Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:44 pm
President Biden laid out Trump’s lies and explained why the failed former president is responsible for the attack on 1/6.
Video:
Biden describes Trump perfectly, "He's done so because he values power over principle. Because he sees his own interest as more important than his country's interest and America's interest. And because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our constitution." pic.twitter.com/3VGytK6Cms
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) January 6, 2022
Biden said:
.What did we not see? We didn’t see a former president who had just rallied the mob to attack sitting in the private dining room off the oval office in the white house watching it all on television and doing nothing for hours as police were assaulted, lives at risk, the nation’s Capitol under siege. This wasn’t a group of tourists, this was an armed insurrection. They weren’t looking to uphold the will of the people, they were looking to deny the will of the people. They were looking to uphold — they weren’t looking to uphold a free and fair election, they were look to go overturn one.Â
They weren’t looking to save the cause of America, they were looking to subvert the constitution. This isn’t about being bogged down in the past, this is about making sure the past isn’t buried. That’s the only way forward. That’s what great nations do. They don’t bury the truth, they face up to it. It sounds like hyperbole, but it’s the truth. They face up to it. We are a great nation.Â
My fellow Americans, in life there’s truth and tragically there are lies. Lies conceived and spread for profit and power. We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie. And here is the truth, the 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. Because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s interest and America’s interest. And because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our constitution.Â
He can’t accept he lost, even though that’s what 93 united States senators, his own attorney general, his own vice president, governors and state officials in every battleground state have all said. He lost. That’s what 81 million of you did as you voted for a new way forward. He has done what no president in American history, the history of this country has ever, ever done, he refused to accept the results of an election and the will of the American people. While some courageous men and women in the Republican Party are standing against it, trying to uphold the principle of that party, too many others are transforming that party into something else. They seem no longer to want to be the party, a party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan, the Bushes.Â
Whatever my other disagreements are with Republicans who support the rule of law and not the rule of a single man, I will always seek to work together with them, to find shared solutions where it’s possible because if we have a shared belief in democracy then anything is possible.
Donald Trump’s cancelation of his 1/6 event says everything. Trump’s silence speaks volumes.
President Biden deserves credit for not doing what some feared he would do. Biden has not chosen to say that the past is the past or to allow events of 1/6 to exist elsewhere while he focuses on his presidency.
Biden is right. There is one ultimate person who deserves blame for the 1/6 attack, and that is Donald Trump.
The Republican Party has changed. The party of Lincoln has become the authoritarian party of Trump and they are out to destroy democracy.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
