Wouldnt Throw Coup News Today

Holmes. jami, let me start with you. the youve been blogging on the very issue of the constitution. if indeed president mubarak does step down, satisfying all of the protesters that are milling in the streets and spent so many days there, is the constitution strong enough to get them to the next place? >> look, they have a constitution in egypt. its been on the books, ratified by the people in 1971. but what we dont always understand here in the west is that a revolution does not necessarily lea...

Constitutional framework amendment that would let the vice president assume powers. at least thats the formality. practically speaking, it looks like hes fogoing to turn the powers over to his vice president. >> what youre noting is the complexities we have to look forward to should this happen tonight. another one of the questions might be when we hear the word "coup" we think of violence, something thats very radical. what are we going to see if were calling this a coup? >> i think youre going...

Something that could be quite ca catacly cataclysmic. >> reporter: the military gave a short statement by the supreme military council that includes the top generals, the defense minister. it also would normally be headed by president mubarak. president mubarak was not at the meeting. so you have all of the generals meeting without mubarak, and the generals saying we will take steps to ensure the security of egypt. that is what, according to that analyst, effectively a coup. we have not seen the...

Hour, as you speak with your sources on the ground as well as other analysts, have they intimated that this will be a violent coup, that there will be violence associated with this, or will this be a smoother transition, if we can associate that with the word "coup." >> reporter: a coup implies tanks would storm in and that is not the scenario that has been unfolding as far as we can tell. this would be more of a constitutional coup or a military asserting its right and abrogating the presidents...

An arab language channel has reported hes traveled. the information minister and the prime minister, who both represent mubarak government are saying that he is still in power. the military has come out and said it will take actions to secure the country, to secure the aspirations of the people. we have also been told that a military representative has contacted the protesters, saying that their demands will be met. what we dont know, if mubarak will come out and say this. we dont know where hes...

I wouldnt throw coup around too much yet. >> thats what weve been hearing so far according to reports as we look at this. of course the head of the military there working very closely with president mubarak throughout the years. this is not new people or a new relationship. lets bring in jonathan allen. is this the easy part? >> absolutely. i mean i hate to say that its the easy part because obviously this has been a tremendous dramatic event in egypt for all the people involved. but i think whe...

We are watching breaking news coming out of cairo, egypt. if youre just joining us, were hearing from two sources that president mubarak will be announcing tonight that he is stepping down as president of egypt. this as the masses in the streets of cairo as well as other parts of that country have demanded that he step down but the question has been is it enough. this along the words that weve been getting from different reports that it will be a coup, a military coup, brought on by the leader o...