Biden wants Congress to take action on gun reform

White House press secretary Jen Psaki weighed in on the Democratic proposal to provide between $3,000 and $3,600 in child care tax credits to families, noting in a press briefing Monday that Biden had included a tax credit in his $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan, and supports the proposal put forward by Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass. 

"(The) president supports the proposal that Rep. Neal and others have put forward to ensure that there is money in the package that helps bring relief to families in the form of a child tax credit." Psaki said. "That’s something he certainly would support.”

But when asked if Biden would seek to make the credit permanent, Psaki indicated that would not be, saying it's "emergency funding that will help people get through this period of time."

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

Former President Donald Trump's legal team filed a 78-page trial brief Monday morning, ahead of the Senate impeachment trial. The brief asks the Senate to dismiss the charges, stating their belief that holding a trial is unconstitutional in the first place and also asserting that Trump was engaging in political speech protected by the First Amendment.

"His political speech falls squarely within the protections of the First Amendment under clear Supreme Court precedent (as fully discussed below), and he thus cannot be convicted by a Senate sworn to uphold the Constitution," Trump's lawyers wrote in the brief.

House impeachment managers promptly filed a five-page response to the brief and called his free speech argument "utterly baseless."

"The evidence of President Trump's conduct is overwhelming. He has no valid excuse or defense for his actions," the impeachment managers wrote. "And his efforts to escape accountability are entirely unavailing."

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., announced in a statement that he will not seek re-election in 2022.

 "Today I announce that I will not seek a seventh term in the United State Senate in 2022," Shelby says in the statement. "For everything, there is a season."

He cited no specific reason for his decision not to run.

Shelby is currently the vice chairman and leading Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he recently served as chairman of the full committee and its subcommittee on defense. He previously served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, of which he is the longest serving member in history, according to his statement.

Before being elected to the Senate in 1986, Shelby served four terms in the U.S. House representing Alabama's 7th Congressional District. He also served in the Alabama State Legislature.

"Although I plan to retire, I am not leaving today. I have two good years remaining to continue my work in Washington. I have the vision and the energy to give it my all," he said in his statement.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

Upon arriving back at the White House on Monday morning after his weekend in Delaware, President Biden was asked about whether former President Trump should lose his "political rights" and be barred from running for office as his second impeachment trial is set to get underway Tuesday.

"He got an offer to come and testify, he decided not to. Let the senate work that out,” Biden said.

House impeachment managers had asked Trump to testify under oath in his upcoming impeachment trial about his conduct on Jan. 6, according to a letter sent last week by lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin.

Trump's legal team responded with a letter and rejected the idea of the former president appearing.

In the short response, Trump's attorneys called the request a "public relations stunt."

“The use of our Constitution to bring a purported impeachment proceeding is much too serious to play these games," wrote Trump attorneys Bruce Castor and David Schoen.

While the letter did not answer directly the question of whether Trump will testify, Trump spokesman Jason Miller told ABC News' Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, “The president will not testify in an unconstitutional proceeding.”

-ABC News' Molly Nagle, Katherine Faulders and Ben Siegel