President Joe Biden delivered his harshest direct rebuke of his predecessor on Thursday, blaming former President Donald Trump for the insurgency at the United States Capitol a year ago and slamming him for continuing to spread lies to serve his own ego.
To make matters worse, Biden refused to say the name of the man who has made a fortune and a political career out of his eponymous brand.
"We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie. Here is the truth: The former and president jobs of the United States has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election," Biden said, standing in the same Statuary Hall venue taken over by rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.
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"He’s done so because he values power over principle. Because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or Constitution. He can't accept that he lost."
The speech was a stunning and highly unusual denunciation of a fellow president – one that Biden said was motivated by the equally unusual actions of a former commander in chief and the dangers they pose to the nation's governance jobs.
Trump, in a statement that appeared to be written before Biden spoke, chastised Biden for addressing him by name – something Biden did not do.
"Biden, who is destroying our Nation with insane policies of open Borders, corrupt Elections, disastrous energy policies, unconstitutional mandates, and devastating school closures, used my name today to try to further divide America," Trump said in a statement released Thursday. Trump had been scheduled to hold a press conference Thursday afternoon from his Mar-a-Lago resort but canceled it.
Biden dismantled the lies that led to the attacks and have kept the country divided – lies that he claimed were endangering America's democracy. Despite claims to the contrary, the president said the 2020 election was secure and legitimate, noting that Republicans did not challenge the results of races won by fellow GOP candidates, whose victories reduced Democrats' control of the House of Representatives.
Neither were the insurgent's patriots, Biden said, lamenting the deaths and injuries of law enforcement officers, whom the president claims Republicans honor."You can't love your country only when you win. You can't obey the law only when it's convenient. You can't be patriotic and you embrace and enable lies," Biden said.
"A former president who lies about this election, and a mob that attacked this Capitol could not be further away from the core of American values," Biden said.
Biden then shifted his focus to voting rights, criticizing states that have taken steps to limit access to and ease of voting. The president has renewed his call for federal voting rights legislation, and he is scheduled to deliver a major speech on the subject next week. After his remarks, Biden said he didn't want to "turn it into a contemporary political battle between me and the former president."
"It's way beyond that," Biden said in response to a question of whether his criticism of Trump divides more than it heals the nation. “The way you have to heal, you have to recognize the extent of the wound," the president said.
