WASHINGTON: Former US President Donald Trump cancelled a news conference scheduled for January 6, the one-year anniversary of a deadly attack on the US Capitol by his supporters, leaving President Joe Biden to address a divided nation.
Trump said in a statement that he would instead discuss many of the same topics he would have addressed at the news conference at a rally in Arizona on Jan 15.
Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, in the worst assault on Congress since the War of 1812. Fuelled by Trump’s false claims that his November 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud, the rioters tried to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.
One police officer who responded to the scene died the day after the attack, while four others who guarded the Capitol died later by suicide. About 140 police officers were injured during the hours-long attack.
Four rioters also died. More than 700 people have been charged with joining in the assault. The violence led to Trump’s second impeachment and numerous investigations.
Trump’s decision to ditch his controversial press conference in Florida means Americans will be spared a bitter split-screen moment on Thursday. If it had gone ahead, Biden would have marked what he calls “one of the darkest days” in US history, while Trump, just a few hours later, was due to promote his lie about being cheated out of victory in the 2020 presidential election.
In a statement announcing the demise of his press conference, Trump yet again pushed his conspiracy theory that “fraud” accounted for his defeat to Biden, calling it “the Crime of the Century.”
The statement underlined how one year after a mob of Trump supporters marched on Congress to try and prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory, political wounds remain far from healed.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will speak from inside the Capitol’s Statuary Hall, the setting during the unrest of almost unbelievable scenes as Trump supporters fought past police to invade the heart of US democracy.
As a veteran politician who came out of retirement to take on what he saw as Trump’s authoritarian presidency, Biden has often warned during his first year in the White House of an “existential” threat to political freedoms that until now most Americans took for granted.
His speech is set to take that warning to a new level. “He’ll speak to the historical significance of January 6, what it means for the country one year later,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday. Congress will later hold a prayer vigil.
Despite losing by more than seven million votes to Biden, and despite losing multiple court challenges around the country, Trump continues to say he was the real winner in 2020.
The accusations are only the most incendiary element of a broader attack against Biden on everything from immigration to COVID-19, all adding up to what looks very much like an as-yet undeclared bid to take back power in 2024.
