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Trump impeachment trial live updates: Biden makes 1st comments on acquittal

Biden remembered those who were killed and called for unity going forward.

Last Updated: February 15, 2021, 4:10 PM EST

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.

Feb 13, 2021, 3:41 PM EST

Senate voting on article of impeachment

The Senate is voting on whether to find Trump guilty of "incitement of insurrection."

The clerk has read the article of impeachment in full ahead of the vote.

Feb 13, 2021, 3:33 PM EST

Trump attorney delivers closing arguments

Leading closing arguments for the Trump defense team, attorney Michael van der Veen continued to equate Trump's speech ahead of the deadly riot at the Capitol to comments Democrats have made to supporters to "fight."

Van der Veen said protests over the summer in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in police custody celebrated "radicalism" and added that those protests allowed "marginalized people" "to blow off steam."

He condemned all rioting and said law enforcement deserves respect and support -- a view Trump has always held, van der Veen pushed.

Van der Veen then pivoted to the argument that the trial in itself is unconstitutional and unfair. However, the Senate voted on Tuesday 55-45 to affirm its power that Trump trial is Constitutional.

"For the first time in history, Congress has asserted the right to try and punish a former president who is a private citizen," van der Veen said. "Nowhere in the Constitution is the power enumerated or implied. Congress has no authority, no right, and no business holding a trial of citizen Trump, let alone a trial to deprive him of some fundamental civil rights."

Feb 13, 2021, 2:50 PM EST

Raskin rests case for House impeachment managers

The House impeachment mangers have finished closing arguments in Trump's impeachment trial.

In lead manager Rep. Jamie Raskin's, D-Md., closing statement, he invoked emotion in raising his family, reminding senators that families are what is at the heart of the country and that history is watching.

"Our reputations and our legacy will be inextricably intertwined with what we do here," Raskin said. "And with how you exercise your oath to do impartial justice, impartial justice. I know and I trust you will do impartial justice, driven by your meticulous attention to the overwhelming facts of the case and your love for our Constitution, which I know dwells in your heart. 'The times have found us,' said Tom Payne, the namesake of my son. 'The times have found us. Is this America? What kind of America will we be?' It's now literally in your hands. Godspeed to the senate of the United States."

House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, speaks after the Senate reached a deal to skip witness testimony during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate.
Senate Television via AP

Raskin was referring to his late-son Tommy. His youngest daughter, Tabitha, and son-in-law, Hank, were with him at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as a show of support because it was one day after their family laid Tommy to rest.

He also recalled a recent conversation he shared with his other daughter, Hannah.

"Hannah told me last night she felt really sorry for the kid of a man who said goodbye to his children before he left home to come and join trump's actions," Raskin said. "Their father had told them that their dad might not becoming home again and they might never see him again. In other words, he was expecting violence -- he might die -- as insurrectionists did. And that shook me. Hannah said, 'how can the President put children and people's families in that situation and then, just run away from the whole thing?' That shook me."

"The children of the insurrectionists, even the violent and dangerous ones, they're our children too," Raskin said earlier. "They are Americans, and we must take care of them and their future. We must recognize and exercise these crimes against our nation and then, we must take care of our people and our children, their hearts and their minds. As Tommy Raskin used to say, 'it's hard to be human.'"

Feb 13, 2021, 2:49 PM EST

Neguse makes veiled appeals to McConnell in conviction argument

In addition to breaking down the Trump defense arguments one by one, House impeachment manager Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., appealed to senators' sense of history in his final appeal for a vote to convict Trump. 

In a thinly veiled appeal to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, he quoted Kentucky Sen. Henry Clay -- McConnell's political idol and college thesis subject -- and referenced the vote of Sen. John Sherman Cooper -- McConnell's former boss who he interned for -- on the Civil Rights Act. 

Senate Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell walks to the Senate floor during the fourth day of former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial before the Senate on Capitol Hill Feb. 12, 2021.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Noting his own parents' immigrant journey from East Africa, Neguse also noted McConnell's vote in 1986 to override President Ronald Reagan's veto of sanctions of South Africa during apartheid. McConnell was one of the few Republicans to buck Reagan on the vote.

"We remember those moments because they helped define and enshrine America at its best," Neguse said. "I believe that this body can rise to the occasion once again today. By convicting president trump and defending our republic."

"The cold, hard truth is that what happened on Jan. 6 can happen again," he said. "Senators, this cannot be the beginning. It can't be the new normal."

McConnell told colleagues in an email earlier in the day he would vote to acquit Trump.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel

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