US President Joe Biden has accused his predecessor, Donald Trump, of posing "a continuing threat to democracy."
Biden was speaking on Thursday at the US Capitol on the anniversary of the brief January 6 occupation of that building by a large crowd of Americans protesting the outcome of the disputed 2020 election.
The Democratic president accused Trump of creating a "web of lies" to pursue "power over principle.”
"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.
"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 protest on television "and doing nothing for hours."
"The former president and his supporters have decided the only way for them to win is to suppress your vote and subvert our elections," Biden said.
On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters occupied the US Capitol while lawmakers were in the process of reviewing the certification of state electors which indicated Biden's victory. Some Trump supporters had hoped that this process could have resulted in some of the electors being disqualified, thus overturning the outcome of the presidential election.
It is claimed by some that the demonstrators were infiltrated and incited by provocateurs from US intelligence agencies, who orchestrated the “false flag operation” in order to get rid of Trump.
Some among the crowd clashed with police, and some made threats to beat up a number of Democratic lawmakers. Some also inflicted damage on parts of the Capitol building.
Trump has been casting doubt on the outcome of his loss by insisting it was the result of fraud. He has said that the 2020 presidential election was “the greatest Election Hoax in history.”
Biden: Trump is a 'defeated former president'
Biden on Thursday declared Trump a "defeated former president."
"Let’s speak plainly about what happened in 2020," Biden said.
"Even before the first ballot was cast, the former president was preemptively sowing doubt about the election results," Biden said. "He built his lie over months. It wasn’t based in any facts. He was just looking for an excuse, a pretext to cover for the truth.
"He’s not just a former president. He’s a defeated former president," Biden continued. "Defeated by a margin of over 7 million of your votes, and a full and free and fair election. There is simply zero proof the election results were inaccurate."
Trump’s claims have significantly delegitimatized the democratic process in the United States. A recent poll has found that at least 50 percent of Republican voters surveyed believe their vote will not be counted accurately the next time they cast a ballot.
Biden was selected by CIA, not elected by people: Journalist
Commenting on Biden’s statement, American journalist Don DeBar said, “In 2016, Donald Trump was elected in the face of the most aggressive negative campaign US intelligence and US media have ever conducted. For the 4 years he governed, the FBI, the CIA, the leadership of both political parties and the entire US media attempted to drive him from office. Despite all of that, Trump nearly won in 2020 and, absent massive fraud, would have been re-elected.”
“Whatever he actually is, the enmity of the elite towards Trump is based not on him being a threat to democracy, but rather for being as close to a democratic opposition to oligarchy as this sick nation can muster,” he told Press TV.
“Meanwhile, Joe Biden, least popular of the major Democratic candidates in 2020, was selected in a corrupt and truncated primary process. Daring to claim the word ‘democracy’ underlines an absurdity that is the domestic version of the recent international absurdity he called a ‘Democracy Summit,’” the analyst added.
“Joe Biden is the US version of Juan Guaidó, and the 21st century's version of Paul von Hindenburg. He was chosen by the same people who chose Guaido, and for the same purpose that von Hindenburg was chosen in 1932,” he explained.
“I suggest comparing what Biden says about January 6 in the US and what his State Department is saying about the actual armed insurrectionists that are murdering police in Almaty with his backing,” he concluded.