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

Bruce Castor Jr., a lawyer for Trump's defense team whose performance at the beginning of the trial was criticized by Republican senators and even drew ire from Trump, argued to the Senate that the former president did not incite an insurrection based on what he said is the legal definition of the term.

"Clearly, there was no insurrection. Insurrection is a term of -- defined in the law. It involves taking over a country, a shadow government, taking the TV stations over and having some plan on what you’re going to do when you finally take power," Castor said. "Clearly, this is not that."

Castor also argued that the House mangers did not put Trump's comments into context, and that the president would not have wanted a violent riot to occur and insisted that Trump was the most "pro-police, anti-mob" president in history.

"We know that the president would never have wanted such a riot to occur, because his long-standing hatred for violent protesters and his love for law and order is on display, worn on his sleeve every single day that he served in the White House."

Castor argued that the House managers have misled the Senate about what Trump said at the rally outside the White House. Castor said Trump didn't explicitly tell his supporters to storm the Capitol, Castor continued. Castor argued that the only direction he gave was to get lawmakers to "fight," and if they didn't, to "primary them."

“They have used selective editing and many belated visuals to paint a picture far different from this truth,” Castor said of the House managers.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel

The Senate is taking a roughly 15-minute break following roughly three hours of arguments from Trump's defense team.

The trial will move forward with the question and answer portion after the break.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel

The video montages from Trump's defense team cut some of the tension in the chamber that had been building over the last few days as senators earlier in the trial watched the close calls with rioters and a desecrated Capitol building on Jan. 6.

Some senators, like Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, were seen giggling on Friday.

Some in the GOP appeared to appreciate and enjoy the "fight" montages. Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Rand Paul or Kentucky appeared to revel in the mashups from the defense.

Democrats, meanwhile, audibly groaned when the Trump legal team played the video montages of them using the word "fight." Others laughed at the comparison. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., spent a long time staring at the ceiling with his hands in a prayer pose, tapping the tips of his fingers together in agitated boredom.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sat slouched in his chair while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was statute-like during the presentation.

When van der Veen accused lead House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., of hypocrisy and gestured to him, Raskin was sitting just feet away, looked straight at him and began writing fervently in his notepad.

Every senator in the chamber was wearing a mask, according to one pool reporter, except for Paul, who hasn't worn one at the Capitol for weeks.

Officer Eugene Goodman, who helped protect the Capitol on Jan. 6 and saved Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, from a potential confrontation with rioters -- is providing security from the gallery again Friday, as he has the last few days.

-ABC News' Trish Turner, Katherine Faulders and Adia Robinson

During the trial recess, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., blasted Trump's defense team for playing selective, mashup videos of Democrats telling supporters to "fight," accusing the attorneys of "trying to draw a false, dangerous and distorted equivalence."

"I think it is plainly a distraction from Donald Trump inviting the mob to Washington, knowing it was armed, changing the route and the timing so as to incite them to march on the Capitol and then reveling, without remorse, without doing anything to protect his own vice president and all of us," Blumenthal said.

"I think that the case is even more powerful after this very distorted talk," he added.

-ABC News' Trish Turner