Trump impeachment trial live updates: Biden says charge 'not in dispute' in 1st comments on acquittal
Biden remembered those who were killed and called for unity going forward.
Former President Donald Trump's historic second impeachment trial ended with a 57-43 vote to acquit in the Senate. He faced a single charge of incitement of insurrection over his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Top headlines:
- Biden praises police officers, calls charge 'not in dispute' in 1st comments
- Pelosi blasts McConnell, others who voted to acquit as 'cowardly group of Republicans'
- Managers highlight McConnell's agreement that they proved case
- McConnell says Trump solely to blame for attack after voting to acquit
- Schumer speaks on Senate floor
- Senate votes to acquit Trump: 57-43
Senate trial resumes after dinner break
The impeachment trial continues after the Senate recessed for a dinner break. House impeachment managers will continue to deliver arguments.
Trump tweeted attack on Pence as VP was on lockdown inside chamber
The timestamp on security footage presented by House impeachment managers shows Vice President Mike Pence being evacuated from the Senate chamber at 2:26:02 p.m.
Trump, meanwhile at the White House, posted an attack on Pence to Twitter just two minutes earlier at 2:24 p.m.
"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!" Trump tweeted, while the Capitol building was still under attack.
House impeachment managers in arguments on Wednesday sought to lay out a comprehensive timeline of the Capitol attack.
-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel
Schumer calls on Republicans to have an 'open mind'
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer briefly spoke to reporters during the Senate dinner break following House impeachment managers playing security footage from inside the Capitol and showing Schumer's "near miss" with the mob.
"I don't think many of us feel like eating dinner," Schumer said at first, acknowledging the break. "It was gut wrenching. The bravery of our police officers is incredible. It was compelling. And I just hope that our Republican colleagues have an open mind as they look to seeing what we've seen today."
He called the House managers' case "overwhelmingly compelling" and offered a few words signaling to his own close call.
"As for me, in my situation, I just want to give tremendous credit to the Capitol Police officers who are in my detail. Like the rest of the Capitol Police officers, they are utterly amazing and great, and we love them."
-ABC News' Trish Turner
Republican senator calls evidence against Trump 'damning'
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska called the evidence presented by House impeachment managers "damning" and told reporters during the Senate trial's dinner break Wednesday, "I don't see how Donald Trump could be reelected to the presidency again."
"I'm angry. I'm disturbed. I'm sad," said Murkowski, who is in the minority of Senate Republicans. "We lived it once and that was awful. And we're now we're now reliving it within a more comprehensive timeline."
"I know what I was feeling in the Senate chamber when I could hear those voices. I knew what it meant to be running down this hallway with my colleagues. I wasn't fully aware of everything else that was happening in the building and so when you see all the pieces come together, just the total awareness of that the enormity of this, the threat -- not just to us as people, as lawmakers, but the threat to the institution and what Congress represents -- it's disturbing."
"I think that the House managers are making a very strong case for a timeline that laid out very clearly, with the words that were used, when he used them, how he used them to really build the anger, the violence that we saw here," she continued.
Asked if she was concerned with the Senate not acting and barring Trump from running for office again, she said she doesn't see how he could be reelected, citing the House managers' evidence.
"Frankly I don't see how -- I don't see how after the American public sees the full story laid out here," she said. "I just, I don't see how Donald Trump could be reelected to the presidency again."
She also said she's under no pressure from leadership to vote a certain way and feels free to vote her conscience. Murkowski did not vote to convict Trump at his last impeachment trial. She did join five other Republicans Tuesday in voting to affirm the trial was constitutional.
-ABC News' Trish Turner
House manager Raskin begins to lay out closing arguments
After the Senate decided it will not call any witnesses, lead House manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., was the first to speak during closing arguments. He reiterated the prosecution's case, calling for the conviction of Trump.
"It was suggested by defense counsel that Donald Trump's conduct during the attack, as described in Congresswoman Beutler's statement, is somehow not part of the Constitutional offense for which former President Trump has been charged," Raskin began. "I want to reject that falsehood and that fallacy immediately. After he knew that violence was underway at the Capitol, President Trump took actions that further incited the insurgents to be more inflamed and to take even more extreme, selective, and focused action against Vice President Mike Pence."
Raskin went on to use his time to describe Trump's months-long campaign to discredit the 2020 election results by spreading misinformation, which he argued laid the groundwork for deadly events of Jan. 6. He went on to claim that the former president assembled the mob, incited it and then sent it off to the Capitol during his speech. At every point, Trump sided with the insurrectionists rather than the Congress, Raskin said.
Once when the violence began, Raskin declared that Trump ignored the violence and further incited it by aiming the attacks on his own vice president.
"There has never been a greater betrayal by the president of the United States of his office, and of his oath to the Constitution."
Raskin then took a moment to suggest the GOP used "cancel culture" against one of its leaders, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who voted to impeach Trump in the House.
"Liz Cheney is a hero for standing up for the truth, and resisting this retaliatory cancel culture that she was subjected to."
Raskin emphasized his gratitude toward the Capitol Police, and finished his argument by saying convicting Trump is a vote for the "security of our democracy."
"They attacked this building, they disrupted the peaceful transfer of power, they injured and killed people, convinced that they were acting on his instructions, and with his approval, and protection," Raskin finished. "And while that happened, he further incited them, while failing to defend us. If that's not ground for conviction, if that's not a high crime and misdemeanor against the republic in the United States of America then nothing is. President Trump must be convicted for the safety and security of our democracy and our people."