Both sides were asked by Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine about whether the president knew former vice president Pence was being evacuated as the rioters were storming the Capitol.

House manager Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, noted the timeline of the siege and said Trump had to know because the images were being broadcast across the country and the world. Castro noted that just before Pence was rushed out of the Senate chamber to escape a mob that wanted to “hang” him, Trump tweeted that the former vice president did not have the “courage” to stop the electoral certification. 

The defense argued that the president did not know and also claimed that this incident is not mentioned in the article of impeachment, making it an irrelevant point. 

Democrats reacted Friday with a mix of dismissal and mockery at former President Donald Trump's defense team showing a montage of many of them using the word "fight."

The 11-minute clip showed the word 238 times, according to an NBC News count, in an attempt to argue that Trump did nothing wrong or unusual at the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol riot. The defense videos also used dramatic and dark music over clips of Democrats and news reporters.

But Democrats argued it was a bad-faith comparison, noting that they were clearly speaking rhetorically and were not trying to egg on supporters to overturn a legitimate election.

"There's a false equivalence," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Friday on MSNBC during a break. "What they ignore is Donald Trump invited this mob to Washington, knew they were armed and dangerous," based on available intelligence at the time, he added. "When the attack began he did nothing to protect the lives of those who were in danger."

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Moderate GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine asked Trump's defense team: "Exactly when did President Trump learn of the breach at the Capitol? What specific actions did he take to end the rioting, and when did he take them? Please be as specific as possible."

Lawyer Michael van der Veen came the podium and didn't answer the question. Instead, he claimed House managers didn't present any evidence about that, saying there was "absolutely no investigation into that." 

"That's the problem with this entire proceeding," he claimed. "The House managers did zero investigation and the American people deserve a lot better." 

Before walking away from the podium, van der Veen said that Trump was denied due process — but he never answered the question. Afterward, Democratic Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois repeated the question.

The opinions of senators Friday about what they've seen from Trump's defense team, as well as House managers the day before, are adhering to party lines.

Mike Braun, R-Ind., praised the defense team's presentation: "I thought it was excellent. I thought it showed the contrast between what we've seen before. It exposed some of the editing that occurred and, you know, made the other side's point of view easier to understand."

Braun said he's waiting until tomorrow to decide how he will vote.

Ron Johnson, R- Wis., said in a tweet, "President’s lawyers blew the House Manager’s case out of the water. Legally eviscerated them."

Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., similarly praised the House managers: "The evidence is so much more graphic and powerful, the crime so, so much easier to understand."

Gabriel Sterling, who serves as a top Georgia election official, disputed a claim made by one of President Trump's defense lawyers during the impeachment trial regarding the infamous call between the former president and Georgia's secretary of state. 

Trump's attorney Bruce Castor claimed that the president's call with Brad Raffensperger was misconstrued by the media. Castor said the president was concerned about the drop in rejection rates of ballots during the 2020 election. In the call, Trump also appeared to pressure Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” him enough votes to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden. That call is cited in the impeachment article and now part of a criminal probe in Georgia. 

However, Sterling said in a tweet on Friday that Castor had it wrong. 

"OK...piecing this together. The initial absentee rejection rate for signature issue was about double in 2020 as 2018. There is a cure period now and the final rate was 0.15% in both years. So...shockingly, the disinformation continues...," he wrote. 

The Senate is beginning the question-and-answer period of the trial, in which senators can submit written questions to either side. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that answers would be limited to 5 minutes and if the question is posed to both parties, the time will be equally divided. Questions will alternate between each side. 

Castor spent a lengthy chunk of time talking about Trump’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (who Castor inaccurately referred to as “Ben Roeffensperger") in which he demanded proof of widespread voter fraud. 

The call, Castor said, couldn’t possibly be part of the former president’s attempt to incite violence because he didn’t release it. But Castor nonetheless spent ample time discussing the call and Georgia’s election broadly. He repeated Trump’s false and baseless claims that there was fraud, and seemingly attempting to justify his phone call as entirely proper.

Democrats, meanwhile, have cited the call as proof that Trump tried to overturn the election, not as proof of incitement.

Castor also suggested that the rejection rate for absentee ballots in Georgia should have been higher, as it had been in the past; he did not acknowledge that the state standardized their process and trained election workers in proper signature-matching techniques before the election.

And the ultimate rejection rate in 2020 was the same as it was in 2018, according to Georgia's election systems manager, Gabriel Sterling.

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in Georgia, despite numerous investigations and inquires by state officials.

The president's legal team fumbled a number of words and other aspects of their presentations on Friday.

Van der Veen at one point confused "resurrection" with "insurrection," called Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., "Anya," and mispronounced Vice President Kamala Harris' name. He also made an accusation about a tweet from one of the House managers, though he said, "I forget which one."

And in one flub that caught some attention on social media, Castor seemed to confuse Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, reading his name as "Ben Roeffensberger."

Castor at one point also wondered allowed about whether the participants in the trial were under oath.

"I don't know if we're under oath here," Castor said, adding, "But I sure as hell felt I was under oath" in the chamber.