Biden calls Trump “a threat to democracy” on Capitol riot anniversary
President Joe Biden on Thursday accused his predecessor Donald Trump of posing a continuing threat to American democracy in a speech on the anniversary of the deadly U.S. Capitol attack by Trump supporters who tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Speaking at the white-domed building that was the scene of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, Biden warned that Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud could unravel the rule of law and undermine future elections.
“We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie. Here’s the truth: A former president of the 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,” Biden said.
“He can’t accept he lost,” Biden added.
READ ALSO: Four dead after Trump incites ‘coup’ at Capitol Building
“One year ago today in this sacred place, democracy was attacked. Simply attacked,” Biden said. “The will of the people was under assault. The Constitution, our Constitution, faced the gravest of threats.”
Biden added that “for the first time in our history a president had not just lost the election he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.”
Biden condemned Trump for watching the riot on television “and doing nothing for hours.”
The speech was a departure for Biden, who has spent most of his first year in office focused on pursuing his own agenda rather than looking backwards.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has hit back at Joe Biden, accusing him of “political theatre” after the US 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 theatre is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed,” Trump said.
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