>> 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 win has been

suspended. the national guard heading toward the u.s. capitol. against the backdrop of all of this, donald trump had called on supporters to remain peaceful via social media but did not go so far as to tell them to evacuate capitol hill complex. a curfew has been imposed across washington from 6:00 p.m. local time here in paris. we will be keeping you up to speed as that proceeds. congress was poised to certify joe biden's white house victory, and democrats were on track to take control of the senate with a pair of stunning upset victories in georgia. thousands of trump supporters in the midst of all of that

activity breached the capitol hill complex, so we can see these scenes live on the front steps of capitol hill. capitol hill police seem to have not been able to stave off the wave of supporters coming from an adjacent part of the capital, the ellipse area in front of the white house is where trump supporters had been gathering for a save america rally, calling for the overturn of the official election results. then, having been called to proceed toward the capitol building by donald trump -- in fact, addressing those supporters earlier, he called on them to march on capitol hill, so we are seeing these scenes and sue over the last hour or two with thousands of supporters storming the capitol hill

complex. extraordinary scenes of some of those supporters breaching the entrance of the building, and indeed, making it very, very close to the chambers of the senate and house where proceedings were under way to confirm joe biden's victory. some calling it trump's last stand, a last-ditch effort to overturn that election victory. of course, donald trump, since election day, since the election results came in, has refused to accept those election results and has consistently called the election a fraudulent election, which, 12 the evidence, is not true. -- which to all the evidence, is not true. for weeks now, we have in

anticipating this particular protest. how could capitol hill, where this vital leg in the election certification process was taking place -- how could it be breached? how was this possible in the capital of the united states at such a critical moment? >> we think this is not really a surprise. over the last few weeks since the election in november, donald trump has systematically said that he won the election and that it was stolen from him. he has denigrated democrat joe biden, the opposition of his own republican party for supporting him because in his mind, he has won the election. now time is getting very tight. we are in what could be called the most dangerous period between today, january 6, and

january 20 at midday when donald trump is no longer president of the united states. this is the sign of a man who is becoming increasingly isolated, increasingly desperate, finding his support within the political spectrum of the united states falling away. a short while before the protest started, we had mitch mcconnell, the leader of the majority republicans in the senate, saying that he did not agree with what donald trump was doing, and what was being carried out today was damaging democracy. mike pence, the actual vice president of the united states, saying he would not overturn the election results, which is something donald trump was telling him to do today in congress. so we have donald trump going on the stage in the white house more or less giving his supporters, who will do anything for donald trump, do exactly what he says, believe anything

he says, giving them more or less a green card to go there and cause trouble, which is what we see happening. in a way, the only really surprising thing here is that there was so little law and order support there to stop protesters from going into the capitol building. >> we are going to cross to joe biden, who is speaking life. >> at this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we've seen in modern times. assault on the civil -- assault on the citadel of liberty, the capital itself, and assault on the people's representatives, on the capitol hill police sworn to protect them, on the public servants who work at the heart

of our republic, an assault on the rule of law like few times we have ever seen it. anssault on born of the most sacred american undertakings, the doing of the people's business. let me be very clear -- the scenes of chaos at the capital do not reflect true america, do not represent who we are. what we are seeing ra small number of extremists -- what we are seeing are a small number of extremists. it is disorder, chaos, and it must and now. i call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward.

you heard me say before in different contexts -- the words of a president matter, no matter how good or bad that president is. at their best, the words of a president can inspire. at their worst, they can insight. therefore i call on president trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the constitution and demand an end to this siege. to storm the capital, to smash windows, to occupy offices -- the floor of the united states senate, rummaging through desks on the capital, on the house of

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

it's about solving problems, looking out for one another, not stoking the flames of chaos. as i said, america is about honor, decency, respect, tolerance. that's who we are. that's who we have always been. the certification of the electoral college vote is supposed to be a sacred ritual to affirm the majesty of american democracy, but today is a reminder -- a painful 1 -- that democracy is fragile, and to preserve it requires people of goodwill, leaders with the courage to stand up, who are devoted not to the pursuit of power or the personal interests -- pursuit of their own selfish

interests at any cost, but of the common good. think what our children watching television i thinking. think what the rest of the world is looking at. for nearly two and a half centuries, we, the people, in search of a more perfect union have kept our eyes on that common good. america is so much better than we see today. watching the scenes from the capital, i'm reminded, as i have prepared other speeches in the past, i was reminded of the words of abraham lincoln in his annual message to congress, whose work was interrupted by chaos. here's what president lincoln said -- he said we shall nobly save or nearly lose the last best hope on earth. went on to say the way is plain,

peaceful, generous, just. a way, which, if followed, the world will forever applaud and god must forever bless. the way is plain here, too. that's the way we are. it's the way of democracy, of respect, decency and honor. and commitment as patriots to this nation. notwithstanding what i saw today and we are seeing today, i remain optimistic about the incredible opportunities. there has never been anything we cannot do when we do it together. and this god awful display today is bringing home to every republican and democrat and

independent in the nation that we must step up. this is the united states of america. there's never, ever, ever been anything we have tried to do when we have done it together not been able to do it. president trump, step up. may god bless america. may god protect our troops and all those folks at the capital who are trying to preserve order. thank you, and i'm sorry to have kept you waiting. >> all right, joe biden, the president-elect, speaking out and calling on donald trump to go on national television and defend the constitution and demand an end to this siege.

he was opposing his vision of america, a place of majesty and respect, with donald trump's stoking unrest. >> the question now is -- what does donald trump actually going to do? is donald troup -- is donald trump taking notice? saying he has already sent out a tweet telling supporters to act peacefully? that tweet does not tell them to not continue carry on protesting on capitol hill or not to even enter the building, so there's a standoff between joe biden, mu more presidential statue of a man who will take office in two weeks' time, showing what he will be like in office, against what donald trump earlier was today making a speech outside the white house.

>> a couple of details -- the fbi has been deployed to help capitol police defend property. the white house has also issued a statement saying the national guard is en route. there was some sort of question mark over that. the defense department initially saying no, but at least 1100 national guard have now been sent to the scene of this activity. briefly, what happened -- can we bring viewers back to what happened earlier? the county was under way, and all of a sudden, this happened. >> today, there is an important event taking place, which is normally just a formality, the counting of the electoral college votes. bringing together both houses of congress. you have a house of representatives under control of the democrats, and you have the senate, which is under the control of the republicans. that may change according to

these runoff votes in georgia. we are waiting for the second result of that, which might give democrats control of the senate. >> the democrat has claimed victory, but it's not confirmed yet. >> yes, it's not confirmed yet. it will make joe biden -- it'll make it easier for joe biden to pass legislation when he takes office. the senate and house of representatives are to give their approval to the electoral college votes, which have found joe biden to have won the election back in november. normally this is just a formality, but several republican senators said they were going to stand up to complain about the results and ask for a debate to take place in congress, which meant there would be two hour breaks with

the dispute was going to be discussed -- >> it was going to go into the night probably anyway. the discussion started, at the same time donald trump was giving a speech outside the white house where he was saying basically, big news. the media are our biggest problem, i won this election, it was stolen from me, and to supporters, we are going to win this election, we are going to get this election back, and it was a green light -- >> despite only a quarter of the republican party caucus supports this initiative to dispute the electoral college results. >> yes. as a result of what donald trump was saying during his meeting outside the white house and at the same time, the impending ratification of joe biden's electoral victory in the united states in congress, these

supporters came out and are not supposed to be there went to congress to say they were unhappy. >> we have been seeing some unbelievable scenes from inside congress. our reporter following proceedings, inside washington. what is the latest where you are? >> we are seeing right now some reinforcement of law enforcement arriving on the scene. you mentioned the national guard, which is on the way. you mentioned federal forces, the fbi. we are also seeing now state police from neighboring virginia, the virginia governor, sending his own state police to help out the capitol police and

the forces here in washington, d.c., to help secure the perimeter and to help get those protesters who are still right now inside the building, to try to evacuate that building, so there is a lot of reinforcement coming. that reinforcement has been much awaited because this breach has taken place about two hours ago already, and it took quite a while to see law enforcement reinforcement come in to help out. capitol police were simply outnumbered us those protesters breached the capitol building. another thing to point out right now, we don't have many details, but there are reports of one person that is in critical condition, one woman that was in

shock on the capitol grounds, at least five people who were injured, but we don't know the extent of the injuries, including one member of law enforcement. that's the situation now. there are reports that most of the protesters who are within the building right now have been cornered into one place, so the sergeant at arms of the capitol building has said that it would not take then that long to evacuate the building once that reinforcement comes in. >> it's difficult to have full visibility at this stage, but can we expect proceedings to get back under way later on? how much time would be left in those proceedings? could we still see a rubberstamping of joe biden's victory later on in the next 12 to 24 hours? >> it seems that at least that

is the goal. the goal is to start over those proceedings or keep them going once the building has been evacuated. that is at least what representative had came, the leader of the democratic caucus in the house -- he said that as soon as the capital has been evacuated, of all protesters, and as soon as it is safe, lawmakers will come back and continue what they have started with this certification process. the question really is now when it will end. when we have this breach, the senators and representatives were in the middle of those two hours of debate over the objection of the results of arizona, the first state that sought objections put out. they were debating that objection, and they are set to vote at the end of that

objection. the issue is we were expecting at least 2, 3, 4 more states to have their results contested. mostly those contested states of pennsylvania, georgia, possibly also michigan and wisconsin, and the question now is given what happened, will all these republican lawmakers who have gone along with donald trump's request to object to the results -- will they go along with it now after what we have seen, or will they decide that now it is over and we need to end this whole process? at a lot of republican lawmakers have been going on the air in u.s. media saying that the president needs to stop this, needs to call it off. the election is over, andt feels like maybe some of those lawmakers have finally seen the red lineand for them, this has crossed it. maybe there will not any or

objections. if there are, this could go on for quite a few hours, may be entered tomorrow. >> thank you so much for that. we will be coming back to you of course later on. simon, y've got some pictures of what has been going on inside in the capital complex today. from what i understand, these are pretty crazy pictures. >> certainly not something you would expect to see on a day to day basis. we have seen what has been going on outside, but inside, it is just as bad, if not worse. if we look at the first picture, we see things started out quite normally, quite calmly, police trying to reason with protesters who had come in to the capitol building. they were of course, trying to gain access to senate chambers, which was obviously denied, but you can see from that picture, police very much outnumbered by

protesters. we are taking a look at these pictures almost chronologically. whilst this is happening, we can see the volume of protesters. representative said at this time, she had been evacuated because of a pipe bomb threat that had been outside. she was hearing multiple gunshots from inside the building, and as all this is happening with the representatives hidden away in their chambers, the atmosphere is cranking up inside the building. we see trump protesters saying, "we want trump. we want trump." this after donald trump said he would never concede the election. house members we see inside the chambers evacuated with police. representative dean phillips saying take cover. they have all been issued gas masks, and in a tweet he said,

this is insane. we heard there had been gunshots inside, people arrested. p -- capitol police detaining people. certainly very volatile, very tense atmosphere, but it does seem that as time went on, the situation was getting under control slowly, but surely, but there are also pictures we saw before about officers holding the senate chamber doors as people were trying to scale the walls to get access to the chambers and for -- and of course, mike pence, donald trump, calling for peaceful protest on twitter, but as of yet, the situation we do not know for sure what is going on, but it was a very tense atmosphere. >> i find it extraordinary that with weeks of notice that these supporters were coming to washington as this most delicate

and important of ceremonies was taking place at capitol hill, these protesters were not prevented from entering the complex. it is extraordinary. hopefully, we will get more clarity on all of that. thank you for giving us more information. two pieces of information coming in to us -- donald trump has finally via video posted to twitter called on protesters to stand down. another key piece of information in the two runoffs, raphael warnock and jon ossoff have both won. that means despite this chaos, that actually the democratic party now has control of both houses. >> if confirmed, this means joe

biden, when he takes office, will control the democratic party and will control the house of representatives, which it already controls, and will control the senate. it was difficult for barack obama to pass any legislation he wanted to pass because it was always held up for the senate. this time it will be a little easier for joe biden. it will not be 100% easy, because it is 50/50 majority,