Biden ‘anxious to see’ how Republicans vote

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President Joe Biden, who has said very little about the impeachment trial in an effort to focus on the pandemic and other pressing issues, said on Friday morning that he is curious to see whether Senate Republicans vote to convict former President Donald Trump.

“I’m just anxious to see what my Republican friends do, if they stand up,” Biden told reporters outside the White House, adding that he has no plans to speak to any Senate Republicans before the vote.

The President's comments come as former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial is underway in the Senate.

House impeachment managers have spent the last two days presenting a case to senators arguing that Trump incited the insurrectionists who stormed the US Capitol and failed to act to stop the riot as it unfolded. Trump's lawyers are set to argue on Friday that the trial of a former president is unconstitutional and Trump's speech on January 6 did not incite the rioters.

House impeachment managers this week aired disturbing and gripping footage showing rioters violently attacking officers and coming dangerously close to reaching lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence as they fled the House and Senate. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died in the riot at the Capitol.

Despite the national spotlight being on Trump's impeachment trial, the White House has stressed it is focused on carrying out Biden's agenda, including passing the President's sweeping coronavirus relief bill. 

Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg met with a bipartisan group of senators at the White House on Thursday to talk about infrastructure.

"We all know we have to move on. Today it's about jobs and infrastructure," Biden said at the meeting in the Oval Office when asked about the impeachment trial.

The President, who has not explicitly weighed in on whether he believes Trump should be convicted, said Thursday: "I think the Senate has a very important job to complete and I think my guess is some minds may have been changed, but I don't know."

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