Trump announces new impeachment legal team

Biden has signed four executive actions to address racial equity -- dealing with private prisons, discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, tribal relations and fair housing.

In remarks at the White House, the president said systemic racism “has plagued our nation for far, far too long."

He signed an order directing the attorney general to not renew contracts the Department of Justice has with privately operated criminal detention facilities, a memorandum to address a rise in discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, a memorandum directing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reinstate an Obama-era anti-housing discrimination rule that Trump had rolled back and an order that "reinvigorates the commitment of all federal agencies to engage in regular, robust, and meaningful consultation with Tribal governments."

Beyond what he was signing, Biden said "we need to restore and expand the Voting Rights Act, named after our dear friend John Lewis, and continue to fight back against laws that many states are engaged in to suppress the right to vote, while expanding access to the ballot box for all eligible voters." 

The president also called it “nothing short of stunning” when he discussed the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on minority communities.

Biden cited the impact George Floyd's death had on the nation as he rolled out Tuesday's actions, recalling meeting Floyd's 6-year-old daughter, Giana, who he said told him that "Daddy changed the world."

"Those eight minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyd’s life opened the eyes of millions of Americans and millions of people all over the world," Biden said. "It was the knee-on-the-neck of justice, and it wouldn’t be forgotten."

Biden wrapped his remarks by reiterating a campaign theme, that the “soul of the nation” can’t recover if systemic racism continues. 

"We can't eliminate everything, but it's corrosive, it's destructive and it's costly. It costs every American, not just who felt the sting of racial injustice," he said.

-ABC News' Sarah Kolinovsky and Ben Gittleson

In the Senate chamber, a rarely used motion that calls all senators to their seats in the chamber -- "a live quorum call" -- has taken place to ensure they all could stand together at once, raise their hands and take their oaths as jurors in former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial.

Former President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has sworn in his successor, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who will preside over the first-ever impeachment trial of a former president. Instead of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Leahy swore in the senators as a group.

The oath, per Senate impeachment rules, reads, "I solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be,) that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of , now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: so help me God."

Senators are walking up to the front of the chamber to sign the oath.

In addition to being jurors, the lawmakers were also witnesses of the "insurrection" Trump is charged with inciting at the Capitol on Jan 6.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

White House press secretary Jen Psaki revealed Biden called Russia's President Vladimir Putin while she was briefing reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

"The call has happened, I believe, since I have come out here," Psaki said, asked in the last question of the briefing for an update on the two leaders.

She said Biden called Putin "with the intention of discussing our willingness to extend New Start for five years and also to reaffirm our strong support for Ukraine sovereignty in the face of Russia's ongoing aggression. And also to raise matters of concern, including the SolarWinds hack, reports of Russia placing bounties on United States soldiers in Afghanistan, interference in the 2020 election, the poisoning of Alexey Navalny, and treatment of peaceful protesters by Russian security forces."

"His intention was also to make clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of our national interests in response to malign actions by Russia," Psaki added.

Psaki said the White House will deviler a readout of the call sometime early this afternoon.

White House domestic policy adviser Susan Rice appeared at Tuesday afternoon's White House briefing to preview the racial equity-focused executive actions the president plans to sign in the afternoon.

"Advancing equity is a critical part of healing and of restoring unity in our nation," Rice said during lengthy opening remarks.

Rice confirmed to ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega that Tuesday's order to phase out use of private prisons will apply only to DOJ-run private prisons and not those run by other agencies, including detention facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She did not answer Vega's question asking why the administration isn’t also addressing ICE detention centers, instead pivoting to talking points on why the administration wanted to end reliance on the DOJ-run facilities.

Tuesday's executive order, Rice said, is “silent on what may or may not transpire with ICE facilities. There was a Department of Justice Inspector General report in 2016 that underscored that private prisons funded by DOJ were less safe, less secure and arguably less humane," she said. "The Obama-Biden administration took steps to end renewing of contracts for private prisons. The Trump administration reversed that, and we’re reestablishing it."

While the administration is highlighting the racial equity theme of Tuesday's various executive orders, Vega pushed Rice on what the administration is doing to combat what has become the most visible and perhaps one of the most concerning forms of racism: white nationalists, particularly those willing to engage in violence and extremism as seen at the Capitol 20 days ago.

“What are you doing to address this issue of white nationalism and how concerned are you about the threat from some of these groups leading into this impeachment trial in two weeks?”Vega asked.

Rice replied the problem posed by white nationalists has “been plain for all Americans on their television sets" and said “that is why the president has ordered the intelligence community to compile a comprehensive assessment of the nature of this threat and challenge, and its origins and roots.”

-ABC News' Ben Gittleson and Sarah Kolinovsky