Delhi all to indias top corporate spartans a hearing on a contentious new citizenship bill. And happy reunions for some time to burundi off to fleeing Political Violence but not everyones convinced safe. U. S. President donald trump could be just hours away from being written into history as only the 3rd u. S. President to be impeached has just gone 15 g. M. T. Thats 10 am in washington d. C. Where the u. S. House of representatives has begun a session on capitol hill to debate and then vote whether or not to send him to a senate trial well thats all but sesson because trumps opponents in the Democratic Party have a majority in that chamber of congress well ahead of the votes they will be to based on the 2 articles of impeachment which could last up to 6 hours again lashed out at the democrats describing the process as an attempted coup while in a moment well speak to our White House Correspondent can be how could but fast its castor whos on capitol hill for us where that vote will happen well heidi came in a historic day on the hill today talk us through what weve been seeing over the last hour or so. Anastasio so what were seeing right now are republicans doing the best they can to delay what appears to be the inevitable which is that by the end of the day the democratic controlled house of representatives will be voting to impeach President Donald Trump which would make him only the 3rd u. S. President in history to be impeached republicans dont have the numbers to defeat that measure but they can try to stall the efforts which is what weve been seeing for this past hour this as soon as the gavel convened the house of representatives we saw republicans introduce a motion to adjourn that was quickly defeated by the full caucus of democrats plus the one independent who voted to defeat that motion and now the chambers onto debating another republican stall motion condemning the impeachment inquiry against trump as illegitimate that is expected to be rejected very shortly as well all of this is just pushing back the debate on the actual articles of impeachment they seem troubled they are abuse of power and obstruction of congress both stemming from allegations that trump use the power of his presidency to try to solicit election interference from ukraine and at some point by the end of the day that is when it is expected that the chamber will actually vote on those articles and it is expected to be a partisan vote with democrats having the number the numbers to pass the impeachment what were watching for is whether or not a few or at least one democrat will defect from their caucus we know that at least one congressman from new jersey has said he will vote against the impeachment all of the republicans have said that they will vote against impeachment so again expecting this to be a very partisan vote and once the debate begins on the actual merits of the impeachment its a very heated and partisan debates beginning of a. Very long day on capitol hill be talking to hide your customers throughout the day but for now lets go to President Trumps latest tweet hes been tweeting about all the proceedings on surprising and he said can you believe that today i will be impeached by the radical left the do nothing democrats and i did nothing wrong well lets go now to our White House Correspondent committee how it can be no surprises there that i mean hes been tweeting even more prolifically than usual about the impeachment process but hes also written an incredibly derisive letter to nancy pelosi ahead of todays proceedings where is his head up today. Yeah well you read out one of the tweets there have been least a dozen that ive counted where the president has continued to maintain no wrongdoing essentially kucing the democrats in the house of representatives is trying to undo the Election Results of 2016 saying that theyre overruling the will of the American People the president retreating from others that there is a case that he believes is built against him on hearsay and conjecture and opinion but does not in the ultimate articles of impeachment have anything to do with the original allegations against the president namely that he committed bribery or that this was corruption now you talked about that letter that the president sent on the eve of what we expect to be the outcome of the vote in the house of representatives and that is impeachment a scathing letter on white house letterhead that really has been a some mation of the president s most vitriolic tweets in recent weeks as this impeachment inquiry has occurred in the notable thing in all of those sort of what many people call a rambling letter is the fact that the president has at no point taken responsibility saying that he has not committed any wrongdoing accusing the house of representatives of being an enemy of democracy you have found nothing this is disingenuous meritless and baseless so essentially the president fighting back as he had along the all the way along through this inquiry essentially accusing the democrats of what he calls an illegal partisan coup well i say hes also cleared his schedule for the day what president obamas plans. Yes our white house producer here on the grounds of the white house campus Chris Sheridan has been working very hard to find out whether or not the president is fixated on the t. V. Whether hes conducting official business official schedule its relatively clear i think its safe to assume the president is watching what were hearing out officially is that hes watching in between meetings certainly the president has plans for this evening however when this vote is either occurring or maybe has occurred and that is to travel to battle creek michigan a very pivotal state in terms of the president s support its one of those key swing states the president would need to win the white house in 2020 and whats so interesting about this Impeachment Vote is unlike bill clinton back in the late ninetys when he was impeached a 2nd term donald trump will be impeached we believe in his 1st term that means the American Public will have the opportunity to weigh in on this in november so the president is taking his case to the American Public he seems to be resilient because he feeds off of the support he gets outside of washington so expect that he will take his message as we see it on twitter as we see in the letter to the American People in battle creek michigan for yet another one of his make America Great again rallies and it can be there for us at the White House Well be chatting to kennedy a bit later as well but for now lets take a look at how this could all play out and beachwear begins with the approval of charges against the president by the house but it doesnt mean hes automatically forced from office 1st a trial is held in the senate and that could be as soon as january that its ive been saying by the chief justice of the Supreme Court the senators act as jurors while members of the house of representatives prosecutors at least 2 thirds or 67 senators need to vote guilty on at least one article of impeachment in order to have donald trump removed from office and if this does happen the Vice President then becomes president well lets go back to heidi castor again she is on capitol hill in washington d. C. How do you talk us through what set to happen for the rest of today. Sure so just in the last few minutes there has been a little bit more movement on the house floor now members of the house are debating the rules of the impeachment debate thats coming up why is that significant its it means that the republicans motions that we saw earlier this morning those really those stall tactics to delay the inevitable Impeachment Vote that seems to have ended now theyre on to the next order of business which still puts us on track for that Impeachment Vote likely to happen later this evening once that happens then that is the point when trump officially becomes impeached only the 3rd u. S. President to face impeachment and in january then this whole thing kicks off into the senate which as you mentioned is a completely different political dynamic there because it will be the republicans the president s own party has a majority of that chamber and the u. S. Constitution says that indeed a 2 thirds majority of that senate in order to convict the president and remove him from office now because those senators themselves will serve as the jurors its interesting because the leak the Top Republican in the Senate Mitch Mcconnell who in a sense has been compared to the foreman of the jury he has said publicly that he is in total coordination with the white house in directing this trial and he has said that there is quote no chance that his chamber would vote to remove trump from office caster that live for us on capitol hill well be chatting to heidi throughout the day well after weeks of hearings Public Opinion on the impeachment a split our correspondent on the gallagher reports from miami and florida a swing state that donald trump won back in 26. This is not impeachable the impeachment hearings into President Trumps dealings with ukraine began in november the hearings have times been dramatic revealing and deeply hot is on places like grahams bar in miami though youre not likely to hit patrons talking about what many see as a political crisis its something owner adam guest and doesnt shy away from he holds election watch parties here isnt afraid of heated debate but says most of lost Interest Despite his efforts theres not an aha moment where you suddenly say democracy its a long slog and youve got to stick with it and so my part in sticking with it is keeping people engaged and exposing them to whats actually happening exposure to the twists and turns of politics may not be as crucial and deeply republican or democratic states florida and especially its hispanic voters will be pivotal in the 2020 president ial election i guess i kind of care but only like if he actually does get impeached but for the most part i am i im a keeping up with until the voting occurs i have no power in the situation so i dont Pay Attention i dont care so hard to weed through all the information out there and it seems like people are in such different sides of it that its hard to at this point understand whats going on i think for myself as a 2020 president ial election looms the fight to sway Public Opinion appears to have wavered on lets say that could have implications for the democrats they claim that trump was a russian stooge who was going to destroy the country the miller investigation found out that wasnt true and sort of decimated those trump russia conspiracy theories and now people are left wondering is this just more partisan bickering voters remain divided in one camp of the other the Sunshine State though has a history of deciding the nations fate how people feel matters if florida does one thing consistently it tends to reflect the mood of the entire country for decades florida voters have back but when. President ial candidate and thats mostly because the demographics make this a mini version of the United States so a collective here could be seen as a fairly accurate reflection of the current mood on the gallacher Miami Florida poll have lots of experts with us over the coming hours to help us break down whats happening in washington shortly well talk to joseph turow whos an associate professor of Political Science at texas a and m. University here in doha but 1st lets cross over to Michael Isikoff hes the chief investigative correspondent at yahoo news and hes in washington d. C. Michael you covered the clinton impeachment extensively and i remember when bill clinton was staring down the barrel of impeachment he went and issued this profound apology from the rose garden back in 1900 saying he was incredibly profoundly sorry and as weve been hearing that no such contrition from trump talk us through the contrast between these 2 processes these 2 men. Exactly president clinton did show contrition i would quarrel little bit with your use of the word profoundly because i think a lot of people viewed it as somewhat skeptical as to just how contrite bill clinton really was but he did at least mouthed the words that a lot of people including democrats wanted to hear to give them cover to continue to support the president in this case donald trump has given no such cover to republicans who are you know many of whom are clearly privately an easy about the president s conduct but extremely reluctant to say anything publicly so that is a critical difference you have a. At least in 20 years ago a president who is least malou of contrition in this case a president who absolutely refuses to do so well michael times have also changed on capitol hill when allison at this incredibly divided potus and vitriolically partisan congress hows that affected this whole process. Very much in fact look a lot of us who lived through the clinton impeachment saw that as a sign of just how polarized the country was but if anything its gotten even more polarized its gotten a lot worse and youre going to see that in the in the results of the voting today. In 19985 democrats did vote with republicans to impeach bill clinton 5 republicans voted against impeaching the president in this case we do are not expecting any republicans to vote for impeaching donald trump and its remains to be seen whether any more than 2 democrats will vote against we had 2 who voted against the opening up the impeachment inquiry and right now that seems to be where the the democrats are no no others have publicly said they are going to vote against impeachment michael zooming back out from capitol hill polls showing that Public Opinion remains split but could President Trump be in a Stronger Political position going into an election if he ends up being acquitted as we would expect that he would be in a senate trial. Look there are some wild cards in that senate trial that will probably influence how the public ultimately perceives it i think most people now you know virtually everybody expects that he is not going to be removed from office it would require 20 republicans to vote to convict him when no republicans in the house are going to do so its really hard to see how youll get a substantial number of republicans but you know those wildcards are out there in particular the question of witnesses the rule. Minority leader sure has made it clear he is going to push for subpoenas to key witnesses Mick MulvaneyJohn Bolton Mike pump a 0 and that will be a rules vote by the full senate and Senate Republicans including some who are facing reelection are going to have to make a tough choice about whether to cut off that testimony or allow it and i think thats the big wildcard that everybody is going to be looking for how that rules fight plays out when we get to a trial in just a few weeks indeed thats Michael Isikoff speaking to us from washington d. C. Thank you michael well lets now speak to joseph or his an associate professor professor of Political Science at texas a and m. University here and he joins me now on fat joseph lets start with the significance of today for americans and this is a historic day how closely are people following this i mean is going to be a lot of variance and how ordinary citizens are following along i think sort of a large proportion of americans are paying attention at least to the to the historical gravity of the moment trances the 3rd president to be impeached this is the kind of thing your children will ask you about if you remember that there are people reflect on so i think people are certainly paying a lot of attention. Kind of collective experience in terms of whether or not people are paying much attention the to the details of what the president s been accused of and the evidence on both sides of the case that thats certainly more questionable i think most people are apt to follow the kinds of easy to digest signals like where their party stands with the president says and so moving forward the kinds of information people have will be a function of what comes out in the senate trial rather than sort of the kinds of things that people who are more immersed in this in the media in washington would have been paying attention to so well its taken us quite a long period to get to this point i want to remind you is how we got here lets take a look at this report from patty call home. It all began to unravel when the us president picked up his phone in july a call to the president of ukraine what was said anough for a whistleblower to file a complaint that made it to congress the allegation was that trump was Holding Hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid meant for ukraine which was fighting off russian aggression intil the ukrainian president promised to investigate trumps potential political rival former u. S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son hunter who had worked in ukraine in damage control mode the white house released notes from the call it did more damage because as the notes point out as the ukrainian president is promising to buy more u. S. Missiles trump responds i would like you to do us a favor though he goes on to ask for investigations into a debate Conspiracy Theory about the election and later brings up the bidens the president must be held accountable no one is above the law thats when democrats announced an impeachment inquiry would begin the white hou