They say the proposed rules wont allow any new testimony or evidence while we have 2 reporters covering this historic day in washington d. C. Can be how could our White House Correspondent is standing by to tell us about the president s legal strategy and who his defense team is and well be speaking to her in just a moment but 1st we go to heidi. On capitol hill heidi all right so talk us through what is going to be happening in this next hour we heard the Senate Majority leader there lay the groundwork basically tell us whats going to be happening break it down for us. Thats right and you know were actually going to be hearing likely more of the same but the official version in a few minutes time thats because what we heard just now was their regular call the order for Senate Business at exactly 800. 00 g. M. T. Is when we expect the Supreme Court chief Justice John Roberts to then call the Impeachment Court which is the other persona the senate will be adopting throughout this trial thats when the impeachment will be called into order and then well hear the official arguments which likely again will be very partisan in nature and what we just heard now from the 2 Party Leaders in the senate are these extremely partisan attacks essentially each party accusing the other of the same thing of rigging this impeachment process 1st it was the republicans who said that the democratic controlled house was making this im processing this process unfair to the president we just heard Mitch Mcconnell the Top Senate Republican again claiming that the white House Counsel was cut out of participating in the inquiry process well we know verifiably that that is false because the white house was. Invited to participate in the Judiciary Committee hearings but then you have today we have democrats now can play knowing that republicans who control the senate now that they are orchestrating the unfair process and what we have seen laid out in this resolution which is drafted by republicans only is a very speedy and very narrow trial. There are going to condense arguments if this resolution passes lengthy arguments that will be squeezed into very few days so what that means is long long airtimes long hearings that probably will stretch into the middle of the night when few americans are watching their Television Screens catching up on the news also we are and we know that this resolution does not automatically allow the new witnesses to be called the postpones that decision until later and then pointedly it also does not automatically allow already established evidence that is a result from the house investigation it does not allow that to be entered into the official trial record automatically that could happen at a later date democrats have deep fry that specially this last point about admitting the existing evidence they say that is outrageous and unprecedented and evidence that republicans are trying to as you just heard from Chuck Schumers words i have a trial with no evidence thus no trial at all what heidi lets listen to what the Senate Minority leader Democrat Chuck schumer hot to say about the rules proposed by the republicans just a short while ago each Senate Impeachment trial in our history all 15 that were brought to completion feature witnesses every single one the witnesses we request there not to have democrats there the president s own men. The documents are not democratic documents they are documents period we dont know if the evidence of the witnesses or the documents will be exculpatory to the president or incriminating but we have an obligation a solemn obligation particularly now during this most deep and solemn part of our constitution to seek the truth and then let the chips fall where they may. All right so heidi they are expected to vote on the resolution today then what happens starting tomorrow. Well the short of the resolution as written is expected to pass today along partisan lines of enough republican members offering their support in fact every republican member thus far after that we do expect Opening Statements to begin tomorrow and then with this condensed schedule possibly an ending to this trial as early as the end of next week a very condensed proceeding but before we get to that vote of whether or not to remove President Trump from Office Democrats in the senate will have one last chance to try to submit notions to call new witnesses and thats what we just heard Chuck Schumer speak of the even more incivility of these who are witnesses democrats say are absolutely necessary to reveal new information on that is thus far unknown that zeroing in on this question the key question about this impeachment whether or not president from had a close up to motive when he withheld security aide to ukraine and asked that countrys president to investigate and to announce an investigation into trying his political rival joe biden so the president trying throughout this process and his defenders have said that there was absolutely nothing wrong with that request was doing it to combat corruption in ukraine no not linking it to his political aspirations of winning reelection who may have that linking information perhaps john bolton the former National Security adviser perhaps trying to act and choose a status Mick Mulvaney we dont know frankly exactly what those 2 men have to say because they have been blocked thus far from participating in the impeachment process and democrats are hoping that at least at the end of these opening arguments maybe in a week and a halfs time that maybe their final f. To try to help this testimony heidi thank you very much for the moment for us on capitol hill lets not cross over to the white house sandakan really how to say for is kimberly i think were getting ready for whats going to be a very spirited debate over these rules governing the president s impeachment trial what can you tell us about his Legal Team Strategy heading into this and whos representing him in fact. Yeah well the legal team representing him has been publicized for a number of days now its a celebrity lineup Alan Dershowitz is a name familiar to americans we also know that the white House Counsel pats of a lonely of the president s own personal lawyer jay sekulow and also of course someone familiar from the 1999 trial of president bill clinton and that was the the man that was leading the sort of impeachment charge an investigation into president bill Clinton Kenneth starr and i think its important as we point out you know you heard there Mitch Mcconnell talking accusing the democrats in many ways or you heard Chuck Schumer accusing the white house of kind of leading this process and trying to protect the president and have much of this argued in the dark of night that there are some distinct differences between 999 and today and one of the big ones is the fact that so much of this evidence that the republicans or the white house are trying to keep from the trial was actually back in 1009 presented before any of this even started so thats one key distinction the other key distinction all of this as we talked about the effort to obstruct these witnesses when the trial was started back in 1909 those witnesses had already testified it was much it was done on a videotape and the contents of that witness testimony was already known so its really important when you hear Mitch Mcconnell in the white house talking about the the clinton precedent the clinton rules that there are some fair criticisms coming from the democratic side with regard to that because there is some key deviations and many would argue that this is really trying to obscure some of the key facts in all of this so what about the president in all this kimberly we saw him earlier today in davos being really dismissive off the scene the chairman trial what message is he sending by being viable bomblets and what effect do you think the senate is going to have on his popularity and his fostex and 2020. Well it doesnt appear the bar is moving very far when it comes to any change in the president s popularity the polls have been relatively consistent youll hear the president talking about this is a hoax you know this is sort of the new witch hunt that we heard repeatedly decrying with regard to the muller investigation the bottom line is the president has his supporters and were seeing that on capitol hill not only in the form of his legal team but also in some of those surrogates that are now kind of championing his case theyre making the argument this is the 1st time the president has had the opportunity to argue his case it is extensive way so were seeing members of the house inquiry from the republican side who will be sort of going on the National Airwaves if you will making the case for the president but again in terms of those numbers of americans who want to see the present removed from office this country remains split down the middle all right kimberly thank you for that will be interesting to see if anything changes in the coming days kitty hawk as our White House Correspondent they speak some more about this now to alan baron who is as former especially be chairman counsel to the u. S. House of representatives is live from washington d. C. Thank you so much for being with us and thank you for your patience i know youve been sitting there for a while we heard Mitch Mcconnell mcconnell say a few minutes ago that the process was good enough for president clinton and therefore it ought to be good enough for this president President Trump as well 1st of all are the rules the same as the Clinton Bowles in 1009. The answer is no as senator schumer pointed out there were at least 4 important distinctions between the rules as applied in the clinton situation and the way theyre being proposed today by the republicans and i think theres also this. The fact that the failure to cooperate with the house investigation instructing witnesses who had been subpoenaed not to show up. At the government says even if they hadnt been subpoenaed asked to appear voluntarily instructed not to show up i think that changes the whole dynamic i mean its if the house and gotten full cooperation from these witnesses its a legitimate point to say well why didnt you do all your work and make your case before you sent it over to the senate but having stonewalled the house and so many regards no documents no documents produced by the state department. By the Energy Department and not a single sheet of paper for them to say well you should have done all that work in the in the house is so disingenuous and dishonest its really hard to hard to accept it but alan baron are the democrats not making a mistake by challenging these rules set out by mcconnell and the republicans at this late stage of the process i mean what else can they do right now well they can make the record look lets not kid ourselves. The republicans in the senate have the votes for an acquittal that is almost preordained you would need 2020 republican senators to switch and find. Trump guilty in order for him to be removed from office that is not going to happen ok so then the question is what is all this jockeying all about yeah whats the why instead of this much pushing yet exactly you know where its going in fact the republicans given this preordained result could afford to be quite generous about the process they know how its going to turn out so sure you want witnesses have witnesses well why are they being so difficult and you know having like a midnight session of of the deliberations and the presentation by the house i think theyre looking at 2020 thats whats really at stake here if the case is made against trump that is so damning that it will reverberate not with trunk space not with from space theyre not going to move but there is a large segment of uncommitted and independent voters thats what this process is all about will they be persuaded that donald trump does not deserve another term as president of the United States so presumably the democrats also know came to 2020 i mean if we know at the outcome is why even bother to be chosen you know if we know it said in a quite 0 hour that motivations for the democrats there is a huge there is a huge stain on the presidency of donald trump by having been impeached even if hes not convicted in a partisan senate but to the idea of being impeached is will go down in history as one of the only 3 president s in this countrys history who have been impeached thats not a trivial thing and im sure it aint at trump every day of the week. Very interesting to talk to you alan baron thank you so much for your time thank you for being with us on aljazeera. Joining us there from washington d. C. Or lets get some of the days other news now and cross over to our london you center and my county in our intent. Thanks so much for. The impeachment trial is under way the president is that more than 6000 kilometers away in switzerland attending the World EconomicForum Donald Trump has used his speech at a summit to talk up americas economy he says his country is experiencing a boom like never before on diplomatic editor james bays reports from davos. On the day of the start of his trial for peach but this was the divorced version President Trump all the world stage in a place surrounded by Business Leaders who are his advisors knew he would look president ial its clear from his recent comments and his posts on twitter that the us leader is obsessed with impeachment but this was a speech over half an hour long in which the r. Word wasnt mentioned once today im proud to wear that the United States is in the midst of an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before. Weve regained her stride. Rediscovered our spirit in reawakened the powerful machinery of American Enterprise america is thriving america is flourishing and yes america is winning again like never before thanks bernie of the World Leaders who were in the room know how much now depends on the us a lecture at this could be troublesome last starforce but theyre preparing to for the possibility of a 2nd term this is a global forum dealing with global issues and so we have more and more conflicts breaking out across the world at that need everybody around the table to solve them we need the United States as part of that conversation and the United States needs an effective state Department Needs an effective diplomatic corps and soft diplomacy as well in order to be a true partner and i think people are genuinely worried that we have right this is a place where donald trump feels comfortable he was never invited to speak a divorce as the head of the Trump Organization now he feels part of this elite club as the u. S. President his advisors cleverly using this as a backdrop for a speech to a domestic audience James Burrows aljazeera divorce while political and Business Leaders meet in divorce protesters who blame them for the Climate Crisis a demanding action to protect the planet activists have hung a banner off a cliff face in the swiss resort calling for trump to wage war on Climate Change instead of iran hundreds of activists from across the country marched for 3 days to the town to make their voices heard on the teenage climate activist gratitude berg used her speech at the summit to criticize the empty promises of World Leaders. This is not about rights or lefts. We couldnt care less about your Party Politics from sustainability perspective the rights the lefts as well as the center have all failed. No political ideology or economic structure has been able to tackle the climates and environmental emergency and create a cohesive and sustainable. Because that world in case you havent noticed is currently on fire a deadly new virus which originated in china is causing increasing International Concern doctors in china say the strain of corona virus has killed 6 people and infected 300 more avram brown has more from hong kong. Chinas tightly controlled state media says the mysterious virus has now spread to some of the countrys major cities did it. In addition to more deaths new infections including hospital workers. Who cut a bite to one for the 1st time confirmation that this respiratory virus can be passed from person to person not from the usual you some cases happened in 2 places one in guangdong the other 111 where human to human transmission has been confirmed that the disease was 1st identified in wu han late last year the majority of the confirmed cases of the virus and. We interrupt that report to take you back to washington d. C. And will present and impeachment proceedings getting underway there lets listen in to whats going on in the senate. The sergeant in arms will make the proclamation. Here you here you here e or persons are comman