>> you're watching al jazeera, these are top stories. president donald trump's twitter account has been permanently suspended, two days after a mob of trump supporters encouraged by the president stormed the u.s. capitol building. the social media platforms cited the risk of further incitement of violence. we have more from washington. >> donald trump's personal account is now gone. there will be no more tweets from his account. he still does have access to the official government account for

the president of the united states. in theory, he could potentially still tweet from that, or at least advisors to him could post statements there, presumably, it is important to note that the poyus account is -- potus account is run by the government, so i'm january 20, it goes over to joe biden. anchor: there's also the possibility of an unprecedented second impeachment. a group of democrats have drafted articles. joe biden says it will be up to congress as to whether an impeachment against him goes ahead. he says his priorities are bringing the coronavirus under control and stimulating economic growth. >> the december jobs report shows millions of americans own -- are still hurting through no fault of their own.

we lost another 140,000 jobs, the first negative jobs report since the height of the pandemic in the spring. more people have just lost a job while many have been out of work for a long time. anchor: the head of the world health urging wealthy come -- countries to donate extra vaccine doses. they say vaccine nationalism will hurt efforts to curb the global virus pandemic. on friday, the high list -- highest daily number since the pandemic began. in the u.k., hospitals struggle with covid-19 admissions. those are the headlines on al jazeera. i will have more news for you after "inside story." i hope you stay with us.

♪ >> the storming of the u.s. capitol leaves the world in shock. america's enemies say it shows the failure of western democracy. has the u.s. lost its moral high ground as the self-proclaimed global defender of freedom? this is "inside story." ♪ mohammed: hello and welcome to the program. the united states often calls itself the world's greatest democracy. it's diplomats and soldiers traveled the globe to defend freedom, equality and justice for all. but as pictures of storms --

crowds storming the capital were going online, some questioned america's authority. president donald trump has been accused of inciting supporters with lies and conspiracies about his loss in a free and fair election. in a dramatic shift in tone, he finally condemned the violence and conceded his term will end in two weeks. >> a new administration will be inaugurated on january 20. my focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. this moment calls for healing and reconciliation. mohammed: world leaders have unanimously condemned the storming of the capital with both allies and enemies sing at fundamentally undermines u.s. democracy. >> for generations, american democracy has inspired millions around the world and in israel.

what happened at the capital yesterday was a disgraceful act and it must be vigorously condemned. >> what happened today in washington, d.c. is not america. we believe in the strength of our democracies. we believe in the strength of american democracy viewed -- democracy. >> what we saw last night and today in america firstly proved what a failure western democracy is and how fragile and weak it foundation is. we saw what calamities a popular person has imposed on his own country the past four years. he has tarnished the dignity and reputation of its own country. >> the u.s. mainstream media unanimously condemned the protest, calling it an incident of violence and the protesters mobs, extremists, villains whose actions are shameful, which word

did they used to describe the violent protesters in hong kong? a beautiful sight to behold. they said the u.s. people are standing with them. ♪ mohammed: all right, let's introduce our panel. joining us from new haven, connecticut, jason stanley, a professor us -- of philosophy from yell university. melinda liu, the beijing bureau chief of newsweek magazine. and viktor olevich, the lead expert for the center for actual politics think tank. at a time when democracy is in retreat and so much of the world, how much of a threat does the attack that transpired on the capital in the u.s. pose to democracy in the u.s. and around the world? jason: obviously the last four years have been terrible for the brand of democracy. it reinforced the thought that

democracy is hypocritical, it is a mask in the u.s. for white supremacy, for naked power grabs, and minority powers and the wealthy to use ultra nationalism in the service of their own glorification and power. yesterday was hopefully the culmination of that. i am hoping that the backlash to yesterday will help the brand of democracy rather than harm the brand of democracy. of course, it is obvious what the effects of yesterday were and how it will be exploited by figures like gyre bolsonaro -- jair bolsonaro. mohammed: xi jinping has been holding up china's surveillance state as a model the rest of the world to follow for some time now. does the chinese government take comfort in seeing these scenes that played out in washington,

d.c.? melinda: well, on the one hand, i think the entire trump administration has been a sort of propaganda gift for china on many levels. obviously the democracy brand has been hugely tarnished by the entire term, but especially the last few days, which have just been unbelievable scenes from the siege, the bloody siege of the capital. but also the handling of the pandemic. again, obviously china was the epicenter of the pandemic to begin with, but today, seen from the eyes of someone in the west, it is remarkably normal here, and the economy is recovering

very robustly as a result. but in terms of the bigger picture, i think you can say trump gave, has given china some short-term cause for celebration because he has so tarnished the perception of democratic systems , but in the longer term, america might come back and give china cause for longer-term anxiety because, you know, the trump administration is obviously imploding in the most dramatic and awful and horrifying fashion one could possibly imagine, but the trump administration is going out. in less than two weeks, joe biden will be the president.

if he does a better job of pandemic control, the economy will recover, maybe this whole situation, the spectacle of the past couple of days will be something of a catharsis in terms of this puzzling personality cult built around trump. and if this manages to exorcise the demons of trumpism, two years from now, the democracy brand might actually be doing much better. certainly it should be doing better under biden than under trump. in addition to that sort of, uh, ideological aspect, in terms of economic recovery, handling of the pandemic, friendliness toward allies, multilateralism,

globalization, biden is expected to be much more traditional in his approach. that might mean china won't have the sort of free run it has had the past four years in terms of doing whatever it wants to do in the world because america is preoccupied with its own internal problems. mohammed: victor, how is all of this playing out in russia right now? what must vladimir putin be thinking and what our officials and the russian government saying about what transpired in america? viktor: well, of course the russian state-controlled media is interpreting the latest events in washington as a sign, as a symptom of a broken down american political system. essentially they are transmitng a message of an

american system in tatters, an american system that simply does not function properly and is not as democratic as it claims to be. but at the same time, russian policymakers are much more pragmatic. they understand fully the biden administration is not good news for moscow, that the relationship between moscow and washington is likely to deteriorate even further under the new american administration, and that there are likely to be new packages of economic, political and possibly diplomatic sanctions against russia. it's likely the biden administration is going to pursue a policy of repairing the transatlantic relations between washington and its western and eastern european allies, and it

is likely washington is going to seek to use those relations to force an even harsher tone and policy toward russia. so russian policymakers are quite aware of that despite official media claims of chaos in america or chaos in washington. i would also like to note that if we look at the american political and social history of the last century, the last 100 years, we would see the events of the past few days are not quite unique. we can remember the march on washington in the first half of the, the first part of the 20th century, where there were dozens who had died after an attack by american army forces that

quelled their march. there had been to multiple -- tu mult in the u.s. in the 1960's. every time that happened, the united states came out of those crises in a much more stable and reformed fashion. so every political crisis, every social crisis led to reform and the reform made united states in a way, and even stronger power. so the political chaos and disturbances we've seen the past few days in washington are actually not so much a symptom of a complete decay of the american state or political apparatus, but rather these are historically workings of the american political and social machine. mohammed: jason, i want to read

a couple of sentences from a piece you wrote what you said "the open disdain for democratic norms we are witnessing among republicans are best understood as a familiar american practice of regarding certain voting populations as democratically illegitimate, now widened beyond a purely racial frame." do you believe we are seeing a modern-day fascism in america? jason: what we have in the united states is a long history of a kind of internal colonialism of our black population and indigenous population. the literature on fascism by folks -- on fascism tells us that when you treat one population with that kind of cruelty, when you disenfranchise them, those tactics will eventually be broadened to the population as a whole. as ida b wells said in 1892, she

said if you can lynch a black man for suspicion of rape, you can lynch any man for suspicion of any crime. we have been disenfranchising black voters in the united states for almost as long as america has been a country. what we have learned recently is that when you allow that practice to become normalized and regularized, the party that champions at, in this case the republican party, will be open about their goal of this in franchising voters, they will be open about their goal of reducing democracy. what we have seen in the past couple of years is republicans openly saying that if more americans can vote, republicans will not win. that's a gut check moment for democracy. it's the kind of thing republicans would not say out in the open. now they say it in the open. i hope what america has learned,

to build on viktor's comments, this is a long history and we have two build on this history. enemies will always say democracy is a hypocritical veil. instill -- until we deal with extreme injustice in our country, until we deal with those problems, the brand of democracy will be tarnished worldwide. mohammed: melinda, it has been reported that chinese media coverage has been trying to showcase the negative reaction in the u.s. to the attack in washington, d.c. and sort of contrast that with u.s. support of hong kong protesters. despite the fact that the goals of protesters in hong kong are very different to the goals of the pro-trump rioters in d.c. what do chinese citizens make of this? melinda: well, i think there is

a range of reactions. the chinese population is much more diverse in its experience now. there are educated, well-traveled even, members of just ordinary chinese society who know from first-hand experience and first-hand witnessing of the freedoms in america, for example. you know, they know how diverse that society is in america. regardless of what the chinese propaganda is, i think there is a much more individualistic reaction to what is going on in the states. having said that, people are really puzzled because for a lot of chinese, they actually admire american society.

there are many mysteries that have been thrown up this year that are hard to explain, like how can such a rich country do such a bad job of disease control and public health as in the states? the staggering numbers of deaths and new cases of covid-19 every day are mind-boggling to the average chinese. i live in beijing. there are maybe a few dozen new cases of covid-19 today compared to yesterday. they are very aggressively addressed. massive testing, contact tracing, everyone has an app on their mobile phone and whenever you go into a restaurant or shopping center, you kind of have to register on your app you are there and show people you have a green ok sign on your

app. otherwise, if you have a fever or if you have been to a place where someone had covid, you will not be moving very far. there are a lot of puzzles about american society that the chinese cannot conceive of. one of them is how elections work. yes, of course, what we've seen in the past two days are exactly the worst-case scenario of how an election is supposed to progress. having said that, in a couple of weeks, we will have a new administration, a new president, and by chinese standards, the physical recovery from that sort of mayhem and chaos and horrific scenes we saw, might happen quickly. surprisingly quickly. mohammed: viktor, we spoke about

reaction from government officials and russian state media. what about russian citizens? what are they thinking about this? watching these scenes play out, are they stunned? do they believe american democracy is on its last legs? viktor: despite russia opening up significantly after the collapse of the soviet union and essentially hundreds of thousands and millions of russians either living in the united states or having experience staying there or visiting the country, russians view american politics and culture remains quite eclectic. there isn't much of an understanding of how the american political machinery works. that's not surprising, must americans don't understand how the russian political machinery works beyond simple concepts. at the same time, some russians

are quite sympathetic to trump. others are less so. some have been quite disturbed i the blm protests they witnessed on state media and nonstate media over the summer months. the latest events in washington are a surprise to some and some seek to interpret the events according to their own scale, whether it is appropriate or inappropriate. but at the same time, this is seen as chaotic, it is seen as something that is unusual, because again, most russian citizens do not really understand or know american political history of the last

century that well. they do not know about students for democratic society or the weathermen, or other movements. so not having that historical background and not understanding the current happenings and disturbances through the lens of historic view, it may seem unusual or unique even though these events are not that unique. mohammed: jason, in the aftermath of the attack on the capital, many u.s. government officials, many commentators and pundits in the u.s. have been repeating this line that this is not america, that what happened is not a representation of america. many of them have been comparing what happened in the nation's capital to violent scenes that

have played out in other parts of the world. but a lot of others say this is a representation of where america is at right now, that this is america, and that nothing can be improved until that reality is processed and recognized. what do you say? jason: i agree with the comments viktor just made, this is not some adequate break from the past. -- some radical break from the past. i am hoping this will show the strength and resilience of the american system. what stacey abrams did in the state of georgia was register 800,000 new voters. we got two democratic senators from the state of georgia. black americans have always fought for democracy, and in moments of crisis like this when white nationalism raises its ugly head, what we had was an

enormous response of black political leaders and black voters and nationwide, particularly in the south, that has come in in response and shown republicans the cost of embracing white nationalism. i am hoping, as viktor and melinda said, that over time we will see the reaction to this in fact strengthen democracy worldwide. mohammed: melinda, you mentioned in an earlier answer that perhaps democracies can emerge stronger going forward. what has to happen in order for that to play out in that way? melinda: well, it will take time. the perception of, the health of the democratic system in the united states has had a body blow and it will take time to recover, but it is not a mortal blow. number one, we have to see a

relatively orderly transition of power from the trump administration to the biden administration. the good news there for america, it is a kind of set up -- trump himself has said he will participate in an orderly transition. he doesn't always do what he says, but, you know, even if he is impeached, that is not like warfare that goes on for many weeks. or if he is removed by the invocation of the 20 for the amendment, that is -- invocation of the 25th amendment, that is there and can be used in a situation like this. or if he resigns. a lot of people would breathe a sigh of relief if trump were to resign.

first we have to have a peaceful transfer of power this time, and then possibly after the next presidential election, there also should be a peaceful transfer of power, whether it is from the democrats to republicans or to a second bided administration, or from biden to harris. if you get a smooth transition four years from now, i think they are back in business. i think they will have recovered. mohammed: all right, we have run out of time so we will have to leave the conversation there. thank you to our guests, jason stanley, viktor olevich, and melinda liu. thank you for watching. you can view our website or see us on facebook. you can also see the conversation on twitter. for me and the whole team, goodbye for now. ♪

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