‘I don’t care if you think I’m Satan reincarnated’: Biden says no excuse for people underplaying Capitol riot

President Biden on Wednesday said he doesn’t care if someone thinks he is “Satan reincarnated” but there is no looking away from the 6 January Capitol riots.

“I don’t care if you think I’m Satan reincarnated, the fact is you can’t look at that television and say nothing happened on the 6th (January)”, said Joe Biden at a town hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, organised by CNN News.

“You can’t listen to people who say this was a peaceful march,” he said.

The US president also said that no matter the party, there is only one way to view the 6 January assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters.

On 6 January, a mob, allegedly incited by former president Donald Trump, stormed the Capitol Hill. It attacked police officers tasked to protect the building, entered the premises, and forced lawmakers to take shelters.

Prior to the riots, Mr Trump had been continuously alleging fraud in the November 2020 presidential elections without offering any evidence to back those claims.

Since the riots, more than 500 people have been arrested and recently, five from a family who took part in the riots were charged by federal authorities.

In the November 2020 elections, President Biden had won 81.2 million votes compared to 74.2 million votes in favour of Donald Trump. With this, Joe Biden had become the first US presidential candidate to have received more than 80 million votes.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, in 2020 presidential elections, more than 159.63 million people voted – which was the largest total voter turnout in the history of the US and it was also the first time that more than 140 million people voted.

On Wednesday, during the town hall, President Biden said, “more people voted last time than any time in American history in the middle of the worst pandemic in history... They’re going to show up again.”

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