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
The Senate has returned from a nearly 25-minute break to resume arguments from the House impeachment managers.
Dean shares personal experience during Capitol riots
Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., one of the House impeachment managers momentarily lost her composure when talking about her experience in the Capitol during the Jan 6 riots.
"I stood with colleagues in the gallery above the House floor to observe the Arizona challenge. Moments later, police radios reported a breach of the Capitol grounds. Someone shouted up to us: 'duck,' then 'lie down,' then 'ready your gas masks.' Shortly after, there was a terrifying banging on the chamber doors. I will never forget that sound. Shouts and panicked calls to my husband and to my sons, instructions to flee and then the constant worrying of the gas masks filtering the air," Dean said. "The chamber of the United States House of Representatives turned to chaos."
Dean then criticized the speech made by Trump made to protesters right before they stormed the Capitol and she showed videos of how crowds of rioters reacted to the former president's remarks.
"He'd assembled thousands of violent people, people he knew were capable of violence, people he had seen be violent," Dean said. "They were standing now in front of him, and then he pointed to us, lit the fuse, and sent an angry mob to fight the perceived enemy, his own vice president and the members of Congress, as we certified an election."
Dean laid out a timeline of the events after the rally and emphasized that it was just one hour after Trump's speech that rioters breached the Capitol.
"At 1:10, the president ended his speech with a final call to fight and a final order to march to the Capitol. At 1:45, the president's followers surged past Capitol Police, shouting: "this is a revolution." Just after 2:10, an hour after President Trump ended his speech, the insurrectionist mob overwhelmed Capitol security and made it inside the halls of Congress. Because the truth is, this attack never would have happened but for Donald Trump. And so they came, draped in Trump's flag, and used our flag -- the American flag -- to batter and to bludgeon. And at 2:30, I heard that terrifying banging on House chamber doors," Dean said. "For the first time in more than 200 years, the seat of our government was ransacked on our watch."
Senate takes short break
The Senate is taking another roughly 15-minute break before continuing with arguments from the House impeachment managers.
Plaskett describes disturbing social media posts leading up to Jan. 6
Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, argued Trump's repeated patterns and practices of violent incitement led to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and went through social media posts that she claimed were monitored by Trump officials, which spelled out his supporters' plans for violence on his behalf.
"Donald Trump over many months cultivated violence, praised it and then when he saw the violence his supporters were capable of he channeled it to this big, wild, historic event," Plaskett said. "He made sure that those violent people would literally march right here -- to our steps -- from the Ellipse to the Capitol to 'stop the steal' -- his cavalry," she called them.
She also said that a permit to march from the Ellipse to the Capitol was not authorized until Trump got involved in planning.
"The permit stated in no uncertain terms that the march from the Ellipse was not permitted. It was not until after President Trump and his team became involved in the planning that the march from the Ellipse to the Capitol came about," she said.
Plaskett repeated, as most managers have, Trump's Dec. 19 tweet to "save the date" before ticking through disturbing social media posts from Trump supporters leading up to the Jan. 6 event -- showing the attack, at least for some, was meticulously planned out.
"They treated it as a war and they meant it," Plaskett said. "His supporters took it as a call to arms to attack the Capitol. There were detailed posts of plans to attack online."
She closed her remarks using Trump's own words to his "cavalry" -- once he had them assembled before him in Washington.
"When those thousands of people were standing in front of President Trump, ready to take orders and attack, this is what he said: 'We're going to the Capitol, and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore,'" Plaskett said. "And that's why this is different, and that's why he must be convicted and disqualified."
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."