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

Literally minutes after Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., voted to convict President Donald Trump the Louisiana GOP voted to censure him. Cassidy was one of seven Republicans to cross party lines.

"The Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Louisiana has unanimously voted to censure Senator Bill Cassidy for his vote cast earlier today to convict former President Donald J. Trump on the impeachment charge," the Republican Party of Louisiana said in a statement.

Cassidy, who vacillated between convicting and acquitting the president this week, has been a senator since 2014. He was previously a congressman from the state. A censure officially condemns a politician, but does not carry any further power, such as removal from office.

"Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person," Cassidy said in a statement. "I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty."

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she wasn't planning on speaking Saturday but did so after she saw Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speak on the Senate floor.

"It is so pathetic that Senator McConnell kept the Senate shut down so that the Senate could not receive the Article of Impeachment and has used that as his excuse for not voting to convict Donald Trump," Pelosi said.

"What we saw in that Senate today was a cowardly group of Republicans who apparently have no options, because they were afraid to defend their job, respect the institution in which they serve," Pelosi said.

Asked about McConnell's statement on the floor suggesting that Trump still was liable criminally or civilly for his actions in office, Pelosi interrupted the reporter and said his speech was "disingenuous."

"I don't know whether it was for donors or -- or what. But whatever it was, it was a very disingenuous speech. And I say that regretfully, because I always want to be able to work -- work with the leadership of the other party," she said. "And for him to have tried to have it every which way -- but we will be going forward to make sure that this never happens again."

Asked about censure as an option moving forward, Pelosi called it a "slap in the fact of the Constitution" and said it, "let's everybody off the hook."

"We don't censure people for inciting insurrection that kills people in the Capitol," she said.

Pelosi went on to congratulate the House managers on honoring the vision of the founders, of the men and women who serve in uniform and families across the United States, including her own.

"I have to say, personally on behalf of my grandchildren, who drew great hope and inspiration from each and every one of you: We could not be prouder of your patriotic presentations, the clarity in which you presented, and again, the inspiration that you have been to so many people," she said.

Raising the vote to convict was the most bipartisan in impeachment trial history, she said, "It would not have been accomplished without your brilliant presentations. So, I thank you for that, and I yield the floor back to all of you as I leave."

House impeachment managers, following the Senate vote to acquit Trump, held a press conference on Capitol Hill and harped on remarks from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saying that they proved the case that Trump incited an insurrection despite failing to reach the votes needed to convict.

Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., opened by thanking Congress, his team and the American people.

"Trump stormed our House with the mob he incited, and we defended our House. And he violated our Constitution, and we defended the Constitution. And they tried to trash our democracy, and we revived it, and we protected it," Raskin began, highlighting that the trial was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in the history of the country.

"We have a clear and convincing majority of members of Congress that the president actually incited violent insurrection against the union and against the Congress," Raskin said.

He went on to explain that because House managers had convinced McConnell -- although they didn't get his vote -- that they made their case and didn't see a need to call witnesses after all.

"We could have had 5,000 witnesses and Mitch McConnell would have made the same speech because what he's asserting is that the Senate never has jurisdiction over a former president," Raskin said. "And for reasons I don't need to belabor -- because a big part of the trial was about this -- we reject that completely. It's totally at odds with our history."

Although he voted to acquit the former president, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in remarks Saturday distanced himself from Trump and made clear he believed that Trump was solely to blame for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"Jan. 6 was a disgrace," McConnell began. "Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth because he was angry he’d lost an election."

McConnell reminded those listening of his words on the floor last month in which he said the mob was "fed lies" and "provoked" by Trump.

"There's no question -- none -- that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president," he said.

McConnell said it wasn't Trump remarks solely on Jan. 6 -- as House managers have argued -- but "also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe, the increasingly wild myths -- myths -- about a reverse landslide election that was somehow being stolen, some secret coup by our now president."

McConnell also shot down the defense equating Trump's rhetoric to past comments of Democrats telling supporters to "fight."

"That's different from what we saw. This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters' decision or else torch our institutions on the way out," he said, adding Trump's "unconscionable behavior did not end when the violence actually began."

He said there should be no question that Trump was aware of the violence underway, but he didn't move to stop it.

"Whatever our ex-president claims he thought might happen that day, whatever reaction he says he meant to produce, by that afternoon, we know he was watching the same live television as the rest of us. A mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name. These criminals were carrying his banners, hanging his flags and screaming their loyalty to him," he said.

"It was obvious that only President Trump could end this," McConnell said. "The president did not act swiftly. He did not do his job."

However, though McConnell said he ultimately didn't believe an impeachment trial in the Senate was the correct form of resolve since Trump was no longer in office, explaining his vote to acquit, he did leave the door open for Trump being criminally prosecuted.

"President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he’s in office," he said. "He didn’t get away with anything yet."

Notably, McConnell said he would have considered House managers' charge while he was still majority leader and Trump was still president, and then impeachment would have been an "acceptable" course, he said, but McConnell punted the trial to incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer during the transfer of power in the chamber last month.