Trump impeachment trial live updates: Biden says charge 'not in dispute' in 1st comments on acquittal

The Senate is taking a 15-minute break following the start of opening arguments from the House impeachment managers.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., laid out the framework for how Trump, in the days after the election continued to falsely tell his supporters the election was "rigged" and "stolen," using a series of Trump's own tweets and remarks to make his point.

"Just like to build a fire, it doesn't just start with the flames, Donald Trump for months and months assembled the tend, the kindling, threw on logs for fuel to have his supporters believe that the only way their victory would be lost was if it was stolen. That way, President Trump was ready if he lost the election to light the match," Swalwell said.

Swalwell went on to remind how some election officials across the country were berated in the weeks following the election and played video of protesters surrounding the secretary of state's house in Michigan.

"There is plenty of evidence to show words have consequences -- and if he wanted to stop it, he could stop it," Swalwell said. "President Trump was never shy about using his platforms to try and stop something. He could have very easily told his supporters, stop threatening officials, stop GOP going to their homes, stop it with the threats. But each time he didn't."

Swalwell said Trump did the "polar opposite" of what anyone else in that chamber would have done had they lost an election. He started running ads falsely claiming election fraud and spent $50 million from his legal defense fund to amplify his message, Swalwell said.

"These ads were designed to run all the way up to Jan. 5, and then, they stopped. This was purposeful and deliberate planning to target his base to rally around that day. And it wasn't just his ads. He continued to use his own platform. He told his supporters who truly believed their victory had been stolen and who were ready to fight when, where and how to stop what he believed was a steal," Swalwell said.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, one of the House impeachment managers, asserted that Trump's baseless claims of election fraud well before and after the election provoked his base and led to the riots on Jan 6.

"In tweet after tweet, he made sweeping allegations about election fraud that couldn't possibly be true. But that was the point. He didn't care if the claims were true," Castro said. "He wanted to make sure that his supporters were angry, like the election was being ripped away from them."

Castro argued that the president's "big lie" about election fraud fanned the flames of anger in his base, leading to the riots.

"There's a saying that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put on its shoes. And that was before the internet," Castro said. "The point of that saying is that a lie can do incredible damage and destruction, and that's especially true when that lie is told by the most powerful person on earth, our commander-in-chief, the president of the United States."

House manager Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., presented three categories in his remarks to illustrate the impeachment managers' case that Trump "planted the seeds" in the lead up to the insurrection and used the Jan. 6 rally as a final "call to arms."

"He didn't condemn the violence," Neguse said of Trump. "He incited it further. And he got more specific. He didn't just tell them to 'fight like hell.' He told them how, where and when. He made sure they had advance notice -- 18 days advance notice. He sent his save the date for Jan. 6. He told them to march to the Capitol and fight like hell."

"He incited it. It was foreseeable. And again, you don't have to take my word for it," Neguse said, before playing a CNN clip of Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly saying it's "no surprise" the attack happened after Trump's actions.

Neguse reminded that five people died from the attack, dozens were injured but more harm was hoped to be inflicted on some, according to disturbing criminal complaints in the aftermath.

"We learn that members of this group said, I'm going to, quote -- they would've killed Mike Pence if given the chance. In another, we learn of a tweet in real time while they were in the building stating, we broke into the Capitol," Neguse said.

On Trump repeating at his Jan. 6 rally to "stop the steal," Neguse said to the senators, "Of course, each of you heard those words before. So had the crowd. The president had spent months telling his supporters that the election had been stolen. And he used his speech to incite them further, to inflame them, to 'stop the steal,' to stop the certification of the election results."

Of the mob, Neguse said, "They did it all in plain sight -- proudly, openly and loudly. Because they believed, they truly believed, that they were doing this for him."

Neguse went on to ask what would have happened if Trump had said "stop the attack" with "even half as much force as he said 'stop the steal.'"

"How many lives would we have saved?" Neguse said.