in the united states democrats in the
u.s house of representatives have
introduced an article of impeachment
against donald trump they charged the
president with inciting insurrection
following the deadly riot at the u.s
capitol last week
trump is set to become the first u.s
president to face
impeachment proceedings twice the vote
could take place
as soon as wednesday
[Music]
less than a week after protesters
stormed it the capital is much
changed and the after effects are not
just evident
outside inside the democrats are intent
on removing donald trump
who they say is responsible for the
violence
resolution calling on vice president
michael r pence to convene
first the vice president was urged to
use his constitutional authority
to activate section 4 of the 25th
amendment to declare president donald j
trump incapable of executing the duties
of his office
and to immediately exercise powers as
acting president
republicans quickly blocked the move i
object
democrats then introduced an article of
impeachment
against trump which could be voted on as
early as wednesday
it charges him with incitement of
insurrection
referring directly to last week's
capital rampage
even if democrats have enough votes in
the house it could be difficult to win
over the senate
the main issue is not on the house side
it's on the senate side
the senate is not around they're not
scheduled to come back until the 19th
and so there's really nothing forcing
them
to do anything um quicker than that
and a trial again if if they wanted they
could
rush it through but they would not
want to do that neither side whether it
be sooner or later
many washington residents feel action
needs to be taken
it seems pretty clear that the president
was breaking the law and encouraging
inciting a riot encouraging sedition
um and you know even though it's ten
days i think that you know having
consequences for reaction should mean
something no matter who it is
i think the inflammatory words of
senator cruz and senator holly clearly
had an exacting
and strong effect on the events of
wednesday
um yeah i think you should hold them
accountable i don't know what that looks
like
history will look back on this and if we
do not act
on this moment we failed and so i think
that's really critical that we do our
job
as americans as a government to put down
the possibility of this ever happening
again but you have to go home but with
the president having just over a week
left in office
lawmakers will be pressed to move fast
[Applause]
for more i'm now joined by dw reporter
joel dole roy joel
welcome uh trump has one week left
in office why still impeach him now well
i would send a message that
undermining electoral results and
encouraging people to try and
overturn the results is not acceptable
behavior in a democracy
but also it would bar trump from ever
standing for
office again should he decide to do so
after he
he steps out after he leaves office now
of course impeachment faces huge hurdles
it's going to pass the house no doubt
but it also has to pass the senate
and it would have to do so with a
two-thirds majority which the
democrats do not have that means many
republicans would have to vote with them
and so far the number of republicans who
have publicly spoken out against trump
is still in the single digits it's very
far of what would be needed
the one republican senator who actually
did vote to impeach trump
last time mitt romney has also said that
he does
suggest that he doesn't think it's the
right way to go uh now
you've got to remember that republicans
have to think about their long-term
strategy here too
uh more than 48 percent of voters voted
for trump and they're not going away any
any time
soon and republicans have to think about
midterm elections and
going forward what's going to happen to
those trump supporters
and of course impeachment is a very
lengthy process uh it could
now last until after trump has even left
office
that's what we're hearing from from
democrats as a more of a symbolic act so
to bar him from office but it also means
for those of us around the world who
thought we had heard the end of trump
we're going to be hearing a lot more
from and about him so ironically
by trying to silence trump the democrats
may actually be giving him more
oxygen in the future have there been any
reactions
from the white house from the president
himself to that move well of course we
haven't heard much from him
because he has been banned from social
media from twitter and facebook
but he has been making some official
acts for example he did
authorize a state of emergency
declaration for washington
um and privately it's being reported
that he's making a lot of phone calls to
his loyalists
still complaining about the electoral
results and according to one report from
the news site axios
he's also now indulging in the latest
conspiracy theory which
says that or claims that it was actually
left-wing insurgents from the nebulous
group antifa who were involved in
storming the capital
not his supporters now of course this is
clearly false you can see that from the
images but it means that trump and his
supporters are still living in some kind
of
parallel reality ahead of joe biden
swearing and
the security situation is delicate not
only in washington dc what are
law enforcement agencies bracing for
ahead of the inauguration
well the fbi says it is prepared because
they believe that armed supporters may
hold up
a protest in up to 50 states around the
the nation uh in the coming days
there's apparently threats uh and on
inauguration day itself the pentagon has
authorized 15 000 troops to be in the
capital they put up
fences around the building it may be a
little too late you might say
but washington's mayor is actually
urging people to stay away for the
inauguration
we can't forget there's also the
coronavirus pandemic to think about
so instead of crowds we're going to see
just a very small number of people out
there
supporting the incoming president joe
biden it will be an inauguration
like no other all right dw's joel delroy
thank you very much
i'm joined tonight by professor mary
ziegler she's a legal historian and a
professor of law at florida state
university professor it's good to have
you back on the day
this week president trump he could be
impeached again
or he could be on his way out thanks to
his vice president and the 25th
amendment what do you say it's going to
be impeachment isn't it
yeah i think impeachment is much more
likely vice president pence has made
pretty clear that he doesn't want to
um invoke the 25th amendment and i think
there's there's been a kind of balancing
act here between
republicans who um i think understand
the threat to democracy
that's an issue here and understand in
some ways that trump's been a threat to
their personal
safety that's especially true of pence
but who also want to retain
some kind of loyalty or at least
toleration on the part of trump's
supporters and the 25th amendment
option would put responsibility for
trump's exit squarely on pence's
shoulders and he might not want that
well i mean why not the faster route
here why not invoke the 25th amendment
and strip
trump of his powers i mean vice
president pence as you said you know he
has reason enough to make this happen
doesn't he
he certainly does i think that vice
president pence um
like many of his republican colleagues
is positioning himself for a
presidential run in 2024
and assuming perhaps naively that
leaving donald trump in place will mean
that there
there will necessarily be a democracy in
an election
in 2024 but making all of those
assumptions i think pence
believes it would be politically costly
for donald trump's
um exit to be on his hands if you will
to be his responsibility
and he would like as much as possible to
shift the blame from the standpoint of
trump's face to people
in congress and away from the white
house and from
his own office you know there's only
about eight nine days left in the trump
presidency
why is it so important for the house of
representatives
to impeach trump
well i think part of it um the most
immediate legal effect is that if trump
is impeached and convicted in the senate
he would no longer be able to run for
any public office so that would
automatically mean an end to his 2024
presidential aspirations which may or
may not be real but
it would certainly rule that out i think
there's also evidence that in other
countries where there's been
um attempted insurrections like this
it's good for the law
and for congress and for other branches
of government to send a pretty firm
message that this kind of thing won't
stand so that other
people are not encouraged to try again
right to have another insurrection that
might be more successful this time
we're already seeing signs in the united
states that there'll be more armed
protests on inauguration day on the day
that the house is going to impeach
even on the weekend before the
inauguration so sending a message that
this will no longer be tolerated
certainly seems important
yeah that's a very good point you make
the fbi of saying that all
50 u.s state capitals have been put on
high alert
for inauguration day for possible
violence former california governor
arnold schwarzenegger he is a republican
he posted a video condemning trump and
those lawmakers who have
enabled him i want you to take a listen
to part of what he said
i believe as shaken as we are by the
events of recent days
we will come out stronger because we now
understand what can be lost
we need reforms of course so that this
never ever happens again
we need to hold accountable the people
that brought us to this
unforgivable point and we need to look
past ourselves our parties in
disagreements
and put our democracy first
let the democracy first but also
consequences how
likely do you think it is that we are
going to see senators
expelled from congress i'm thinking of
ted cruz from texas and i'm thinking of
josh hawley from missouri
that's harder to say we certainly won't
see that until the democrats have this
sort of slim
50-person majority and we might not see
it then either because
the senate will be equally divided at
that time um with kamala harris breaking
the tie and i don't know
if um president by president-elect biden
will want to expend his political
capital getting rid of them there are
other forms of accountability that we're
already seeing pop up ironically in the
american corporate world
josh hawley has already lost a book deal
a lot of corporate donors have announced
that they're no longer going to donate
to his
senate campaigns there are a variety of
actors trying to hold holly accountable
but um holly and cruz may well stay in
the senate even if there are a lot of
other actors in american public life
trying to hold them to account
yeah that is amazing that they probably
as you say they will
keep their political careers trump being
impeached again
is that enough to ensure that this
attempt to override the will of the
people will never happen again i mean do
you think that the guard rails of the
u.s constitution
are they going to hold moving forward
well i think what really preserved the
democracy in the united states and this
is a lesson i think for every country
isn't really institutions
um you can make a pretty good argument
that congress buckled
over and over again i mean people in the
republican party put party ahead of the
democracy
numerous times most notably when trump
lost the election and people denied that
reality
what i think saved the the democracy was
that a lot of
relevant actors had internalized the
rule of law
and when that phone call came from
president trump to subvert the election
they refused
even republicans so i think that um
renewing kind of civic education about
those norms and reinforcing that is
really
important in the united states and in
other other democracies because
there's nothing i think in any
institution um that would prevent
the end of a democracy and if it can
happen in the united states which has
sort of been a model for democracies all
over the world it really can happen
anywhere and i think that's a lesson um
i mean
of course there was a sort of an effort
in germany right to right to rush the
reichstag so i mean there
this isn't a problem just in the united
states i think that's another important
lesson that it believes all of us not to
wait until the crisis point
to think about the places that our
democracies need
yeah that's a very good point you make
of all around the world people thinking
if it can happen in the u.s
it can happen anywhere professor mary
ziegler legal historian and professor
of law at florida state university
professor as always we appreciate your
time and your insights tonight thank you