Biden calls Capitol riot an ‘attempted coup’ for first time

The president accuses Donald Trump of trying to ‘win through violence what he had lost at the ballot box’

US president Joe Biden has called the 6 January Capitol Hill insurrection an “attempted coup” for the first time.

In a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday pushing for voting rights legislation, Mr Biden lashed out at former president Donald Trump and his supporters for not accepting the results of the 2020 election.

“The violent mob of January 6, 2021, empowered and encouraged by a defeated former president, sought to win through violence what he had lost at the ballot box,” he said.

Mr Trump had levelled allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 elections. However successive probe reports and audits have ruled out voter fraud and not found any evidence to support Mr Trump and his supporters’ claims.

Last January, Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol building in a bid to overturn the elections.

“To impose the will of the mob, to overturn free and fair election, and for the first time, the first time in American history, to stop the peaceful transfer of power,” Mr Biden said.

“They failed, they failed, but democracy’s victory was not certain nor is democracy’s future.”

“That’s why we’re here today: to stand against the forces in America that value power over principle, forces that attempted a coup, a coup against the legally expressed will of the American people by sowing doubt, inventing charges of fraud and seeking to steal the 2020 election from the people,” he added.

“They want chaos to reign, we want the people to rule.”

The president’s remarks came a week after his forceful remarks against Mr Trump at the first anniversary of the 6 January insurrection.

Without mentioning Mr Trump’s name, the president accused him of spreading lies and “doing nothing as police were assaulted”.

“The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interests as more important than his country’s interests... and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution, he can’t accept he lost,” Mr Biden said last week.

“He’s not just the former president, he’s the defeated former president.”

Three civil lawsuits have been brought against Mr Trump by House Democrats as well as Capitol Hill police that allege his violent rhetoric led to the insurrection last year.

In addition, a House select committee has also been probing the riot.

Over 700 people were arrested last year in relation to the incident.