President Biden on Monday took aim at former President Trump’s inaction as the Capitol insurrection unfolded on Jan. 6, saying that law enforcement had to suffer through “medieval hell” during the attack.
The President criticized Trump as he concluded his remarks delivered virtually to a conference in Florida for Black law enforcement officials on Monday. Biden said that law enforcement was relied on on Jan. 6 to “save our democracy.”
“We saw what happened: the Capitol Police, the DC Metropolitan Police, other law enforcement agencies were attacked and assaulted before our very eyes. Speared. Sprayed. Stomped on. Brutalized. Lives were lost,” the President said.
Biden then condemned his predecessor for his lack of action as law enforcement responded to the violence brought by the mob of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol.
“And for three hours, the defeated former President of the United States watched it all happen as he sat in the comfort of the private dining room next to the Oval Office,” Biden said. “While he was doing that, brave law enforcement officers were subject to the medieval hell for three hours, dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage.”
The President also condemned Trump supporters who boosted the former president’s election fraud falsehoods as he slammed his predecessor again for lacking “the courage to act.”
“Face to face with a crazed mob that believed the lies of the defeated President, the police were heroes that day. Donald Trump lacked the courage to act,” the President said. “The brave women and men in blue all across this nation should never forget that. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-America.”
Biden’s remarks, which were pre-recorded at the White House, comes as Trump is set to deliver a keynote speech later Monday at the America First Agenda Summit, a conservative conference, in Washington, D.C.
Trump’s return to D.C. comes days after the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s public hearing that featured testimony on Trump’s refusal to issue a public statement demanding that his supporters leave the Capitol on Jan. 6, despite calls to do so by officials in his own administration as well as his own family.
Earlier Monday, committee member Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) released a video containing a series of taped depositions from figures in Trump’s inner circle, in which they testified about Trump’s reluctance to condemn Capitol insurrectionists in the days following the deadly attack.
The video, which Luria posted Monday morning, displays a draft statement that Trump’s staff prepared for his video address on Jan. 7. The then-President’s staffers urged him to condemn the mob of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Trump, however, pushed back on the draft of remarks. The video shows parts of the draft crossed out. In taped testimony, Ivanka Trump confirmed that her father’s handwriting is seen on the draft.
“You do not represent me,” is one of the lines that Trump appeared to have crossed out in the draft statement, referring to the mob of his supporters who breached the Capitol.
Watch Biden’s remarks below:
