President Joe Biden warned on Friday that Donald Trump’s efforts to retake the White House in 2024 pose a grave threat to the country, the day before the third anniversary of the violent riot at the US Capitol by then-president Trump’s supporters aiming to keep him in power.
Speaking near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington and the Continental Army spent a bleak winter nearly 250 years ago, Mr Biden said that January 6 2021 marked a moment where “we nearly lost America — lost it all”.
He said the presidential race — a likely rematch with Mr Trump, who is the Republican frontrunner — is “all about” whether American democracy will survive.
The speech, the president’s first political event of the election year, was intended to clarify the expected choice for US voters this autumn.
Mr Biden, who re-entered political life because he felt he was best capable of defeating Mr Trump in 2020, believes focusing on defending democracy to be central for persuading voters to reject Mr Trump once again.
“We all know who Donald Trump is,” Mr Biden said. “The question we have to answer is who are we?”
Mr Biden laid out Mr Trump’s role in the Capitol attack, as a mob of the Republican’s supporters overran the building while members were counting Electoral College votes that certified Democrat Mr Biden’s win.
More than 100 police officers were beaten and attacked by the rioters who overwhelmed authorities to break into the building.
“What’s Trump done? He’s called these insurrectionists ‘patriots’,” Mr Biden said, “and he promised to pardon them if he returns to office.”
He criticised Mr Trump for “glorifying” rather than condemning political violence.
At least nine people who were at the Capitol that day died during or after the rioting, including several officers who died from suicide, a woman who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber, and three other Trump supporters who authorities said suffered medical emergencies.
Mr Biden said that by “trying to rewrite the facts of January 6, Trump is trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election”.
Mr Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his loss to Mr Biden and three other felony cases, argues that Mr Biden and top Democrats are themselves seeking to undermine democracy by using the legal system to thwart the campaign of his chief rival.
“Donald Trump’s campaign is about him,” Mr Biden said, saying it was Mr Trump’s aim to get retribution on his political enemies. “Not America. Not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future.”
He added: “There’s no confusion about who Trump is or what he intends to do.”
Before his remarks, Mr Biden, joined by his wife Jill, participated in a wreath laying ceremony at Valley Forge National Arch, which honours the troops who camped there from December 1777 to June 1778.
In the days after the attack, 52% of US adults said Mr Trump bore a lot of responsibility for January 6, according to the Pew Research Centre. By early 2022, that had declined to 43%. The number of Americans who said Mr Trump bore no responsibility increased from 24% in 2021 to 32% in 2022.
A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released this week found that about 7 in 10 Republicans say too much is being made of the attack.
Mr Biden said that “politics, fear, money” have led many Republicans to abandon their criticism of Mr Trump.
On the second anniversary, Mr Biden presented the nation’s second highest civilian award to 12 people who were involved in defending the Capitol during the attack.
Friday’s appearance included supporters and young people motivated by the attack to get involved in politics, campaign advisers said.
