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
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."
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.'"
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.
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
Neguse breaks down 'distractions' from Trump defense team
House impeachment manager Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., countered arguments from Trump and his defense team that Neguse called "excuses" and "distractions."
"I would like to take a minute to explain why each of those distractions are precisely that, distractions, and why they do not prevent in any way the Senate from convicting President Trump," Neguse said.
He went on to counter the defense team's main arguments one by one. First, he argued impeachment is the best course of action, even with Trump being out of office, because the attack happened while he was under his oath as president.
Neguse argued the framers would have seen "incitement of insurrection" as an impeachable offense, and he blasted the defense for saying they were not given due process when leaders on both sides of the aisle agreed on the trial resolution before it kicked off.
Addressing the First Amendment, Neguse knocked the defense for trying to equate Democrats' past calls for supporters to "fight" with Trump's actions -- "because what you will not find in those video montages that they showed you is any of those speeches, those remarks, culminating in a violent insurrection on our nation's Capitol."
"Senators, all of these arguments offered by the president have one fundamental thing in common," he said. "They have nothing to do with whether or not, factually, whether or not the president incited this attack. They've given you a lot of distractions, so they don't have to defend what happened here on that terrible day."
Neguse went on to note he's the youngest member of the House managers team "by quite a few years" -- to a laugh from the chamber -- "so perhaps I'm a bit naive," he joked, and said he expects more from the U.S. Senate, noting how Congress responds to the Jan. 6 attack will go down in history.
"I fear, like many of us do, that the violence we saw on that terrible day may be just the beginning. We've shown you the ongoing risks, the extremist groups who grow more emboldened every day," Neguse said. "It can't be the new normal. It has to be the end. That decision is in your hands."
Dean argues Trump's conduct over months led to insurrection
Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., was the third House manager to speak during the closing arguments. She immediately outlined that she would focus on three points to counter the defense, all of which centered on Trump's conduct, inciting his supporters to violence on Jan. 6. She used short videos as evidence.
She began her argument by outlining how Trump, over many months leading up to Jan. 6, convinced his base that the election was stolen.
"We are not suggesting that Donald Trump's January 6th speech by itself incited the attack," Dean said. "We have shown that his course of conduct leading up to and including that speech incited the attack. The defense is correct that the insurrection was preplanned, that supports our point. We argued, and the evidence overwhelmingly confirms, that Donald Trump's conduct over many months incited his supporters."
Dean then went to claim that Trump urged his supporters to "stop the steal" on the very day Congress was certifying the election with the distinct purpose of overturning the election.
"It is true that some insurrectionists are being prosecuted," Dean said. "But it is not true that they did so on their own accord and for their own reasons. The evidence makes clear the exact opposite. That they did this for Donald Trump at his invitation, at his direction, at his command."