trial and that's because joe biden their president a democrat is going to be inaugurated on january 20th and after that he'd like to enact a legislative agenda you'd like to see his cabinet placed in office by the senate which has to approve all of his nominees and as a result you know allowing donald trump to continue to dominate the media continues

to do not dominate the discussion in washington takes away from that so it's a quandary i think for them but they also feel an obligation here as they spelled out during the debate to make a statement about this and hopefully that the only real thing that could come out of it is to deny donald trump the chance to run for office again. own on the match of how it affects biden's you know initial few months in office what would you think based on what you know of him do you think that he might want to actually does it go do you think he would be obliged to go through a trial even if it is a delayed one. i suspect joe biden wished that this whole mass had never arisen. he ran as someone who wanted to heal the nation as a return to normalcy as someone whose 36 years as

a senator from delaware would help him breach the divide in the congress and get things done he wants some he badly wants to move on from the trunk period and be seen as a healer but i think he's also probably feeling what democrats are which is a need to make a statement. sure thank you very much anyone who told you the numbers of rush it up and it the house has reached enough votes to impeach president trump for a 2nd time let's bring in castro quite a moment there heidi. that's right although technically this vote is still open and until they call it it's not yet official but the writing's on the wall and literally on your screen there we've had this outcome almost pre-determined since the beginning of the day and all the pressure that has been building against president trump and in support of the impeachment but what is really remarkable here is the number of republicans that are defecting from there until now stay out

where its support of president trump in the republican party i see some 9 republicans who have voted along with democrats to impeach the president that's even more than had been that's even more than the 7 who has said on the record indicating they were going to take this vote but what this really shows is the diminished stature of trump in the republican party from losing the presidential election in november 3rd and then repeating his false claims that the election was stolen from him leading up to the senate losses in georgia. for the 2 vacancies there that that basically handed a defeat of the republican party stripping them of power in the senate those were harsh hard felt defeats for the party here and you're seeing a result in these defections 9 and perhaps counting in the number of republicans

who are voting to impeach trump if your recall a year ago during the 1st impeachment not one of them voted to impeach along with democrats and so this this certainly is a remarkable we're keeping an eye on just how much higher this number may get tell me how much information. was there for a particular republicans during that debate that much of swayed some of the colleagues across for instance a propagandist cheney who talked about the there's never been a greater betrayal by a president of the us of his office and to the constitution how much impact do you think she had. well for the democrats she she was the number one quoted person which is remarkable because she does come from a style work republican family she's the daughter of the former vice president of the united states she's the 3rd ranking republican in the house and she herself did not come up to the lectern to deal with you if you'll notice she didn't make

a speech today she but she did release in that strongly worded statement prior to the debate that i was trying who incited the mob and that he says he lit the flame of the attack that led to the violence last last week it's notable that she didn't speak for herself but her name was certainly invoked not so much by other republicans in fact jim jordan who was leading the debate on the republican side in defense of trump he's been calling for cheney's removal from her leadership position in the house but cheney's words repeated time after time by democrats who are trying to who were trying to convince their republican colleagues to also as in the words of liz cheney vote their conscience in impeaching this president and it looks like now trump is on the verge and for all practical purposes has been impeached for the 2nd time this is the 1st that's ever happened

for a u.s. president an early of a sea evening during the debate he released a statement might we expect to hear from him again after the vote. that's unclear you know he probably would be tweeting a rage about this but of course he's been banned from twitter and other social media platforms and that's why you released a statement earlier in fact it was jim jordan the republican leading the debate against impeachment who read aloud the president's statement on the floor to summarize it he said no violence no vandalism calling for people to bring unity and he said at this time. and that is remarkable the reports are that he is is stewing about this in the white house you heard from my colleague allen who is over there that trump was in and out of the oval office apparently remarkably hasn't addressed reporters in the cameras that are set up just outside what he did

say publicly we heard it. yesterday when he was at the border wall saying that his comments were absolutely appropriate in the rally in which he addressed his thousands of supporters. to march upon the capitol and he said fight fight 20 times he said that word to overturn deal action results and then we saw the violence actually before trump had even left the podium the violence was already happening with his supporters shattering windows fighting with police here at the capitol ultimately leading to the deaths of 5 people so where does this leave us now once this vote has been made official we expect nancy pelosi the house speaker to perhaps hold a ceremony outside the house chamber she did something very similar a year ago reports are that turn is already set up there and this is the very last turn it looks like that was defaced by the rioters just

a week ago so there's certainly some symbolism in that left turn she's likely to in the article today. but then when will she deliver it to the senate that's a question that remains to be seen and once the senate receives the articles when will it hold hold the trial because of course because trump is impeached doesn't mean that he's removed from office it requires a trial to do that with just 7 days left to his term it's very unlikely that a trial could happen in that time and specially given the fact that the senate is not in session right now and is not scheduled to return to session until the day before the inauguration and mitch mcconnell the senate majority leader the top republican there has said that he has no willingness to call the members back before before the inauguration but he has said and this is very notable to he has

said that he's open minded as a juror when the senate trial does happen that he the top republican in the senate may vote to convict trump which would be a political. political earthquake underneath the president's feet because of mitch mcconnell is saying this that gives cover for his republican caucus to do the same and it is now a life a possibility that trump could be convicted after this impeachment and that he could be stripped of opportunities to return to public office in the future but as you custer thank you very much indeed. for that so bring in steve clemons he's the host of al-jazeera is the bottom line and editor at large of the hill he joins us via skype from washington d.c. thanks for being with us again so he does not have a specific issue until it's cold in the house but from what you're seeing of the figures how surprising are of those republicans republican figures voting for the

impeachment. well we knew that there were going to be some republicans because they had spoken out that they were going to support impeachment we knew that this was labeled a vote of conscience and there was not an effort by the majority the majority leader but the republican leader in the house to whip these votes and hold people in line so this was you know an alleged. vote of conscious and so the numbers are about as i look at it right now we have now about 10 republicans that have joined those who have impeached the president and that is a bigger number than we expected it means though that the republican party is going through a very very interesting divide right now and as heidi was just talking about liz cheney has been jostling with jim jordan. in the party about her position and whatnot because she the vice president's daughter leave the 3rd ranking member of the house in the republican party decided to join those accusing the president of

lighting a match and launching this attack on the congress so this is a this is an interesting moment and we're going to see further battles within the republican party even after this impeachment is over this this is not done it could also have inherent risks for by this moment as well politically in the fact that this impeachment is being pushed ahead what might want to come back to bite him. well i think he has 2 risks right now 11 is that he and his team have a kind of. which i think is appropriate have tried to put an arm's length distance between themselves and what is taking place with regards to that to the impeachment of president trump he's coming in a few days and just 6 days he's going to be president knight states and so he doesn't want to be appearing as if. he's piling on at the last minute or trying to be president in fact before he is president so there's that dimension to it but the

2nd bit of it which i raised earlier today is that this is the 1st time in the modern era that an incoming president's appointees haven't at least in part been confirmed already by the united states senate normally cases your top folks that come in the department of treasury department of state unless they are remarkably controversial or usually confirmed by the senate even before the inauguration of the incoming president joe biden has 0 of his people confirmed so what they run the risk is when this this impeachment let these articles of impeachment really take privilege over other matters that face and sit in the senate including confirmations of presidential appointees so they're going to have to sort that out and that's one of the risks of how does joe biden manage his immediate needs to get to governing the country versus an ongoing battle that will be going on over donald

trump's legacy and his trial what about the risks of. rest in the country is that something that you see is a potential threat to this around. well i do i mean everyone is concerned about it i was in around washington today and the number of the. all of the green military vehicles that are around washington d.c. the roads that are you know you clearly going to be close the washington mall which is going to be closed air b.n. b. just announced that it is canceling all reservations for all air b. and b. reservations next week in washington d.c. it's a remarkable thing that they have just pulled the plug on everybody planning to come here so yes people are worried about violence not only in washington d.c. it's been around the country and that we've been hearing intelligence chatter that in fact that one of the plans that some of those with the stop the steel movement were trying to do is to get 4000 or so armed people to encircle the capital armed

and ready to potentially assassinate democrats on their target list so it is a very very tense time here and i think sure it's also tense in various state capitals that have also been particularly battleground states where folks could take action there and they may have fewer resources that are being deployed right now in washington d.c. what do you expect from trump himself we heard from him during the debate he issued that statement people not to be violent what do you expect him to do next. i don't want to be you know it's hard to speculate on what donald trump is going to do the most predictable thing about him is how unpredictable he is he issued that statement today in my view and i'm just stating this is my perspective because this impeachment process was going on had there been no impeachment donald trump would not have issued that we know that he that it takes an action to get a reaction he's a very reactive president and he's unpredictable and we've seen in in the way he

responded to the video statements he tried to issue a somewhat calming video statement. after the riots and basically said that there was no place for violence and that he recognized the incoming administration of joe biden kamel heiress then shortly after that he disavowed that amongst friends in the white house and was angry that he had done it so it's very hard to know what is authentically trump and what not that's a piece of paper that allegedly came from his desk it is a presidential statement but we don't know whether he did that as a maneuver and a tactical statement with regards to what's going on or whether he's going to hold to that over the next 6 days so i just can't answer what he will do i think that he is very angry and very frustrated and not done yet with the story that he felt that the election was robbed from him steve clemons very much this isn't. a motion to reconsider is laid upon the total. goal.

joins us now so allan it's been a an extraordinary couple of weeks couple of couple of years in fact but culminating in this impeachment of president the 1st president to be impeached for a 2nd time. is it really only january the 13th. feels doesn't. really quite incredible i mean donald trump we are told is preparing to make a statement it will be released in the coming hours quote when that will happen we're not entirely sure but after the vote which surely will confirm his impeachment we're expecting that statement the course the big question for the trump campaign is how do they release it in the past it's gone on to twitter or it's going on to facebook or even on to the you tube channel those are all channels and platforms that are no denied to donald trump and to the donald trump campaign

and really anything to do with donald trump and so perhaps because this is a presidential issue rather than a campaign issue it may well be released on the white house page itself that is something that clearly we'll be thinking about in the oval office let me just take a look yeah there is a marine in a dress uniform there so the president is in new york all office at the moment no doubt watching his range of televisions that he has in place there he also has a very large extended digital video recorder so he can record several channels at one point and always go back and see what they said how they covered the specific moment and that is likely what is happening at the moment mike pence has been in the oval office we are told in the last few hours he walked into the saide entrance there but no one saw him leave so he may well still be in the west wing at the moment but surely

a moment of history remember until dawn came into office only 2 presidents had ever been impeached and then in the 4 years of his presidency donald trump has been impeached twice a man who desperately wanted to go into the history books for his time as president of the united states will find he's doing exactly that but maybe not in the manner that he had hoped and if this. as to the senate you're not clear on the timetable for that yet even if he were convicted there would still need to be a 2nd vote in order to definitely bar him from office so so it isn't a foregone conclusion that he could could. that he would not be able to run again. there's a number of possibilities 1st of all it could go to the senate right now and there could be a vote if mitch mcconnell the leader of the senate for the moment decides to call around all 100 senators and they agree to go back into session that's not going to

happen donald trump is still too many supporters in the senate so that won't happen so what is likely to happen is that nancy pelosi will hold on to the articles of impeachment the question is does she then hand them to the senate after january 20th when they're back in full session that seems unlikely or will she delay it for 3 months at least the 1st $100.00 days to low joe biden 1st of all to push forward with his agenda but also more crucially to get his cabinet confound they have got to be confirmed by the senate and that includes all the key positions like secretary of state head of the cia also. the head of the defense all of those positions have to be confirmed by the senate so any president would certainly want his national security team around him as quickly as possible according to reporting here in the united states that have been some discussions between joe biden and mitch mcconnell would it be possible to carry out

a jewel process where in the morning they deal with the nominations in the afternoon the deal with impeachment we're not quite sure how that was resolved and so there could be a vote in a boat 3 months time to actually impeach donald trump through the senate but that could well happen of course the difficulty then and donald trump's team is likely to argue that you cannot impeach someone in the senate after they have left office no it's happened before never with the president in fact with a judge he had left office and he was still impeached by the senate and so there's a possibility then that donald trump will see this can't happen take it to the supreme court to. challenge but we know that in the past when there have been impeachment issues that have gone to the supreme court the supreme court have said essentially nothing to do with us this is the senate to decide it's not for us you really need to work there so this is a number of ways it can play out but certainly the 1st step will be taken by the

house and the vote that is likely to be confirmed in a short while that donald trump has been to be convicted of impeachment he has been impeached shall we say for only for the 2nd time the 1st president in american history for that to happen to an official thank you very. that's going to capitol hill. has been know watching developments for us a series impeached but he's still in office so talk us through the mechanics of of what next. that's right and i just want to tell you the final vote count this is the fishman vote has been gavel to a close with the final being 232 votes in support of impeachment 2197 with the notable 10 republicans voting in favor of impeachment so now what happens we are expecting possibly a public statement from house speaker nancy pelosi we know there is some movement

some preparations for that outside of the house chamber in fact the very lectern that looks like the one that was vandalized a week ago by that riot will likely be the same one she's going to use when announcing the enrollment of this article but what will she do after that as allan was saying she could send these articles to the senate immediately and we know there is certainly many democrats who want that swift movement or she could wait several days or perhaps until after joe biden is inaugurated a week from today. to in order for a swift impeachment to happen democrats are saying that that's a possibility if mitch mcconnell the senate majority leader is willing to call all of his members back into session because currently the senate is out of session until the day before the inauguration so for them to all have to come back in order

to receive the articles and start the trial of president in his 2nd impeachment trial that would be a very tall order for the senate majority leader to take and he reportedly has been it goes to that idea so a more likely scenario will be a trial unfolding after joe biden takes. office which as alan was saying certainly complicates the genda that biden is hoping to accomplish not to mention just setting up his government setting up his national security apparatus with the senate confirmation so there's a different scenarios floating around could be that we have an pietschmann trial proceedings half the day in the senate regular senate business the other half of the day or perhaps this doesn't even start until a 100 days in to biden's presidency we certainly know that again the democrats want

this behind them quickly they say they think it is important to hold trump accountable in the eyes of history they see this move to is obviously it would remove him from office if these already left but it could as you said result in a vote to bar him from holding future office which is of a very real threat to democrats given the clout that trump still has with his grassroots supporters across the country so again we are in new territory here it is unclear which of these scenarios is more likely both hopefully house speaker nancy pelosi will shed some light on that in the coming hours if she makes a public statement and is worth remembering that all lists pietschmann vote was spock's because of the events of only a week ago atos how things have changed in the capitol building and what that was fear was like before the impeachment vote. that's right and some on the floor

debate there were some members who remarked that this historic vote was occurring in a crime scene in fact that chamber was breached just a week ago today by that mob we're hearing now more than a 1000 violent. rioters having breached the capitol they you know they smashed windows fought with police officers deface the capitol building and in the end 5 people were dead and now you're really seeing a surge in security given the criticism and the obvious failures of security a week ago this capitol complex system rounded not only by police officers but by by many many national guard members there are 20000 members of the national guard who will be in this city by the time of the inauguration this is in response to also threats that the f.b.i. has issued warnings that armed riots may occur not only here in the

nation's capital but also across the country in the capitol buildings of all 50 states this is of course very troubling concerns and we saw president trump releasing that statement in the middle of today's debate calling for no violence and calling for these demonstrations that he reference to be peaceful. but certainly you're seeing this the security ramped up here and also with flights to d.c. from coming around the country under more scrutiny passengers their i.d.'s being checked before they board the plane this is all going to be here for quite a while leading up to the inauguration and even a few days afterwards given all of the tension and the tension that the capitol is feeling at this moment. thank you very much. and just to recap a majority of the u.s. house of representatives of. to make donald trump the 1st u.s.

president to be impeached twice formally charging him with inciting an insurrection in the debate that preceded the fight emotions ran high as members from both parties stood and aldgate for and against the move to impeach the president we must constitute 2 snow do they want to get in well the president failed in his attempt to in the mocker stabilize was to its events make clear that if we do not hold him accountable and remove him from power if you to attempt to very will be successful the survival of our democracy depends on defeated candidates except in the seats as has been the case in every presence of election since 864 the speaker said to us just moments ago words matter but apparently those words don't matter when they're uttered by democrats when the gentle lady from massachusetts calls for unrest in the streets when the gentle lady from california

brazenly brags that she called for people to get in the faces of those who serve and support the president i denounce political violence from all ends of the spectrum but make no mistake the left in america has incited far more political violence than the right for months our cities burned police stations burned our businesses were shattered and they said nothing or their cheer lead for it and they fundraise for it and they allowed it to happen in the greatest country in the world . well we don't have any official reaction yet from donald trump but while the debate was underway he released a statement urging people not to repeat the violent scenes of last wednesday he said in light of reports of more demonstrations that i must be no violence no breaking and no vandalism of any kind of he's not what i stand full and it is not what america stands for i cool and all americans to help ease tensions and calm

tempos thank you we're joined now by sean zana he's the editor of congressional quarterly magazine joins us by skype from washington d.c. so it's a moment of history isn't it whichever way you look at it as well for its own on the day that trying to become the 1st president to be impeached twice it certainly is a historic moment the 1st part president to be impeached twice but the question for me is what does it mean for his party we saw 10 republicans in the house vote to impeach that's notable we're living in an incredibly partisan time where party line votes are the norm on controversial issues so to see 10 break including that 3rd ranking republican liz cheney is a big deal but it's not enough for there to be any real consequences for donald trump beyond just shaming him. because the circumstances what have to

change in the senate for there to be real consequences and that would be a vote to prevent him from running for office again that would come after conviction so it would require 67 senators to vote to convict 17 of them republicans and then they would have a 2nd vote to deny him the ability to run for office again that would be a simple majority vote but it's contingent on the vote to convict and to get 17 republicans to vote to come back after only 10 broken the house seems like. perhaps a bridge too far for the republican party but we'll see if majority leader mcconnell says to break it's possible and says all in all not to mitch mcconnell has issued a statement saying he hasn't made a final decision on how he'll vote on impeachment does leaving it open not that what does that achieve you think i think mitch mcconnell is waiting to see how the political winds blow until which time the impeachment articles arrive in the senate

that could be in short order or it could be months down the road depending on what speaker nancy pelosi blows the chooses to do and so many mcconnell he may be undecided but he may be also waiting to see how things unfold and in terms of you mentioned the republican party and the fact that this may have on the party what about the supporters out there because at the moment a lot of the platforms that they've been using have had trouble. from the mid why how do they sort of react to that. change in their kind of. that's a big question that i think what will drive mcconnell's thinking is how were trumped voters the base of the republican party 74000000 of which came out in november kisses for him how they react to this we knows we know that many of them are very die hard advocates of president trump they feel like he has shaken up the political

system and speaks for them and so they're going to stand by him but there are a lot of republicans who are just conservatives who don't like the democrats don't like what joe biden stands for and where they come down i think that's going to be very important to mitch mcconnell as he moves ahead how much impact will the companies abandoning trump have on this and is it a kind of money talks situation or do you think that actually that will be a flash in the past. i think it's certainly a important statement but it's an easy one for companies to make right now when republicans have control of nothing in washington they don't control the house or the senate and they soon won't control the white house and so companies give money to politicians who are in power and republicans being out of power made it easier for them to make that statement i suspect if republicans are able to make a comeback that companies will to come back to them as well thank you very much

indeed. thank you. joins me now from white house on any kind of movement behind you any suggestion that we might if i'm told himself. just taking a look don't towards the oval office there is still the marine in the dress uniform there are a lot of people milling around the groans lots of people taking pictures that tends to be the case not only is the white house here the west wing and the residence but just behind the camera man behind the camera there behind mike there is the all the executive office building which houses a lot of offices that service both the white house and the vice president's office so there's a lot of people who have served throughout the administration and know taking pictures in and around the white house because they know the days and the chances of doing that are very slim the in a week's time joe biden will be the president of the united states and the they're

aware of that so yes there's an odd feeling about the campus but we do know that donald trump is going to make a statement obviously they have to decide how they get that out he could go into the briefing room and speak live on television taking questions i think that's unlikely i think it will be prerecorded and then release possibly through the white house official channel we can expect him to say that it's a continuation of the what chunk of the russia investigation and also the ukrainian impeachment which we saw a year ago he mentioned that before he flew to texas on tuesday he will claim that this is a political move but of course this time we've had a number of republicans voting for the impeachment of donald trump significantly among them liz cheney the number 3 republican in the house and the daughter of a former vice president and there's a couple of new members of congress as well in the list of republicans who voted for the impeachment of donald trump so nor movement at the moment just checking again but you can be sure that donald trump is currently working with his speech

writing team at his closest officials tends to be these days steven miller who of course was the architect of his immigration policy. meadows who is his chief of staff. tends to be around there as well and hope picks has been a key figure in the white house but she actually leaves the white house today this isn't we're torgan any sort of protest she is just leaving she has also been one of those figures that's been around donald trump for a long time she left for a while to work for fox news and is no back in the white house has been for several months now but is leaving today and briefly we've heard snaps of come through that u.s. senate mitch mcconnell leader mitch mcconnell has said it's best if congress spends the next 7 days on facilitating a safe inauguration orderly transfer of power there is no chance of a serious impeachment trial could conclude before president elect biden is sworn in on january the 20th and so that seems to suggest that that as you were suggesting

earlier unlikely to happen now and what does that mean in terms of briefly what does it mean for shunt that it doesn't happen the next week or so it means unless he resigns he'll see out his term is he going to resign there was some talk about it when i arrived here today there was a rumor going around as there sometimes does but i don't think there is any possibility of that being true or close to happening we've seen donald trump heal the regards himself as a fighter someone who doubles down even in the most obvious criticism even when he's often in the wrong he doubles don't so he's not going to resign he will see out his term next wednesday this time he will either be in scotland or in florida and he will be known as ex-president don't trump alan fischer thank you very much indeed and a quick reminder you can catch up any time on our web site that just that is. dot

com. that's it for made our entire day for this news hour i'll be back in a moment with more news thanks very much for watching. from fossil fuels to modern day renewable as societies develop the energy demands increase requiring innovative solutions to meet such demands as a global power development of investment company nebraska power is uniquely positioned to deliver against the stick around we provide business growth promote social economic benefits and provide innovative safe and firemen to sound energy

solutions for a future generation the brush passed by a neighboring future energy after unprecedented scenes of violence and chaos on capitol hill joe biden and camila harris will be sworn into office but with a bitterly obstructive for the president and a continuing pandemic just different while the traditional celebrations need to be special coverage of the u.s. presidential inauguration announces enough al-jazeera has investigative unit to obtain censored and unseen video for blue hot filmed as the coronavirus are great he's just beginning to. lose it all those years in the us is not a lot more exposing the secrecy and censorship by chinese authorities. ha ha ha ha ha and a health system struggling to cope i'll just leave the investigation 3 dates that still the world.

al-jazeera. where every. the i's are $232.00 the nays are $197.00 there is that resolution is adopted without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. donald trump becomes the 1st u.s. president to be impeached twice following a vote in the house of representatives. an

arbitrator this is live from london also coming up. 10 republicans vote for trump's impeachment and now senator.