Former President Donald Trump falsely accused President Joe Biden of naming him in a speech on the anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol in order to divide Americans.
“The Democrats want to own this day of January 6th so they can stoke fears and divide America,” Trump said in an email statement. “I say, let them have it because America sees through their lies and polarizations.”
The twice-impeached president falsely accused Biden of invoking his name in his speech. In fact, Biden referred to him only as “the former president.”
“(Biden) used my name today to try to further divide America,” Trump said. “This political theater is all just a distraction.”
Trump pointedly did not discuss the riot itself at all in his statement. He did not explain why he failed to act for more than three hours as his supporters rampaged through the Capitol hunting down enemies.
Deemed “the failed former president” by Biden, Trump was persuaded to scrap plans to hold an attention-grabbing press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida to mark the anniversary of Januiary 6. But predictably, he could not stay silent in the face of Biden’s denunciation of his incitement of the attack.
Instead of offering a defense of his actions or inaction on January 6 as the riot unfolded, Trump repeated time-worn political attacks on Biden policies on the economy, immigration and even the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed,” Trump said.
He also repeated his lie that the election was stolen from him, even when Biden powerfully cited the contrary decisions of scores of judges and election officials from both parties.
“They want all conversation concerning the Election ‘Canceled.’ Trump said. “In actuality, the Big Lie was the Election itself.”
In a second message, Trump repeated many of the same messages, saying Democrats are “the ones who tried to stop the peaceful transfer with a rigged election.”
“Never forget the crime of the 2020 Presidential Election,” he wrote. “Never give up!”
Two of Trump’s strongest allies in Congress, Representative Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, defended their support for his big lie in an anniversary event they dubbed the “Republican response.”
The pair insisted GOP lawmakers should be proud of their role on January 6 and their effort to fight back against what Trump has falsely claimed was an election that was rigged by Democrats.
If Republicans retake the House in next year’s midterms, Gaetz said he hopes to reconstitute the committee investigating January 6 as a body to probe his fellow lawmakers and prosecutors.
“We’re ashamed of nothing,” Gaetz declared.
