The former US President Donald Trump on Thursday fired back at President Joe Biden on the first anniversary of the Capitol riot, repeating his claim that the 2020 election is being rigged. This retaliation came after the current president attacked his predecessor labelling him as a dangerous threat to American democracy.
Trump used Biden’s own language from his January 6 anniversary speech in several of his comments, accusing the veteran Democrat of a “web of lies” and asserting that the November 2020 election won by Biden was actually stolen from him.
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He alleged that it was Biden rather than himself, who prevented a “peaceful transfer” of power a year ago when Trump supporters attacked the Capitol demanding Biden’s election results be overturned.
“They spread a ‘web of lies’ about me and Russia for four years to try to overturn the 2016 election, and now they lie about how they interfered in the 2020 election, too,” Trump said.
“Never forget the crime of the 2020 Presidential Election. Never give up!”
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Trump’s statement follows a forceful speech by Biden inside the Capitol marking the anniversary of the 2021 assault.
“The lies that drove the anger and madness we saw in this place, they have not abated,” Biden said, referring to Trump’s election claims.
“I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of our democracy,” he said, never mentioning Trump’s name directly, only referring to him as “the former president.”
Nevertheless, Trump accused Biden of “political theater” and repeated his charge which is to date not backed up by any evidence– that the 2020 vote count in key states like Georgia and Arizona was fraudulent, cheating him of a second term.
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Biden “used my name today to try to further divide America,” Trump said.
“This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed,” Trump said.
“Just look at the numbers, they speak for themselves,” the former president said.
“They are not justifiable, so the complicit media just calls it the Big Lie, when in actuality the Big Lie was the Election itself.”
US courts, the states in question and the Justice Department have, however, repeatedly rejected Trump’s claims of fraudulent voting and vote counts.
(With inputs from agencies)
