In his remarks on the first anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot, President Joe Biden slammed his predecessor Donald Trump, saying ‘his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution’.
Speaking from the US Capitol, the site of a deadly insurrection exactly a year ago, Biden cast Trump as selfish and uncaring of what is best for America. Biden criticized Trump directly and repeatedly, without once mentioning his name.
‘Here’s the truth: The former president of the United States of America, has created, spread a web of lies about the 2020 election,’ Biden said on Thursday morning. ‘He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interests as more important than his country’s interests and America’s interests.’
Biden continued that Trump ‘can’t accept he lost’, even though his own attorney general, vice president, 93 Senators and governors and state officials said so.
‘He lost,’ Biden said. ‘That’s what 81million did as you voted for a new way forward.’
He added that no president in US history has refused to accept the results of an election.
‘He’s not just a former president. He’s a defeated former president,’ Biden said. ‘Defeated by a margin of over 7million of your votes in a full and free and fair election.’
Biden recounted the events of the deadly insurrection, mentioning a mob breaking into the Capitol building and protesters using American flags as spears and erecting gallows to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence.
‘What did we not see? We didn’t see a former president, who just rallied the mob to attack, sitting in a private dining room off the Oval Office in the White House watching it all on television and doing nothing for hours,’ Biden said.
The president also attacked Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol.
‘This wasn’t a group of tourists,’ Biden said. ‘This was an armed insurrection.’
Biden accused Trump and his fans of trying to ‘re-write history’.
‘That the riot that took place on January 6 is a true expression of the will of the people. Can you think of a more twisted way to look at this country, to look at America?’ Biden asked. ‘I cannot.’
Biden said a ‘third big lie’ from Trump was calling the insurrectionists ‘the nation’s true patriots’.
‘Is that what you thought when you looked at the mob ransacking the Capitol, destroying property, literally defecating in the hallways? Going through the desks of senators and representative. Hunting down members of Congress,’ Biden said.
‘Patriots? Not in my view.’
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