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 roughly 40-minute break to resume arguments from Trump's defense team.
Psaki cites House managers' performance as a takeaway from trial
As Trump's lawyers get their defense presentation underway, ABC News White House Correspondent MaryAlice Parks asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki what message she thinks Americans should have learned from the Senate trial this week.
Psaki said that Americans "learned about the power of some individuals in the House they might not have known before," perhaps referring to Del. Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, who had a strong presentation that prompted chatter that she is a rising Democratic star.
"They certainly saw some -- some powerful footage that was a reminder of the shocking events that happened on January 6th. And you know, I think they saw, as the president has said, that that day was an assault on our democracy and it was a reminder of why it can never happen again," Psaki continued.
-ABC News' Sarah Kolinovsky
Van der Veen focuses on text of Trump's Jan. 6 speech without context
Trump defense attorney Michael van der Veen broke down Brandenburg v. Ohio, a case House managers raised Thursday. Van der Veen cited the "landmark case on the issue of incitement speech" to argue that Trump didn't intend for supporters to attack the Capitol.
A displayed slide read that the Brandenburg test "precludes speech from being sanctioned as incitement to riot unless: 1) the speech explicitly or implicity encouraged use of violence or lawless action, 2) the speaker intends that his speech will result in use of violence of lawless action and 3) the imminent use of violence or lawless action is likely to result from the speech."
He called Trump's uses of the words "fight" in the speech "metaphorical." However, he did not address the impeachment managers' assertions that Trump had primed his supporters with a "big lie" of a stolen election.
"Spare us the hypocrisy and false indignation. It's a term used over and over and over again by politicians on both sides of the aisle," van der Veen said, honing in on arguments of "whataboutisms" of Democrats.
"The reality is Mr. Trump was not in any way shape or form instructing these people to fight or to use physical violence. What he was instructing them to do was to challenge their opponents in primary elections to push for sweeping election reforms, to hold big tech responsible," he said.
However, at least 15 individuals who stormed the building have since said that they acted based on Trump's encouragement, including some of those accused of the most violent and serious crimes. House managers also argued in their time that Trump's oath of office to protect the country supersedes his First Amendment rights.
Trump's defense team has also played extended video of Trump's speech at the Jan. 6 rally, in which the former president repeated false claims that the election was stolen and encouraged Republican lawmakers to vote to overturn the Electoral College results.
Trump's legal team argues for 'unity,' while attacking Democrats
"It is the time for unity and healing and focusing on the interests of the nation as a whole," Trump attorney David Schoen said. "We should all be seeking to cool temperatures, calm passions, rise above partisan lines."
It's worth noting that Trump's attorneys have repeatedly singled out Democrats, both in the Senate, and the House managers themselves, and made increasingly personal criticisms in their effort to pugnaciously defend Trump, after Democrats went out of their way not to impugn GOP senators who supported Trump's efforts to overturn the election. Democrats in the House and Senate were featured in edited videos used by Trump's legal team.
"If it is not about the words but about the big lie of a stolen election, then why isn't House manager Raskin guilty since he tried to overturn the 2016 election?" Trump attorney Michael van der Veen asked.
-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel
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."