On Capitol attack anniversary, President Biden attacks Donald Trump without naming him, while the former President terms Biden’s speech as a “political theatre” to distract from his failure, reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden directly and bluntly blamed his predecessor former President Donald Trump for the January 6 insurrection in a speech on its first anniversary and called him a “liar” who had spun a web of lies about his defeat because of his “bruised ego” and because he “values power over principle”.
“He’s not just a former president,” Biden said training his sights on his predecessor and adding as he leaned into the microphone, “He’s a defeated former president.”
He did not name Trump even once though he referred to him at least 16 times in a speech lasting nearly 25 minutes.
President Biden spoke forcefully and bluntly to mark the anniversary of the insurrection by a mob of Trump’s supporters who had attacked US Capitol, home to American congress, on January 6 to prevent a joint sitting of lawmakers from certifying Biden’s election as the next president, a routine practice. He spoke from the Statuary Hall, a portion of the US Capitol building that had been ransacked by the rioters that day.
“For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election,” Biden said focusing on Trump’s role in the insurrection. “He tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob reached the Capitol.”
The president then slammed his predecessor for doing nothing as the rioters menaced the building, kicking down doors, marching through the halls of the seat of US democracy with the flag of the separatist Confederacy, which, he reminded listeners, did not happen even during the Civil War.
“We didn’t see a former president, who had just rallied the mob to attack, sitting in the private dining room off the Oval Office in the White House, watching it all on television and doing nothing,” the American president said.
He added: “A former president United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle because he sees his own interest is more important than his country’s interests than America’s interest. And because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy.”
Vice-president Kamala Harris, who introduced the president at the event, said, “On January 6th, we all saw what our nation would look like if the forces who seek to dismantle our democracy are successful. The lawlessness, the violence, the chaos. What was at stake then, and now, is the right to have our future decided the way the Constitution prescribes it: by we, the people — all the people.”
Trump’s role in inciting the insurrection, which the former president has still not condemned, is coming under increasing scrutiny and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s remarks on Wednesday, the eve of the anniversary, are being seen as an indicator that he may not escape legal jeopardy altogether.
Biden using my name to divide US, says Trump
Donald Trump hit back at Joe Biden Thursday, accusing him of “political theater” after the president assailed him in a forceful speech marking the anniversary of the Capitol riot.
Although Biden did not mention Trump’s name, he made clear whom he was talking about in a blistering portrait of a man he said tried to cheat his way out of defeat in the 2020 election.
Biden “used my name today to try to further divide America,” Trump said in a statement.
“This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed,” Trump said.
In his speech, Biden ripped Trump for spreading a “web of lies” claiming the 2020 vote count was fraudulent in a bid to hold onto power, and blasted the mob of the Republican’s supporters who entered the Capitol in an attempt to prevent certification of the election result.
Trump, who earlier this week cancelled a planned press conference for the anniversary, repeated his claim that the election was “rigged.”
“Just look at the numbers, they speak for themselves,” the former president said.
“They are not justifiable, so the complicit media just calls it the Big Lie, when in actuality the Big Lie was the Election itself.”
Trump’s claims of fraudulent voting and vote counts have repeatedly been rejected by the states in question, the Justice Department, and US courts.
Trump said in a statement: “Biden is working hard to try and deflect the incompetent job he is doing, and has done, on the horrible Afghanistan withdrawal (surrender), the Borders, Covid, Inflation, loss of Energy Independence, and much more. Everything he touches turns to failure. That’s what you get when you have a rigged Election.”
Trump did eventually call for calm and urge the rioters to leave, but that he did hours after and under sustained pressure from his aides, including his daughter Ivanka Trump.
Trump’s role is also being examined by a select committee of the House of Representatives, which is investigating the insurrection and has heard testimonies from several of the former president’s close aides. Former chief of staff Mark Meadows first agreed to testify and then flipped, but not before he had handed over thousands of documents that shed a lot of light on Trump’s role.
The US department of justice is also investigating the attack as a criminal act. Up till Wednesday, it had arrested and charged more than 725 defendants, in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Approximately 40 defendants have been charged with conspiracy to obstruct a congressional proceeding and/or to obstruct law enforcement. Seventeen defendants are already scheduled to go to trial for their role in felony conspiracies, and more could follow.
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