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
Romney says he didn't know how close he was to mob
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney told ABC News when he was exiting the chamber for Wednesday's dinner break that it was his first time seeing the footage of Officer Eugene Goodman directing him away from the mob during the Jan. 6 attack.
"Obviously very troubling to see the -- the great violence that our Capitol Police and others are subjected to. It tears you at your heart and brings tears to your eyes. That was overwhelmingly distressing and emotional," Romney said.
He said he didn’t know it was Goodman, the officer who has gained notoriety for directing rioters away from the Senate chamber, and looks forward to thanking him.
-ABC News' Katherine Faulders
Trial breaks until 6:15 p.m. for dinner
After Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., spoke, the Senate took a break for dinner. Arguments will resume at 6:15 p.m.
Swalwell shows chilling video of lawmakers fleeing rioters
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., presented video evidence which showed for the first time just how close House lawmakers were to rioters.
New security video showed members -- many in gas masks -- being escorted by Capitol Police out of the chamber and to another location, as police officers had guns drawn, with some rioters lying on the ground with their hands zip-tied.
Swalwell also played video of the senators being escorted out of the Senate chamber.
"Some of you, I understand, could hear them. But most of the public doesn't understand how close the rioters came to you," he said. "You were just 58 steps away from where the mob was amassing and where police were rushing to stop them."
"If the doors to the chamber had been breached just minutes earlier, imagine what they could have done with those cuffs," he said, showing a photo of a rioter in the chamber with plastic flex cuffs.
He then played video of senators walking by a group of Capitol Police officer barricading a hallway between them, and the rioters.
Swalwell also showed what he described as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's "near miss" with rioters, playing a video of Schumer being escorted down a hallway and doubling back to avoid running into the mob.
"They came within just 2 yards of the rioters and had to turn around," Swalwell said.
He also played video from Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., from the House gallery during the riot in which Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a Marine veteran, can be heard shouting to his colleagues, "Take your pins off!"
-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel
Senators watch new videos of Capitol riots intently
While House impeachment managers shared some of the most intense video and dispatch audio, much of which had never been seen publicly before. Reporters noted that senators on both sides of the aisle were listening and watching the videos intently.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, didn’t move and watched intently when they showed the video of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman directing him away from rioters.
When the new videos were playing, there were a handful of empty seats, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was one who was not at his desk. Some GOP senators opted to watch the proceedings from their cloak room. Reporters can't see them in there so it is unknown if they were watching it.
-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."