It has been a day of high drama and declaration. 0n the floor of thousand representatives. What is at sta ke thousand representatives. What is at stake is Donald Trumps legacy. In all likelihood, he will be known as the president who was impeached. 0nly the president who was impeached. Only the third in american history. The president himself is called impeachment an ugly word. Impeachment is no less than accusing the elected president of the United States of what the constitution calls high crimes and misdemeanors. But a skilled life to the floor thousand representatives. This is the scene as people are debating this is what they have been debating. 0ne republican laying out their case in defence of the president and then a democrat accusing the president and back and forth on this of power and abuse of congress. It has been going on all day and by most estimates, there been about two more hours to go before they vote on those articles of impeachment in congress and will be 11 capitol hill with the latest and reaction on the white house during this period and let us take a look at the listen. They want americans to believe that our president is guilty, this whole process is unconstitutional. Both sides, we need to get the truth and the truth is the decision of who should be our president should be made by the American People. Not speaker pelosi, and house democrats. And i your back. I recognise the gentleman from new york, for three minutes. I think my friend, mr speaker, as chairman of the foreign affairs, this is a sad day. No one is gleeful that the president possible his actions have brought us to this point, but when you boil it down, we are here today because the president abused the power of his office to help his chances at reelection. He used the enormous weight of the presidency and American Foreign policy to push a Foreign Government to smear a political rival and he got caught. Why is this conducts a serious . Why has the president s behaviour pushed the house of representatives to exercise one of its most consequential responsibilities . Because corrupting an american election, particularly with a foreign power, means corrupting american democracy. 0ur election at the heart of our democracy, the foundation of what makes our system of government great. 0ur republic. If we can keep it as Benjamin Franklin once said, if elections are unfair than our republic cannot stand. Anyone interested fixing election is taking away the power of the American People to choose their leaders. If it happens at any level of government, it is toxic to our democracy. And this came from the highest level. In this case it is even more serious because of what the president was willing to give up for this advantage, what press was he willing to pay . The press was our National Security and the president devised his shadow Foreign Policy to undermine our diplomacy and diplomats. And that gives us a flavour of what is been happening at the beginning and then each congressman, a woman gets a chance to speak before they go to the whole house, theyve been doing this after about five hours, we think there is been a couple of hours of this to be back and forth between both sites. And then the house will vote on these articles of impeachment. 0ur north america editor jon sopel has more now on the days events so far. Merciful god, and your presence. December the 18th, 2019, a day that will go down in american history. A day that started at least with solemn. But very quickly it moved from the secret to the profane is the bitter partisan dogfight took over. If the president undermines oui over. If the president undermines our National Security and uses the federal government for his own selfish personal gain is not impeachable conduct, then met them speaker, i do not know what is. Today, we have a president who seems to believe he is today we have a president who seems to believe he is a king, or above the law. And then the counterblast from the republicans. It is a sham impeachment. It has been carried out at the expense of hard working americans who just want us to move forward. There is no proof, none, that the president has committed an impeachable offence. And from the democratic speaker, a tone of sorrow rather than anger. I solemnly and sadly opened the debate on the impeachment of the president of the United States. If we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the president does make reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice. The last president to be impeached was bill clinton in 1998 over lying about his relationship with the white house intern, monica lewinsky. And before that, you have to go back another 130 years to president andrewjohnson. By the end of today, donald trump well in all likelihood have joined the club that no one wants to be a member of. The president has spent the morning and the residence where his twitter fans have been busy. But for this first part of the impeachment process, it wont be about prayer, it will be about votes, and donald trump doesnt have them. And donald trump is barring exceptional circumstances as being the third american president to be impeached because the house of representatives are controlled by democrats and those democrats have said they are going to vote to impeach him. The disco to capitol hill. Let impeach him. The disco to capitol hill. Let us go to capitol hill. Gary, no big surprises today, we knew how this is going to go. We know what the outcome is going to be and yet nonetheless, a historic momentous down capitol hill. |j and yet nonetheless, a historic momentous down capitol hill. I think thatis momentous down capitol hill. I think that is absolutely right. This is something that is envisaged as a rare event when this republic was founded, wasnt it. It was not meant to be taken lightly or regularly and it has not been. And yetjust the third time in 230 years of american president s and here we are on the verge of another one of them being impeached. As you say, believe the argument today has been as we have for before, theres been a lot of hyperbole, a lot of lofty language about the obligations and the responsibilities of the presidency and the will and the wish of the Founding Fathers and all of that kind of thing. It is the end of the day, this is going to go pretty much straight down party lines. We make ita straight down party lines. We make it a couple of democrats voting against, we know that Collin Patterson from minnesota, he always said that he was going to vote against this and we know that one other democrat has flipped parties in order to vote against this process. But at the end of the day, impeachment is political in my goodness, today this one is political. Pretty divided and intense language and i remembered from covering bill clintons impeachment. Things got very tense of the last minutes and we have been hearing that during the course of today with one congresswoman even saying that evenjesus christ was afforded more rights and due process during his trial. Reflecting back to that letter from donald trump where, it almost 3000 words, he really put together every bit of name calling and angerand together every bit of name calling and anger and language that he could lay his hands on and likened himself to being treated worse than those who had faced trial in salem over witchcraft back in the 17th century. There is no crossing of the ways here. Back in 1998, there were a handful of democrats who voted against their president. A handful of republicans that voted to try and stop impeachment. It just of republicans that voted to try and stop impeachment. Itjust does not look like there is anyjoining of mines at all even in small numbers for this one. The other end of pennsylvania avenue as are the white houses and donald trump has been watching the proceedings on and off although we are told by his advisers that he is been working at his desk during the course of the day and has not stopped him from tweeting. Laura trevelyan is standing by for us at the white house. I say that he has been at the white house all day, but now he has left because he has a Campaign Rally in michigan. He just left in the because he has a Campaign Rally in michigan. Hejust left in the past few minutes and very uncharacteristically for this loquacious president , he did not stop and speak to the waiting reporters as he boarded marine one, he does give a thumbs up. That is only happened a couple of times, sometimes he will speak for 25 minutes, even an hour. But this was not a debris wish to have anything to say, he had to say yesterday and a six page letter to the speaker, but he is on his way to make sure, and the Trump Campaign said they are excited for the objects and giving one of his signature rallies just as the house votes to impeach him. There will be the split screen that the Trump Campaign says they are excited about and we also know the president has been talking to his friends that this is not something that any president wants on the resume to be the third american president in history to be impeached. A curious mixture of emotions going on today because republicans are telling us that this has been a fundraising boon for them that they have seen more coming into Campaign Coffers around the country and as you is suggesting for President Trump, he goes down with this historic asterix. And of course, it is all on him to stop because just after the report was concluded, the president was on the phone and talking to the ukrainian president and asking for a favour and trying to get a visit to the white house and military aid in return, that kicked off the whistle blower response. And if the president had not done this, they are lining up behind him and the president s adviser was in the Briefing Room this afternoon and sync of course it is a sad day for the president but she blamed the democrats. It is also politically effective for them because theyre hoping to contrast the president and everything they say he is achieving with a strong economy, the trade deals in the democrats are to impeach him. It is becoming the signature issue as we go into 2020, but as you know, things move so quickly around here and will it last . Outside of the white house, thank you very much. Stay warm i know it is absolutely freezing here in washington tonight. We have a great panel here on set with me to discuss all this. Elizabeth wydra is a legal expert and presidnet of the constitutional accountability centre. And Jonathan Turley is a professor at George WashingtonUniversity Law school, who recently testified to congress. Let me start with you because you testified for the republicans that you felt that the impeachment process itself perhaps needed more time and you are not convinced that this rose to the level of an impeachable offence. Is that an accurate statement . The testimony, the crimes they testified against we re the crimes they testified against were dropped by the democrats and the two there were legitimate were the two there were legitimate were the two there were legitimate were the two that they adopted. My problem is not with the theory of these articles of impeachment, it is these articles of impeachment, it is the record. This record is incomplete, it is not sufficient. And it will fail in spectacular fashion. We have not heard from witnesses or because the evidence does not exist or we do not know . There is evidence, it is what my co witness said, you can base this impeachment on inference. But you do not have to. This is a very thin record, if they took a few months, they couldve gotten more, it took three months in the nixon case to a final decision in the supreme court. That is an appeal. They could get more rulings, they correctly support this case, so they have a choice. They can keep their pledge to impeach by christmas and fail, most certainly, or they could wait and build a real case in the next couple of months. The counter argument from democrats is, we could wait and tried to get mike pompeo and try to get the former National Security adviser, we could try to get the acting chief of staff and we could have them all in the house and try to get them to testify, if the white house would let them, some of the white house would let them testify, but the senate is never going to impeach the president anyway. Even if that case is built with more evidence and with more direct knowledge of those conversations. Comments that we have heard from leader Mitch Mcconnell, senator Lindsey Graham that no amount of factual record would be able to sway their opinion. They seem intent on putting their party over the constitution, over the country, which is incredibly depressing. I think the record is incredibly clear in part because President Trump is his own smoking gun. You have people who are directly involved with holding the aid of the Ukrainian Government and knowing there is a quid pro quo, including the ambassador who testified. It is quite clear and the fact that they show that this is an impeachable offe nce show that this is an impeachable offence goes to what the founders of this nation were concerned about when they wrote impeachment into the constitution as a remedy. In particular, the foreign corruption of our democracy, undermining the americans ability to have a free and fair democratic process and then, of course, putting them above the law, notjust here or there on executive privilege matters, but a blanket refusal to co operate with the legitimate oversight of authority. That is the democrats argument that they cannot afford to wait very much longer because this is a National Security issue in the president s personal lawyer has been in the ukraine as recently as last week, still trying to dig up dirt on the president s opponents and getting the ukraine involved in the process. We have to rush for this to fail as quickly as possible stop there making this easy on the white house. Theyre trying to compel these witnesses, the ones that direct testimony, they have made it easy so the Senate Majority can say, you say this record is so overwhelming. Fine. Well keep the trial on the record. He did not call these direct witnesses, you did not go to court to compel them. We will have a trial without them. They have set this up for failure. Without them. They have set this up forfailure. If they without them. They have set this up for failure. If they had simply waited a couple of months, they couldve gotten courts to rule on compelling these witnesses and then they would have a real obstruction of congress as a case and many of us are of congress as a case and many of us a re baffled. If of congress as a case and many of us are baffled. If they simply waited until april, they would have twice the case they have now and i disagree that just the case they have now and i disagree thatjust because republicans control the senate, it is guaranteed that they will not switch sides stop by two thirds majority, do you think you would manage to get enough republicans to overcome . Not in Donald TrumpsRepublican Party history. And you have Mitch Mcconnell saying he will not be impartial. They are using their own words as a guide which is where the get into trouble. Even if we add more and more evidence, even when we have more direct evidence because she has been direct testimony from investors and President Trump says there is nothing wrong with this phone call, he is probably the only one who has been real about the fact that this happened and he just does not think it is impeachable. And that i think isa it is impeachable. And that i think is a different point. Everybody comes to this movie and heres the lines they want to hear and the fact is, Democratic Senators have also said that they have made up their minds, Democratic Senators have talked about what a shame it would be not to convict donald trump before he was impeached. I did the last trial in front of them, i would off the cause, they have a horrible jury off the cause, they have a horrible jury for anyone to have, but theyre the only one that can remove a president. But they have surprised people. Even if you have not think about, it would make a big difference if you presented a strong case where some mightve crossed the line. Monitoring the democrats. At the house is made there virtually impossible by presenting the thinnest record ever submitted to the senate. In the country plus plus 250 year history, we have had three impeachments, too as i have been living in washington, dc. Iam either very old or impeachment is becoming more common. Which is it possible i still think it is rare, the three of them, the two have been relatively recent, is still very rare i think that perjury is against the law, it is bad, lying about an affair with an intern was very bad. You know, soliciting foreign interference in american democracy i think its to the heart of why impeachment is written into the constitution as a remedy in part because he gets to the question of whether or not the ballot box can be the effective check on our elected leaders that it is supposed to be stop and if you have foreign interference undermining our free and Fair Elections, and as the founders specifically worried about, we will not be able to properly check our elected leaders because our democracy will be undermined. Citing the house had to act, i think theres a strong case and if we do not act, if we do not as a nation act now, democrats and republicans andl act now, democrats and republicans and i agree that we should hold out hope that the sender does the right thing but then we will have the situation with the 2020 election where its not