Former President Donald Trump hit back at President Joe Biden after he repeatedly attacked him during a speech meant to mark the anniversary of the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump accused Biden of attempting to "further divide America."
"This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed,” America’s 45th president said in a statement released after Biden’s speech. He added that Biden "used my name today to try to further divide America.”
Biden blamed Trump for the events of last year. He said Trump “created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election” because he “values power over principle” and puts his own interest before the interest of the nation.
In his response, Trump reflected on many low points of the Biden administration.
"Our Country no longer has Borders,” he said, “has totally and completely lost control of Covid (record numbers!), is no longer Energy Independent, Inflation is rampant, our Military is in chaos, and our exit, or surrender, from Afghanistan was perhaps the most embarrassing day in the long and distinguished history of the United States—and so much more.”
Democrats "want to own this day" so they can "stoke fears and divide America,” Trump said.
"I say, let them have it,” he added, claiming the nation can “see through it.”“Biden is working hard to try and deflect the incompetent job he is doing and has done, on the horrible Afghanistan withdrawal (surrender), the Borders, COVID, Inflation, loss of Energy Independence, and much more,” Trump said in a statement from his Save America PAC via email to The New York Post. “Everything he touches turns to failure. That’s what you get when you have a rigged election.”
Trump had planned to speak at a press conference this afternoon but canceled the event on Jan. 4. He said that he will discuss how clashes at the Capitol stemmed from peaceful demonstration and election fraud at a Jan. 15 event in Arizona.
“What has become more and more obvious to ALL is that the LameStream Media will not report the facts that Nancy Pelosi and the Capitol Sergeant-at-Arms denied requests for the D.C. National Guard or Military to be present at the Capitol,” Trump said in a Tuesday statement. “This is the Democrats’ Great Cover-Up Committee and the Media is complicit.”
There is no evidence Pelosi "rejected" Trump’s authorization for "20,000 National Guard," according to her office.
"This is not true," Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, told PolitiFact. "The Speaker of the House doesn’t have the power to do this. No request was made for the National Guard before Jan. 6."
In correspondence with Newsguard analysts, they have asserted that Trump’s comments are provably false.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated with additional information refuting Trump's claims.
