in this hour with some breaking news and
it comes to the united states where
within the last few minutes the u.s
senate has confirmed
president biden's pick for the secretary
of defense
and it is general lloyd austin who
retired in 2016.
general lloyd austin is the first black
american to run at the department
that news just breaking in the last few
minutes or so
also in another development senate
majority leader chuck schumer has
told the u.s house of representatives
that they will deliver an impeachment
measure
charging former president donald trump
with inciting insurrection
to the senate on monday starting a trial
process that could ban him from holding
office
again this is what he had to say take a
listen
now as i mentioned the senate will also
conduct a second impeachment trial for
donald trump
i've been speaking to the republican
leader about the timing and duration of
the trial
but make no mistake a trial will be held
in the united states senate
and there will be a vote on whether to
convict the president
i have spoken to speaker pelosi who
informed me that the articles will be
delivered to the senate on monday
now i've heard some of my republican
colleagues argue
that this trial would be
unconstitutional because donald trump is
no longer in office
an argument that has been roundly
repudiated debunked
by hundreds of constitutional scholars
left right and center
and defies basic common sense it makes
no sense whatsoever that a president or
any official
could commit a heinous crime against our
country
and then be permitted to resign so as to
avoid accountability and a vote to
disbar them
from future office makes no sense
regardless the purveyors of this unusual
argument
are trying to delay the inevitable the
fact is the house will deliver the
article of impeachment to the senate
the senate will conduct a trial of the
impeachment of donald trump
it will be a full trial it will be a
fair trial
but make no mistake there will be a
trial and when that trial ends
senators will have to decide if they
believe
donald john donald john trump incited
the erection
insurrection against the united states
but is the senate majority leader there
chuck schumer
speaking a short time ago i just want to
show you uh the scene
now in the u.s house of representatives
where chuck schumer delivered that
address
lots of activity there as you can
imagine where this news is now breaking
that
impeachment articles will be delivered
on monday of next week that of course
triggers the senate
trial process well the republican leader
mitch mcconnell
said his party was asking for more time
to prepare for donald trump's defense
now this is what he had to say
a short time ago this impeachment began
with an
unprecedentedly fast and minimal process
over in the house
the sequel cannot be an insufficient
senate process
that denies former president trump his
due process
or damages the senate or the presidency
itself senate republicans strongly
believe we need a full and fair
process where the former president can
mount a defense
and the senate can properly consider the
factual
legal and constitutional questions at
stake
well our correspondent gary o'donohue is
watching this developing story for us in
washington
and gary just talk us through exactly
what this all means and what's going to
start on monday
means is that the article of impeachment
that the house voted through
a couple of weeks ago is now going to be
transmitted
to the senate that the house can send it
over whenever it wants to and they've
been holding on to it for a while and
the house speaker nancy pelosi has been
a bit oblique about when she was going
to send it well now
chuck schumer's told us he's getting it
on monday from her this is the article
that says that donald trump is
responsible
for inciting insurrection over the
january the sixth storming of the
capital
and what happens then is the senate is
obliged to take up that article of
impeachment and move to a trial
pretty much straight away there are some
formalities that have to take place
before a trial begins so it won't start
on monday as such
but it will be much quicker than the
republicans would hope for
and this comes gary on a day that joe
biden has promised a huge
stimulus package for the us economy can
you just talk us through what um he is
announcing
well his huge stimulus package has
already been announced that was the 1.9
trillion dollars he's talked about in
the run-up to inauguration day that's
for example putting 1400 in the pockets
of
americans earning under 75 000 a year
that's money for
vaccine distribution that's money for
the individual states money for
education
what he's doing today is trying to sort
of
jump start that process by signing some
executive actions that will give
money towards for example increasing
food
uh food stamps and food parcels for the
poorest
uh and indeed trying to get the get
towards the goal of a federal minimum
age of 15
federal minimum wage of 15 an hour which
is
one of his aspirations so he's trying to
to get some of the help out there
because it could take some time before
congress actually votes through the main
package itself
okay gary thank you very much for that
gary donahue there live in washington
and just a reminder of that breaking
news and that the impeachment trial of
donald trump
could actually start sooner than
expected after the announcement that the
article setting out
the charge against him will be sent to
the united states senate
on monday so that's the latest regarding
the impeachment proceedings against
donald trump we will of course have more
on that as soon as we get it