>> welcome to "live from paris," world news analysis from france 24. republicans turn against president trump as the house passed a vote on his second impeachment. that vote happening as we speak. it is an unprecedented situation in u.s. history. house speaker nancy pelosi has called trump a clear and present danger to america in the wake of violence from his supporters in the wake of his speech last week.

five people were lled. he is banned from social media for repeated lies and provocations. trump has issued a statement calling for his supporters not to demonstrate and for no violence. this is "live from paris." ♪ thank you very much for being with us. it is an historic moment in u.s. history, and another unprecedented moment in the political career of donald trump. the historic vote on a second impeachment of president trump is taking place now. this is the breakdown as we see it in the house of representatives. donald trump accused of inciting insurrection at the capitol building last week. five people killed when riders

stormed and vandalized the capital. trump reportedly prepared to give himself and his family presidential pardons or what happened last week even though he still insists he did not provoke his supporters to use violence. this is the scene in the house where the vote is continuing. our correspondent joins us now. thanks for being with us. telus -- what's the latest? fill us in on what you have been watching. >> as you said, it is an historic moment because donald trump is about to become the first u.s. president to be impeached twice. the boat is taking place as we speak. right now, it seems like there are four republicans who have already voted to impeach the president. so far, seven have said -- before the vote started, seven had said publicly they would vote to impeach, including the number three republican in the

house, representative liz cheney, the daughter of the former vice president dick cheney. she said with forceful words that she felt like donald trump had to be impeached. six other republicans have said it a buckley, too. we are waiting to see if the reports that there are more republicans that could vote to impeach will turn out to be true. already, it is pretty historic. remember that in the first impeachment about a year ago, you had zero representatives, republicans from the house who had voted to impeach the president. the fact that you already have a handful of republicans voting to impeach is in itself a huge rebuke of the president. you heard that on the floor, too. there were some republicans who continue to defend donald trump no matter what, like representative jordan, but you

had most republican lawmakers trying to strike a balance by saying that while they did not believe in this impeachment process, either because they felt it would divide the country or because they felt it was being rushed and there was simply not enough time to continue this, they, like minority leader kevin mccarthy, struck this balance, and kevin mccarthy, who has been a staunch supporter of donald trump, said that while he did not believe in this impeachment, he felt and he said ver clearly that donald trump was at least partly responsible for the violence that happened on january 6 at the capital building, and he said that donald trump needed to take responsibility for what happened, and those were very forceful words from someone who has spent the past years defending the president.

mark: we can show you the images live again from the house of representatives where the counting is going on. there's three minutes 22 seconds underneath -- the caption at the bottom of the screen there -- there it is, three minutes 17 seconds remaining. we will show you the exact image as it is. let's bring in chief foreign edf rob, good evening to you. another historic moment. we understand he has released a statement. social media is now banned to him. there are pros and cons in every political decision, but in this one, they are quite extreme, aren't they? on the one hand, the ultimate sanction for a president, but on the other hand, something that

at least in some ways turns him into at least in the eyes of his supporter something of a political martyr. rob: actions have to have consequences, even if you are president of the united states. that is the argument democrats have been bringing forward. there has been nothing like this in the history of the united states. some republicans, to. democrats have not been alone by any means. liz cheney, for instance, third ranking republican in the hoe ofepresentives, daughter of thformer vice president of the united states, coming out more strongly almost than anybody on precisely that point, but does it change the fact that there is still a very solid corof people in the united states who support donald trump? no, it does not change it at

all. i think you are absolutely right, this victimization tie will continue to grow. if it will grow sufficiently to give him more weight in u.s. politics -- i suspect no, i don't think it will. the fact of the matter is in this election, despite the fact that he got almost 75 million people out tvote, is that he lost by 7 million votes. not only that, republicans lost. georgia. of what happened. taking stock republicans have to consider their electoral chances in the future. do having donald trump lead the republican party enhance their chances?

many including mitch mcconnell are looking at the evidence and beginning to think, "actually, i'm beginning to think donald trump is turning into a weight around our feet. he is dragging us down." if that is the case, maybe there will be a chance for joe biden to reach out to the party and press the sort of unity we have been hearing both sides of the aisle talk about. a lot of republicans this time talking about unity and the dangers this impeachment could further divide the country, although it has to be said, over the last four years, very few of them were talking about unity. only now when they are on the losing end of this election are they beginning to talk about it. nevertheless, it is important for the united states, and joe biden has made it the motive of his presidential run, if he really wants to press that avenue and does not want to

alienate republicans any more than they already are. mark: it's looking very close at this point in time. i'm looking at the screen, 146 -147. we will be going to the house to hear precisely what that result is and precisely what the implications are. we will come back to you shortly. have we heard from donald trump? >> well, yes. you can hear pressure building up on the president. some of his staunchest supporters -- i was talking about minority leader kevin mccarthy as well as senate majority leader mitch mcconnell as well as mike pence, really

condemning the violence and saying that donald trump had to speak out very forcefully against that violence. we saw a very short statement by the president put out by his press offers -- press office, because of course, he has been banned from his favorite social media platform, twitter, so that statement read like a tweet with the president saying that he does not want violence. he wants peace. he asked that people stay calm and bring back the peace and said that he did not stand for the violence and that this country was not about violence and riots, so there was sort of a statement of calm from the president, something that a lot of his supporters even in the republican party have been pressing him to do for days now,

so it seems the president, on the day he is set to be impeached, finally put out this statement, though it was just a few lines. mark: keep an eye on developments in the house for us. let's bring in a law perforce or -- law professor at stanford university. you, too, closely watching what is happening in the house. give us your perspective on what is happening. >> well, this is an unusual impeachment because the president will be out of office before the trial is up, so that is odd. the number of republicans voting against him looks like it will be fairly small, but even as small as it will be, it will be the largest number ever. there's only one other instance

in impeachment history of the president's own party having members vote against him. republicans not vote to impeach him, but five of his democrats voted to impeach him and we will see more than five here, so this is unusual in a lot of ways. mark: what about trump's chief allies? many referred to by trump's critic as enablers. should they not face some sort of consequence? >> if they are in congress, they might, but impeachment directed at the president is really direct at him as the leader. he is ultimately immune fm a lot of consequences because of the fact that he is the president, and this is the one thing the congress can do to respond. everyone else can be fired, can

be pressured. the president can really only be touched by impeachment. mark: in terms of extending that to others, it is not the way it is done, i'm getting that loudly and clearly. we are seeing votes being tallied now in the house of representatives. donald trump is reportedly trying to issue pardons for himself and his family after the events of last week. to a layman standing here in paris looking at this from a distance, this does not seem right. what do you think? >> pardoning himself? mark: yes. >> yes, so, this is very controversial. noresident has daredo do nixon was advised to his personal lyer that he could pardon himself, but he would not do it. he recognized that it would be unacceptable. it is not clear that a self pardon would be valid, but if trum feels he has nothing to

lose and if he thinks he has done nothing wrong and that he is abouto be prosecuted and he has the power to protect himself, i would be surprised if he did not do it. it would be very much in tune with his character to try to do it, and then it would be challenged in court and we will see if it holds up or not. i would hope not, but there are arguments on both sides, and no real precedent. mark: indeed. forgive because my questions are pushing you toward opinion rather than the facts of the law, so i apologize for pushing you in that way. let's go back to the house. it will not get before the senate until trump is out of office. does this make in some way a mockery of the whole situation? >> it is a bit odd, although i have written extensively about why you might want to impeach someone even after they have left office. there are several reasons i have given, and this case checks off at a lot of those boxes.

impeachment is not just about punishing someone or removing them from office. it is also about setting up incentives, deterrence -- a deterrents -- deterrents. saying that you cannot just do something at the end of your term. he could be disqualified from seeking future office. that is e other consequence that can come with impeachment, but even that is not clear because the constitution is not clear as to if the presidency is one of the offices he would be disqualified from. mark: indeed. he might have a daughter with presidential ambitions, it's rumored. this would not necessarily stop them. >> no, it would not, and he has a very large, very loyal base

that we see that republicans are afraid to run afoul of. they are afraid of primary challenges and losing their jobs. whatever democrats think and whatever a handful of republicans think, there is a lot of political power aligned on trump's side. mark: professor at michigan state university. thank you, sir, for answering my questions. we appreciate your generosity in replying to those questions for us. thank you, sir, for speaking so eloquently about the system in the u.s. and other aspects that are raised in this quite remarkable situation we are observing happening in washington. thank you for being with us. the images we are seeing coming from washington live from the house of representatives show the scene. donald trump, his second impeachment is being voted upon.

the actual wording of the resolution concerns incitement of insurrection referring to the events of january 6, last wednesday, basically, when after a speech by donald trump, which appeared to use inflammatory language about the election being stolen, which is recognized by even the supreme court justices as a lie, his supporters seeing this as encouragement, though he denies that it was encouragement, proceeded to storm the capital and vandalize it. five people lost their lives, including a capitol police officer. we have our correspondent in washington and our analyst here in paris. robert parsons, good to see you,

sir. thanks for being with us. we have said you and i before unprecedented many times about donald trump. this is another unprecedented situation. we have heard he is considering pardoning himself. but the trump movement -- if he is taken out of the equation, there is still the trump movement, isn't there? >> there is. to what extent it would apply to his daughter or to his son is open to question. they don't have quite the same poll that he has. he does have a pull on people's emotions that they certainly do not have, but it is also the case that despite the fact that his core has remained pretty solid over the last fou years, his popularity rating ha been round about 40% throughout, but the interesting thing is there

has not been very much beyond that. despite the fact that the economy appeared to be growing early on, it still did not grow. we are seeing today in the house of representatives eight representatives that have already voted for impeachment from the republican party. that is pretty extraordinary. it is not a huge number in absolute terms, but it is just saying there has never been such a large number from the president's own party voting for that preside's imachment. his solidarity with his core is not immutable. it could change. we do not know how this will play out in the future, what

influence joe biden, and empathetic personality who has a good relationship himself with middle america, wi working-class america, who is able to appeal beyond the democratic party, how much that will whittle in to that core. there are a lot of people who may not vote to impeach him but are highly critical of what he has been doing, not just in the last week or so, but way before that with his refusal to accept the election. emotions are still very high. it is early days, but there's a good chance that republicans, having taken a little bit of distance to what has been haening, wl take a long look at what the relationship donald trump -- relationship with donald trump should be. as i mentioned earlier on, mitch mcconnell, the leader in the majority of the senate, has already started to do that.

nobody would have thought that possible even a couple of weeks ago, but it has happened. mark: indeed, we talked earlier about liz cheney, dick cheney's daughter, third most senior republican who has said she would vote to impeach trump. you talked about biden, about the possibility of bringing the u.s. together, about needing some kind of consensus situation, about stopping the adversarial potics that have become the trademark under trump. do you see liz cheney as perhaps a republican beacon going forward, someone who could represent a new beginning? rob: i think it needs a wider response from just liz cheney or other members of the republican party voted for impeachment today, but the house core does exist, and it is interesting listening to republican speakers over the house, how many were

actually critical of donald trump and what he did last wednesday and his refusal before that to recognize the election of joe biden. many were critical without being prepared to go as far as impeachment, so the possibility does exist that there are members of the house and members of the senate who are prepared to tk with the democrats congress. perhaps really it is up now to the democratic party. both the senate and the house to show a bit of magnanimity, but very hard to do that when you are in the middle of an impeachment of the president. mark: indeed, and when impeachment is taking place, inevitably it is bitter, and it's one of the problems with going ahead with this, that you have a disunited united states. could it make matters worse? could matters get any worse?

>> surely they could get worse. things are pretty bad, i couldn't -- i would agree with that, but certainly they can always get worse. there is a possibility for reconciliation between the two sides. i ink the united states is tired of the bickering and the partisanship that we have seen over the last couple of decades. people want to put that behind themi think, though, obviously, there are people on both sides of the divide who do not. but i think the will is there i middle america, if you like, for moving things forward, for putting policy and legislation to the forefront rather than the ideological divide we have seen over the last two decades. but getting the representatives and senators to go beyond the

ideology, to put the divisions that have existed between them in the pt in the past, leaving them behind is going to b immensely difficult when things start off on this footing. when you start off with the impeachment of a president, there's any chance things get much worse. that puts an awful lot of pressure on joe biden's shoulders. he is a man who has demonstrated in the past that he can reach out to the opposition. he talks fondly of mitch mcconnell. perhaps there is a chance that he can reach out. that there are people who will reach out to him. mark: i have to stop you there. we are going live to the capital. what's the news you have? >> the news is that it is official. donald trump has been impeached because the house about past the

threshold of 217 votes. there are more than that already -- they are still voting -- but they have passed that threshold. there are two vacant seats in the house. that is why the threshold is 217. we are up to 10 republicans who have voted in favor of impeaching donald trump. that means three more republicans who had not come out publicly ahead of the vote to say they would impeach the president have decided to join the democrats. right now, as things stand, 10 republicans have decided to vote to impeach the president. the president is officially impeached. there is still a few votes left to cast, but it is now official, donald trump has become the first united states president to have been impeached twice during his time in office. mark: historic news that donald trump is now impeached for the second time.

we will be back for more in a moment. let's bring in kate moody. kate: online platforms have faced a lot of criticism unscrewed -- and scrutiny on both sides of the political spectrum for their role in spreading the messages of donald trump and his supporters. google said wednesday it would be suspending political ads for at least the next week until after joe biden's inauguration. all ads that reference last week's violence, the impeachment vote in any way or protests around the united states because they could be used, according to google, to exploit the event. earlier, youtube also suspended donald trump's account, disabling comments on his videos

indefinitely. facebook and twitter both banned the outgoing president until further notice just a few days ago. all these platforms saying his false claims about the election and more importantly his statements inciting last week's violence violate their user terms, and so to them, there's no question he should not be allowed to use their platforms anymore, but it has forced a broader debate about the importance of free speech and balancing that as opposed to monitoring online content. mark: donald trump insists his comments were appropriate. a key point, a social media site who supporters turned to remains off-line. kate: yes, amazon argues parler violated terms of service by refusing to remove posts which call foriolence against dozens of officials.

analysts say amazon is likely to win the suit because its terms are very clear, but again, it is part of the broader debate about monitoring and policing user content. mark: we have to leave it there. thank you very much indeed. that big news that donald trump has now become the only u.s. president to ever in u.s. political history the impeached twice. stay with us. more to come.

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01/13/21 01/13/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. trump: free speech is under assault like never before. the 25th amendment is of zero risk to me. it will come back to hot joe biden the biden administration. as the expression goes, the careful what you wish for. amy: in president trump's first publpp