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
Cruz attempts false equivalence between VP Harris, Trump
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz -- one a handful of Republican senators seen meeting with Trump's defense team on Thursday and Friday outside of the Senate chamber -- asked both sides a lengthy question which equated Vice President Kamala Harris, president of the Senate, having said she would raise bail money for protesters in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd while in police custody, with the insurrection charge the House has made against Trump.
Lead House impeachment managers Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said he was not familiar with the statement and would let the vice president speak for herself but that it's "completely irrelevant" to the proceeding.
"The president's lawyers are pointing out that we have never had any situation like this before in the history of the United States, and its true," Raskin said. "There has never been a president that has encouraged a violent insurrection against our own government. ... So what we do in this trial will establish a standard going forward for all time."
Raskin also noted how the permit for Trump supporters to march from the Ellipse to the Capitol was not authorized until Trump got involved in planning.
"He synchronized with exactly the time that we would be in joint session and as Rep. Cheney said, he summoned that mob," Raskin said.
Trump attorney Michael van deer Veer blasted Raskin for being unfamiliar with the clip of Harris.
"I don't know why he said he never heard Kamala Harris say about the riots and the people rioting and ruining our businesses and our streets that, 'they are not going to let up and they should not' because we played it three times today," he said. "That's what she said, but it's protected speech. Her speech is protected, also, senator."
'He knew what was going to happen:' Plaskett on Trump before riot
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., asked why, if the Jan. 6 event was predictable and foreseeable, was law enforcement at the Capitol caught off guard and "unable to prevent the breach"?
Trump's defense attorney Michael van der Veen answered, "Holy cow, that is a really good question," then claimed the House managers did not do an investigation.
However, party leaders agreed before the trial due process was reached, according to multiple statements from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
House managers went on to say Trump had all the information available to foresee how dangerous Jan. 6 could be, yet he took no action.
"He knew what was going to happen," Del. Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, said. "He cultivated these individuals. These are undisputed facts. The National Guard was not deployed until over two hours after the attack."
Question about 2020 election results brings clamor to Senate floor
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked both the House managers and Trump's lawyers whether, in their judgement, Trump lost the 2020 presidential election or if he "was perpetrating a big lie when he repeatedly claimed that the election was stolen from him and that he actually won the election by a landslide."
"As we all know, President Trump did lose the election by 7 million votes, 306 electoral votes. By the time of the January 6th attack, the courts, the Justice Department, all 50 states across the country had done -- agreed that the votes were counted," Del. Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, said. "The people had spoken and it was time for the peaceful transfer of power, as our Constitution and the rule of the law of demands."
Trump's defense lawyer, Michael van der Veen, first asked that the question be re-read and then side-stepped it by saying his judgement of whether or not Trump lost the election is "irrelevant in this proceeding."
His initial response prompted a clamor on the Senate floor. He then asked for the question to be read again.
"In my judgment it's irrelevant to the question before this body. What is relevant in this impeachment article is, were Mr. Trump's words insightful to the point of violence and riot?" Van der Veen said. "That is the charge and that is the question and the answer is no, he did not have speech that was insightful to violence or riot."
Trump telling protesters to be peaceful is not a defense, Raskin says
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., asked House managers in a somewhat hypothetical question whether the former president is innocent of inciting insurrection because he told protesters to "be peaceful."
Lead House manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., responded with an allegory.
"If you rob a bank and, on the way out the door, you yell 'respect private property,' that's not a defense to robbing the bank," Raskin said.
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."