President-elect Joe Biden says that President Donald Trump fomented the violence at the US Capitol in Washington yesterday, calling it one of the darkest days in the history of the country and an assault on democracy.
Joe Biden speaking in Wilmington, Delaware: "Don't dare call them protesters." Photo: 2021 Getty Images
Biden, speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, where he was introducing nominees for his Justice Department, called the Trump supporters who forced their way into the Capitol building "domestic terrorists".
"Don't dare call them protesters. They were a riotous mob, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists. It's that basic," Biden said.
The chaos in the US Capitol when a pro-Trump mob stormed the building that houses the Senate and House of Representatives unfolded after Trump spent weeks whipping up his supporters with false claims that the 3 November election was stolen from him. At a rally in front of the White House yesterday Trump called on supporters to march to the building.
"He unleashed an all-out assault on the institutions of our democracy from the outset, and yesterday was but the culmination of that unrelenting attack," Biden said of Republican Trump.
President Donald Trump addresses thousands of supporters just before many stormed Capitol Hill in Washington. Photo: 2021 Getty Images
He said it was "totally unacceptable" that police had shown more leniency toward the mob than police around the country had toward lawful anti-racism protesters last year.
"No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matters protesters, they wouldn't have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that's true. And that is unacceptable," Biden said.
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He added that officials in his Justice Department would have loyalty to the law, not the president.
The House and Senate were scheduled to certify the results of the Electoral College, over the objections of some Republican lawmakers, when the Capitol was forced into lockdown by crowds swarming into the building.
Congress reconvened hours later and confirmed Biden's presidential election victory. He will be sworn into office on 20 January.
- Reuters