Trump slams Biden for using his name ‘to try to further divide America’

Donald Trump hit back at Joe Biden Thursday, accusing him of “political theater” after the US president assailed him in a forceful speech marking the anniversary of the Capitol riot.

Although Biden did not mention Trump’s name, he made clear whom he was talking about in a blistering portrait of a man he said tried to cheat his way out of defeat in the 2020 election.

Biden “used my name today to try to further divide America,” Trump said in a statement.

“This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed,” Trump said.

In his speech, Biden ripped Trump for spreading a “web of lies” claiming the 2020 vote count was fraudulent in a bid to hold onto power, and blasted the mob of the Republican’s supporters who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent certification of the election result.

Trump, who earlier this week cancelled a planned press conference for the anniversary, repeated his claim that the election was “rigged.”

“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.”

Trump’s claims of fraudulent voting and vote counts have repeatedly been rejected by the states in question, the Justice Department, and US courts.

One year on, Trump backers recall ‘incredible’ Capitol siege

“January 6 was incredible,” says Samson Racioppi, a 40-year-old Republican Party stalwart who rented several buses to drive people to Washington from his home state of Massachusetts.

The day began with outgoing Republican president Trump addressing a sea of supporters waving “Trump 2020” flags in the biting cold near the White House.

Trump fired up the crowd with a defiant speech, repeating his false claims that he won the November election over Democrat Joe Biden.

“I remember the actual feeling of that day of euphoria,” said Jim Wood, a military veteran who came to Washington from New Hampshire. “Seeing all the people.”

Before Trump finished speaking, Wood, who is in his 60s, headed towards the Capitol, where Congress was certifying Biden’s election victory.

Thousands of others did the same and an enormous crowd quickly assembled around the brilliant white dome of the Capitol building.

– ‘Let’s go!’ as crowd surges –

“Then all of a sudden, you heard, I guess, from my remembrance, screams of, you know, ‘Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,'” said Glen Montfalcone, who also came to Washington from Massachusetts.

“And then kind of anarchy started happening,” Montfalcone added.

“People were pushing, pushing, pushing. ‘Go go, forge forward, forge forward,'” he said. “And so we all did, we all forged forward and just started entering into the area, and then up the stairs.”

All three men insist they did not enter the Capitol itself. They could be risking prison if they admitted they did.

Hundreds did swarm the building, however, including a tattooed, half-naked man wearing horns and a fur hat.

One protester was shot dead by police.

The world watched live, aghast, as the citadel of American democracy came under assault.

Wood said the televised images he saw broadcast the next day at breakfast were “demonizing” and that the vast majority of the protesters remained outside the Capitol.

During the next few months, two competing narratives would arise.

Trump supporters claim it was a peaceful protest against a “stolen” election.

Police officers who fought with the mob, Democratic lawmakers and even some Republicans called it “terrorism.”

– FBI at the door –

In the wake of January 6, law enforcement launched a nationwide sweep for participants in the assault on the Capitol.

Montfalcone has had FBI agents turn up at his door. Several friends have been arrested.

At his law school, students unsuccessfully attempted to have Racioppi thrown out.

In Washington, a House of Representatives committee is investigating what has been described as an insurrection or a coup attempt.

The January 6 participants reject this characterization of the day.

On the contrary, Racioppi says proudly, “this is something I’m going to tell my grandkids about.”

He remains convinced, like many Republicans, that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump, despite the absence of any credible evidence this occurred.

Likewise Wood, an Air Force mechanic who spent years working on B-52 bombers, insists the election was fraudulent.

Of Biden, he says, “I don’t consider him the president of the United States.”

Racioppi said January 6 was just a skirmish in an ongoing conflict.

“We’re looking at it as if it’s a war, right?” he said. “We’re going to cause as much political damage to the left and the people who support tyranny as possible.”

Would he do it again?

“Of course I would do it again,” he said.