Assault on Capitol Hill: Donald Trump “created a web of lies”, accuses Joe Biden

“A year ago today, in this sacred place, democracy was attacked, quite simply taken by storm” : US President Joe Biden adopted a firm tone from the first minutes of his speech, delivered Thursday, January 6 from the Statues Room of the US Congress, which sits in the Capitol. An institution invaded a year ago to the day by thousands of supporters of his predecessor Donald Trump, trying to prevent the certification of the election of the Democratic presidential candidate.

“Close your eyes, revisit this day: rioters who succeed in violating this building for the first time”Joe Biden said on the occasion of the anniversary speech, saying that they “were not a group of tourists, it was an armed uprising”. The tenant of the White House also welcomed the mobilization of the police who “saved the rule of law and our democracy”, recalling that 140 officers had been injured and two police officers died following this attack, also evoking the psychological trauma of the officers present during the assault.

“Our Constitution has faced the gravest threat”, corn “we the American people survived this attack and we will prevail”, he assured. Throughout the 20 minutes of speech with both severe and combative accents, the Democratic president has never ceased to underline the responsibility of his predecessor, without ever citing his name.

“For the first time in the history of our country”, he lamented, a president has “tried to prevent a peaceful transfer of power” by claiming that the elections had been stolen – claims that have never been proven to this day. Joe Biden accuses his predecessor of having thus encouraged his supporters, gargled by these statements, to attack the Capitol. A few hours before the mobilization, Donald Trump had indeed called on his supporters to march on Congress. “We did not see the former President of the United States (at the scene, editor’s note), he was in the White House, he had just lost the election and he was watching television”, lambasted Joe Biden. “He didn’t do anything for hours, there were lives at stake, the nation’s main institution was under siege.”

“Here is the truth: the former President of the United States has created a web of lies regarding the 2020 election” sued the White House tenant, claiming that Donald Trump has “built his lie for months before the poll” over the course of this very dependent speech against his predecessor. “He did it because he places power above principles, he is only interested in his own interests rather than those of his country”, he added.

The president insisted that 81 million votes were in his favor and that more than 150 million Americans had voted in these elections, unprecedented in American history according to him, despite the health context. “No election in US history has been more scrutinized than this one”, he continued: “we recounted state after state”. Joe Biden also noted that the former Republican president and his camp had not contested any previous election. “He is a former president defeated by a margin of more than 7 million votes in a free, fair and total election”, he hammered.

After this indictment against the former US president, Joe Biden called for firmness and promised to do everything possible to “make sure that kind of attack never happens again”, refusing that “political violence does not become the norm”, asserting that the United States was “on the border between democracy and autocracy”. “I did not look for this fight” corn “I will not slip away”, he said.

Ensuring that “the lies are not extinguished” and “democracy is threatened”, he promised : “I will stand in the breach, I will protect this nation and I will not let anyone put a knife to America’s throat, I will let the voice of the people speak without being threatened by violence.”.

Joe Biden also welcomed the position taken by certain elected Republicans who condemn the assault on the Capitol, and thus want to guarantee “integrity” of their party. “Whatever our disagreements, I will always work hand in hand with them (…) because we share this faith in democracy”, he assured. But Donald Trump retains immense influence over the Republican Party, and very few are those who unambiguously criticize the attack.

Joe Biden’s offensive tone echoes the latest statement from his Justice Minister Merrick Garland, who on Wednesday pledged that all participants in the assault on Capitol Hill would be well prosecuted “whatever their status”. The former president and his relatives are under investigation.

Joe biden “used my name in an attempt to divide America even further”, replied Donald Trump in a press release. “This political theater only distracts from the fact that Biden completely and utterly failed”, he estimated.

According to a poll released Wednesday by the Axios news site, only 55% of Americans believe that Joe Biden is the legitimate winner of the last election. Almost as many believe that events such as January 6, 2021 are likely to occur again in the years to come.