♪ >> this is dw news. a last-ditch effort by donald to overturn the presidential election. clashes breakout is the president supporters storm the capitol building is lawmakers are meeting to certify joe biden's victory. teargas is being used to break up the protests. in georgia a major political upset. the president-elect democratic party poised to take control of

the senate following runoff election's. the race has been called for raphael warnock with jon ossoff set to take the second crucial seast. -- seat. welcome to the program. support of outgoing u.s. president donald trump have attempted to storm the capitol building the latest effort to overturn the election defeat. they are calling for president trump to remain in office citing of substantiated claims of widespread election fraud. the protest became increasingly violent as crowds breached a barricade and scaled the steps of the capitol building. some protesters entered the building and clashed with police. congress is currently in the process of certifying joe biden's presidential victory. severable but public and senators have challenged --

several republican senators have challenged the electoral college vote. president trump called on fellow republicans to reject the election results claiming make pence should single-handedly overturn joe biden's win. president trump: all vice president pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people. phil: let's go to washington where we join our washington bureau chief. welcome. let's start with these disturbances then. we've heard that people are actually in the capitol and there are clashes with police. phylli fill us in. >> and we hear they have weapons and there was teargas involved. and that people are leaving the building. those people really have to kind of execute their duty today

because, after all, this is the day when the senate and the house kind of agree on who the next president of -- president of the united states will be. so, yes, it's chaos. it is police all over the city. the d.c. mayor just announced a curfew from 6 p.m. today until 6 a.m. tomorrow morning. so, this is absolutely unprecedented. the united states has never seen something like that before. phil: let's just walk us through the sequence of events because this started with a trump rally which was more or less peaceful. >> right. so, people came together here last night and there were some minor clashes with police but nothing big. and then they gathered very early this morning. i was down there until actually a couple, until 30 minutes ago.

people were really peaceful. i talked to them. they came here to protest the electoral outcome. they said it is rigged. but it was very peaceful. most of the people. i mean, you saw some rp proud boys, some kind of militias were more aggressive. in the town. and they kind of gathered together but the majority was very, very peaful and calm until donald trump came on. he delivered a speech repeating the claim, false the false claims that the elections were stolen. then he called those senators who were just about to object the outcome of the electoral vote by name. so, kind of to support them. and then, and i think this is very, very iortant for this whole story, then he asked his supporters to march into the direction of the senate.

and that is what happened. we saw like thousands of people moving towards the senate. and then, we just hear what happens then. people stormed. some people storm to the senate. it's chaos now. phil: we are looking at live pictures as you talk. i don't know. certainly in the hundreds, possibly thousands of people there. and have they actually got into the building? because this was while they were actually considering the votes from the electoral colleges. >> exactly. they just objected, the first vote of the state of arizona. they just wanted to start a two hours debate. that is the procedure. then the two houses would have voted on that, but with then, kind of the masses kind of

stormed the house, and a couple of people obviously got into the building. we hear that senators and house representatives were hiding under tables. the situation is very unclear. i just heard some police officers saying that they have to end the situation before it is getting dark. it's probably another two hours or so, so that everything is not getting out of hand. again, we have to keep in mind today is a very, very important day, because they are coming together to, by the end of the day, decide who the next president of the united states will be. and this very moment, people storm the capitol of the united states. supporters of the current president, of president donald trump, stormed the capitol of these united states to stop this mocratic procedure from

happening. >> so, lawmakers had objected to the electoral college vote. there was a debate was going on. andhese people who have stormed the building, they have stopped that debate from happening, because as far as i understand it, that session has now ended. >> that is true, phil. that is what we hear. but the problem is, we want to say, they have to continue to vote today, because this is kind of the law. this is what the constitution says on january 6th, this year, 2021, they have to kind of decide who the next president of the united states will be. there was no doubt that the majority of both the house and the senate by the end of the day would vote for, would support, i should rather say, president-elect joe biden. in that regard, just stick to

the constitution and fulfill their democratic duty. at this very moment everything is interrupted. nobody knows what is going to happen next. so, it's a break. they stopped everything. but i mean, lawmakers say that the first thing, the first reactions we get here in the united states, they have to come together again and kind of continue this procedure to make sure that the next president of the united states can be inaugurated on january 20 th. so, everybody now is waiting for donald trump to react. he sent out a tweet saying, please stay peaceful. this is kind of, allow me to say that, ridiculous because if you see the pictures because this is the opposite of being peaceful. what i actually read that republicans kind of force -- police out of a tweet to calm

your supporters down, to stop them from trying to get into the n violate others whole democratic process from happening. we we do not know what is going to happen. police hope they can bring us together before it is getting dark but again it is unprecedented. the united states has never seen something like that. phil: as you are talking there, we are still looking at live pictures of what is going on there. i t does look like hundreds, maybe in the low thousands of people there. i am just watching the wires. the u.s. defense department has denied the request to deploy the national guard. that's according to washington post reporter on twitter. and all this while vice president mike pence was in the building. >> right. and he just kind of fulfilled his duty.

even so, donald trump asked him in front of these tens of thousands of people gathering at the mall in front of the white house to not do that, to stop the process from joe biden becoming the next president of the united states. i have to say, joe, mike pence, vice president mike pence stood with the constitution. he didn't get kind of forced by donald trump to act in any way antidemocratic, but he was in the building. i also hear that he might have been taken away because this is a threat to him, right? we shall see. but he has an official role to play in this whole procedure. we are witnessing today. phil: ok. i was just looking at the wires. senator mitt romney is saying

that donald trump has caused this insurrection, according to the, the new york times reporter on twitter. now, this is a process, this certification of the electoral college votes. this process must happen, but is there a time limit? when does it have to happen by? does it have to happen tonight? >> well, yes. and everybody was expecting it to be a long process because they can kind of object, the electoral vote, and then they start are able to have a two hour debate, and then it mos on, and nobody was expecting it to take longer than u ntntil midnight. very frankly, i do not know what is going to happen if they are not finished by midnight. it looks like this might very

well be hpening. at this very moment, hardly anybody has an answer. so we will learn that over the next hours, i'm sure, many many lawmakers are looking into that right now. it's a total unprecedented situation right now. we will follow it closely. and, y eah, we will share the all the information we are getting from the united states and i want to comment on mitt romney's comments if i might. i have been down at the mall for a couple of hours today. and, again, it was very, very peaceful until donald trump delivered his speech and really pulling oil into the fire and heating, or really kind of getting his people ready to move towards the capitol. and this is the outcome of this speech he delivered. this is what i think it's fair

to say, it's fair what mitt romney said. he kind of started everything we are witnessing in this very moment. phil: you are watching dw news. looking at live pictures of what is going on at the u.s. capitol. it looked like people in the low hundreds, maybe a couple of thousand people have stormed the u.s. capitol building at the end, or during a session in which a senate, which congress was looking at a certifying the results of novembers presidential election. our correspondent in washington is with us. she was out amongst those protesters, as donald trump talked to them earlier today before this happened. tell us about the police reaction. >> yeah, i mean, there was a

lot of police downtown anyhow. and the mayor of d.c. put out a warning a couple of days ago urging the people of washington not to go down to the mall, because obviously, some -- violence was expected, but and i mean, i think the pictures we see proof that obviously the police or law enforcement was not really prepared for that to happen. there is a lot of like tanks and everything coming now, moving now towards the capitol. we see, also, policemen on horses. and everybody seems to go there now in uniform to calm down the situation. obviously, the police wasn't prepared that people really, really would try to storm the

capitol of the united states. even so, some violence was expected. i think it was really the words of donald trump who made these people move so fast. there was a lot of energy out there. people had their speakers, moved to the capitol. the capitol is ours. don't give the capitol away. after donald trump delivered a speech. before that, everything was pretty calm and people just exercise their right to demonstrate. phil: we will leave it there for now. our dw's washington bureau chief keeping an eye on things for us there. more from her later in the course of the program. for now, thank you. well, so all this has gone on while joe biden's democrats have moved towards taking control of the senate. the two runoff election's in georgia. projections show raphael warnock

winning his contest making him the states first black senator. jon ossoff has claimed victory after getting a narrow lead in his race. democrats need to win both seats to help president-elect biden advance his agenda in the senate. >> another nailbiting election in the united states. georgia is bracing for political upset in the traditionally red state as democrats are poised to unseat republicans. raphael warnock's victory has been projected. if the result is confirmed, he would become the first black senator to be elected from the state. >> so, i come before you tonight as a man who knows that the improbable journey that led me to this place in this historic moment in america could only happen here. we were told that we could not win this election. but tonight, we proved that with

hope, hard work, and the people by our side, anything is possible. >> but for his arrival, senator kelly loeffler, anything is still possible. >> well. we're going to make sure every vote is counted. that's right. every, every legal vote will be counted. i'm not going to stop working. >> the race will determine president-elect biden's chances of pushing his agenda through congress. phil: to our foreign policy spokesman for the greens in germany's parliament and a member of the foreign affairs committee. and the deputy chairman of the german u.s. parliamentary group. welcome to dw, sir. can we start with your reaction to this news that the u.s.

senate has gone into emergency recess as these pro-trump supporters have stormed the capitol building? >> it is absolutely shocking. it's absolutely -- that people are decided to go to the senate and then to breach even the floor of the senate and interrupt a constitutional formal process of the confirmation of the president-elect of the country. i think american democracy is strong enough and checks and balances at the end of the day are going to work but what happened this evening is a massive breach of political culture of the united states. and i hope that is going to be a wake-up call for a lot of people who supported the insighters to wake up and hopefully they will find ways to break the polarization which is leading to this situation. phil: where do you believe this

incitement has come from? >> you know, i saw that the current president just demanded peaceful protests, but as we heard from -- just a few minutes ago, the people has been very peaceful when they protested there until donald trump delivered his speech to march today, to the hill, to interrupt what is happening. and, of course, we are talking about a constitutional, formal procedure. people coming from outside just cannot interrupt that violence. mob violence. and this is what they did. since i have been, it is definitely disgraceful. it is obviously coming from the person who is the most responsible one for keeping the constitution and that is who? >> this is the current president of the country. this is of course harming

democracy. but i hope it is going to be a wake up call for those people in the gop who played his polarization game. and now, they come together and find solutions for the country in a very, very crucial moment. >> so, no doubt in your mind that donald trump caused this disorder? >> i don't know if because that, because, you know at the end of the day, those people who committed crimes by attacking armed forces of the country are doing it by themselves. it's their responsibility not to do so. but having the president of the country just denying any procedure which is giving by the constitution is of course harmful. and is one of the factors leading to this situation, which is shocking, which is, of course, not only done by people who woke up in the morning and decided to attack the hill, but,

of course, got some incitement by the current president, just being told all the time they have to fight fraud which never has been proven, there had never -- there had never been evidences for. the so-called stolen elections of the united states of america. this is underlining the trust of the people. >> record numbers of people voted for donald trump in november's elections. an even greater number of people of course voted for joe biden. but what does this say about the next four years of american political life? >> you know, after the last elections -- i travel to west virginia. because this was a county with the highest rate of supporters for donald trump. 94% of the people voted for donald trump and 2016. i wanted to understand.

what i found were poverty and opioid crises. and people were rid of a system of washington which is not taking care for them, which is not even giving, giving some attention to their situation and donald trump gave them the feeling that this has changed. in giving these people not only a feeling of being seen, but solutions for the situation, a huge task in a middle of a covid crisis, this is a huge task of the next administration in the united states. and i think there's going to be -- which has to be brought up by joe biden's administration. this is a huge task. it is this kind of polarization which as you mentioned has been manifested by the election results we saw. and by the turnout, by the way, we saw in georgia today, also.

phil: going back to the disorder now in the capitol. we have just been looking at life pictures there. what do you think the police should do about this? >> i think that this is the last thing that police in washington, d.c., ineeds in people from thousands of miles away giving them advice. i think the american democracy at the end of the day is strong enough- we had a very similar situation to that a couple of months ago in berlin. al having people who tried to breach the german buddhist - - bundestag, and overcome the police. and, this were disgraceful pictures we had there, very similar to what we are seeing now in d.c. but at the end of the day are democracies are strong enough. it depends on us as democrats, i'm not talking about democrats

is a party, but is people who -- to democracy to calm down the situation, to overcome the polarization in our societies, and to deliver at the end of the day, the trust of the people in our democratic system is going again. phil: so, these are the scenes that we are looking at now. the last few weeks of donald trump's presidency. do you expect him to fade of quietly into the distance once joe biden is inaugurated in a couple weeks? >> what we learned for th last four years, unfortunately, getting us to is not to exclude something when it comes to the current president. and also not expecting anything being done quietly. so, of course, as the current president of the united states

sitting in the most powerful chair in the world. he still can do a lot of things. i just can hope these next two weeks are going to be more peaceful than today in washington, d.c. by the way, i also hope that will not be any violence after the speeches we saw today. in georgia this evening. so, no, i just can't exclude anything but two weeks are a timeline. phil: all right. as we leave you, what is the biggest thing you're hoping for from the next president? >> that he can deliver. that he is not too preoccupied by the domestic situation in the united states to get involved in the international politics. and that the united states, especially the two parties, can

come together and deliver and create and develop the solutions for a country which is in, in, -- facing a lot of challenges. the americans need solutions. the american people, like the germans also, do not need polarization. this is what republicans and democrats of the united states and also the parties in germany have to understand and work on. >> we thank you for joining us. green member of the buddhist bundestag's party. those of the extraordinary scenes you're seeing at the moment. that is the scene outside the capitol building in washington. pro-trump supporters have started building. there are reports that people actually got inse and the capitol police were using pepper spray to, in order to keep the crowds back. it seems to have calmed down

quite substantially now. this came at the end of an afternoon in which donald trump had attended a rally pushing his story that he had been robbed of the election as inside the capitol building lawmakers, lawmakers were debating, almost the final part of the process of a joe biden assuming the presidency, which is that they were considering the votes of the electoral college. they were debating them. there had been some objections from republicans. what happens when that happens is, we've got as far as arizona. there were couple of lawmakers who objected. then they have to go often debate. and it was during this debate that the protests began. so that has been in the last, inside the last hour or so. what happened then was lawmakers inside the session was

suspended. the session was suspended. mike pence was in the building. we understand he has been moved to safety. and we are now watching life pictures of what is going on outside the capitol building. let's goccccccfvfvfvfvfvfvfvfvfv

>> hello. you are watching live from paris here in the french capital where we are watching live scenes out of washington, d.c. very dramatic scenes this afternoon in the u.s. capitol a donald trump's supporters in the context of a rally breached security and entered capitol hill. the process of counting votes to confirm joe biden's wis