As US President Joe Biden prepares to pay tribute to the police and guards of the Capitol on Thursday today, on the first anniversary of the January 6, 2021 attack on American democracy, Donald Trump has decided to cancel the press conference he planned to hold that day.
The news, announced at the end of the day on Tuesday, relieved several Republican elected officials who feared that this speech would again draw criticism on their political party and on its difficulty in extricating itself from the hold of the populist as well as its fallacious statements. on the theft of elections, at the origin of the insurgency.
“I do not think it is a good idea”, had summarized earlier in the day on the Politico site the Republican senator Shelley Moore Capito, questioned on this press conference. “I guess it depends on what he’s going to say. But early assumptions indicate it will be an aggressive statement. “
“It’s a free country and you have the right to say whatever you want with certain restrictions, but I think the country has moved on,” said Texas Senator John Cornyn. “We need to focus our efforts on getting things done for the American people, not re-litigating issues that have already been decided. “
“Total bias”
On Tuesday, by way of a press release, Donald Trump warned that he would not speak on January 6, as announced before Christmas. He blamed the news media and the bipartisan Congressional investigative committee responsible for shedding light on the former president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election results by throwing his troops onto Capitol Hill.
“In light of the total bias and dishonesty of the Not Very Special Committee [formé par les] Democrats on January 6, two Republicans missed [une référence à Liz Cheney et Adam Kinzinger, les deux seuls républicains siégeant sur le comité] and fake news media, I am canceling the press conference of January 6 in Mar-a-Lago [sa résidence en Floride] Thursday, ”summed up the populist.
In the process, the ex-star of the reality TV announced to keep his comments on the events of January 6 for an upcoming political rally scheduled for January 15 in Arizona.
On Tuesday, the House committee stepped up the pressure on the ousted ex-president by making public text conversations between Donald Trump’s ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and the news network’s star host Fox News ultraconservative Sean Hannity.
In the days preceding the tragedy, but also on January 6, the television man sought to convince the president not to use this day of certification of the vote by the American legislature to try to overturn the elections and to stay in the election. power, indicate exchanges. After the insurgency, he also tried to convince Trump the election was over and tried to roll back the ex-president on his repeated allegations of voter fraud.
By letter, the committee invited Mr. Hannity to appear before the committee to comment on these texts, as a “factual witness.” On Wednesday, it was not yet certain that the host would agree to this request.
Biden speaks
White House spokeswoman Jen Paski announced that on Thursday Joe Biden would take advantage of this anniversary to “tell the truth about what happened” and not maintain “the lies that some have since spread [le 6 janvier] and which jeopardize the rule of law and our system of democratic governance, ”she said.
A year after the insurgency, more than half of Americans (57%) believe that such a tragedy is likely to happen again, “very soon”, according to an Axios / Momentive poll, unveiled Wednesday. The probe also reveals that 55% of them believe that Joe Biden was legitimately elected, down 3 points since the tragedy of January 6, 2021.