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
After personal tragedy, Raskin steps up to lead prosecution
Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin will lead the House's prosecution, tapped by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve as the top impeachment manager. Raskin, a Harvard-educated, former constitutional law professor serving in his third term in the House, was the lead author of the impeachment article in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol .
Days earlier, on New Year's Eve, Raskin's son Thomas, who was following his father's footsteps at Harvard Law School, took his own life after battling depression. The Maryland lawmaker drew a standing ovation from his colleagues on the House floor as he thanked them for their "love and tenderness" over the loss of his son. He then proceeded with his remarks on the objections over accepting the election results. Less than an hour later, the Capitol was under siege and Raskin was sheltering under a desk with one of his two daughters and his son-in-law.
-ABC News' John Parkinson
What this could mean for Trump: VIDEO
Trump will be the first president to undergo an impeachment trial after leaving office, but opponents of the impeachment say a trial may be unconstitutional.
Trump's defense team to argue trial is unconstitutional
The public should expect to see four attorneys on the Trump team during the trial: David Schoen, Bruce Castor, Michael van der Veen and Julieanne Bateman.
The newly appointed legal team submitted its first legal brief on Feb. 2, arguing the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office. The trial's legality has been called into question since the beginning but the Senate voted to proceed.
The brief also argues that Trump's use of social media and comments made on Jan. 6 are protected by the First Amendment. There is a possibility that Trump's defense may skirt into claims of election fraud, despite Trump and his allies losing dozens of court cases on the issue and the 2020 election results being certified by Congress.
Trump's lawyers filed another brief on Feb. 8, further elaborating their argument against the trial's constitutionality and asking the Senate to dismiss the charges. House impeachment managers followed with a five-page response to Trump's legal team.
-ABC News' Katherine Faulders and Tia Humphries
Dems to lay out 'succinct and to the point' argument: Aides
Democrats are preparing to argue that Trump constituted the "most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president" and is "singularly responsible" for the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and that the Senate can't establish "a January exception to the Constitution," according to senior aides on the impeachment managers' team.
The managers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., have been meeting every day -- sometimes twice a day -- since they were named to work on the case, mostly virtually given the pandemic.
They promised a "succinct and to the point and non-repetitive" argument laying out how the attack happened in "plain sight" and left behind "overwhelming evidence."
"This is not about politics," the aides said, adding that they won't touch any senators' support of Trump.
"This is personal for them. They experienced the attack, their staff experienced the attack," one aide said. "They're not taking this lightly, they find no joy in this."
On the constitutional question of trying a former president, aides said, "This will not be like a constitutional convention," and likened it instead to a "violent criminal prosecution."
They called the argument that the trial is unconstitutional "just not common sense."
"It is unthinkable that the framers would say that that a president could not be impeached, no matter what he or she did in the final days of office would allow the president to misuse power at the most dangerous time right when a president wants to hold on to power, that the president can do whatever that president wants without fear of losing office or be barred from running again. That cannot be," one aide said.
-ABC News Congressional Corespondent Rachel Scott, Katherine Faulders, Benjamin Siegel, Trish Turner and Allison Pecorin
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."