A frontal attack against his predecessor, a year to the day after the attack on the Capitol. In a speech of rare gravity, Joe Biden charged Donald Trump on Thursday, who “tried to prevent a peaceful transfer of power”, promising not to let “anyone put the knife under the throat of American democracy”.
Without ever naming the one he called only “the former president” or “the losing former president”, a formulation suitable to infuriate the Republican billionaire, the 79-year-old Democrat has delivered an attack in good standing since the Capitol, where thousands of supporters of Donald Trump tried a year ago to prevent the certification of his election.
Biden accuses Trump of ‘creating’ election lies
Joe Biden accused his predecessor of having “tried to prevent a peaceful transfer of power” during the “armed insurgency” of January 6, 2021. Donald Trump “created and spread a web of lies about the election of 2020, he did it because he prefers power to principles ”, and because“ his injured ego matters more to him than our democracy ”, assailed the president, who had never before delivered such a frontal attack.
Donald Trump’s reply was not long in coming: the billionaire estimated that the speech of his successor, whose confidence rating is very low, was “political theater” intended to divert attention from his “failures.” “
“I will not let anyone put the knife to the throat of democracy”
“Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as the norm? (…) Are we going to be a nation that does not live in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies? Joe Biden asked. “We cannot afford to become that kind of nation,” he said, believing that the United States was engaged, inside and outside its borders, in a “struggle” between democracy to autocracy.
“I did not seek this battle,” admitted Joe Biden, while according to a recent poll, only 55% of Americans would believe that his election is legitimate. But “I will not let anyone put the knife at the throat of American democracy,” said the Democrat.
An anniversary that marks the ruptures of the country
This speech marks a break, as if Joe Biden had chosen to give a more combative tone to his mandate, which he had first wanted to place under the sign of reconciliation, by treating Donald Trump and his most bitter supporters by contempt. But reconciliation seems far away: the anniversary of January 6, far from being a moment of national unity, on Thursday illustrated the deep political divides in the United States.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell will not be attending ceremonies in Washington. And he issued a statement accusing Democrats of “exploiting” the anniversary “to promote partisan political goals that existed long before.”
Trump persists and signs
Donald Trump canceled a press conference he wanted to give from his luxurious Florida residence. But the former Republican president did not moderate his verb in any way. He again qualified Thursday the election of Joe Biden as “rigged”, an accusation that he maintains without ever having provided proof.
The billionaire retains immense influence over the Republican Party. Very few are those who, like Republican Senator Mitt Romney on Twitter Thursday, unambiguously condemn the assault on Capitol Hill.
“We are putting ourselves in danger by ignoring the lessons of January 6. Democracy is fragile; it cannot survive without leaders of integrity and courage who are more concerned with the solidity of our Republic than winning the next election, ”wrote the Republican, declared opponent of Donald Trump.