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Washington —President Trump’s legal team on Friday rested their case after less than three hours, prompting another two-and-a-half hours of questioning from senators. Mr. Trump’s attorneys tried to argue the former president was being hounded by a political vendetta, and said his actions were protected by the First Amendment. 

In their opening arguments, Mr. Trump’s attorneys sought to link Democrats to political violence, repeatedly showing a long video montage of Democrats saying the word “fight” in a variety of contexts to suggest that there’s a double standard. 

Democrats described the montage as “plainly a distraction,” and several appeared to be frustrated or even laughing while the video was shown. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was repeatedly shown in the video, tweeted a video montage from her rallies showing her hugging women and girls. “In case anyone is wondering what my rallies look like,” she wrote.

A source close to Mr. Trump’s legal team said attorney David Schoen quit Thursday night over a dispute in strategy about how to use the videos that aired during the defense team’s arguments on Friday. Schoen rejoined after Trump called and asked him to.

The videos were all part of Mr. Trump’s attorney Michael van der Veen’s argument that the former president’s comments on January 6 were “ordinary political rhetoric” that is “virtually indistinguishable from the language that has been used by people across the political spectrum for hundreds of years.” The attorneys also tried to argue that they were not presented with the House impeachment managers’ video footage ahead of time. 

Van der Veen described this impeachment trial as his “worst experience in Washington.” Raskin responded later, saying “man, you should have been here on January 6.” 

During the question and answer session, Mr. Trump’s attorneys also tried to argue that it would set a dangerous precedent to impeach a former official, although Mr. Trump was impeached while he was in office and the trial is being held after he left office. Senator Marco Rubio asked if the Senate could  impeach former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, if Democrats believed officials could face impeachment after leaving office. 

Van der Veen said impeachment could “happen to a lot of people” if the Senate moves forward with conviction. Van der Veen also told the Senate that they can acquit Mr. Trump for any reason they want. 

“So you have to look at what they’ve put on, in its totality, and come to your own understanding,” he said. 

In another key moment, Senator Bernie Sanders asked if Mr. Trump had actually won the election. Impeachment manager Stacey Plaskett said it was clear Mr. Trump had lost the election, but van der Veen dodged, saying “in my judgment, who asked that?” Sanders answered “I did” and van der Veen responded “my judgment is irrelevant.” 

Sanders then said from his desk: “You represent the president of the United States!” Senator Patrick Leahy, who is presiding over the trial, intervened and said senators can’t respond to lawyers.

The Senate will return on Saturday, when they will debate about calling witnesses.