vor a month ago, the American president was a bit too honest for some in his campaign team. Joe Biden said in a speech that he was “not sure” whether he would have run again without Donald Trump’s candidacy. But we shouldn't let Trump win. Now it's no secret that Biden believes he is the only one who can beat the former president again. But given the poor poll numbers and criticism of Biden's age, such a remark could backfire.
Biden's team is now focusing even more on highlighting what is at stake in the event of another Trump presidency. Biden's first public campaign appearance this year aimed to do just that. A day before the third anniversary of the storming of the Capitol, the president spoke in Pennsylvania on Friday. By attempting to reframe January 6, 2021 as a peaceful protest, Trump wanted to “change history just as he wanted to change the election result,” Biden said. “But we know the truth because we have seen it with our own eyes.”
The whole country, the whole world, watched “in disbelief” as Trump did nothing against the rioters. Biden went on to say that Trump's attempted election fraud was one of the “worst derelictions of duty by a president in American history.” Americans would have to choose “freedom” in November.
Not just campaign talk
The fact that Biden is warning about his political opponent is not surprising, but it is not just campaign talk either. With Trump, a man who incited a violent mob three years ago in January and sent them to the Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to Biden is likely to be on the ballot this year. “Be there, it’s going to be wild,” Trump had written in advance on Twitter and didn’t whistle back to his supporters for more than three hours. Not even when they chanted that then Vice President Mike Pence should be hanged. Instead, Trump continues to fuel the election fraud narrative to this day.
It is crucial for Democrats to keep the memories of the storming of the Capitol alive. According to a recent survey by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland, a majority of Americans believe that January 6, 2021 should never be forgotten as an “attack on democracy.” But that 55 percent compares to 43 percent of respondents who say the issue is being overused and that it is “time to move on.”
Among Republican respondents, just under a quarter think the storming of the Capitol was memorable. One in three people are also of the opinion that the FBI “organized and promoted” the events – one of Trump's lies in this context. There was no evidence of such involvement during months of investigations into the storming of the Capitol. While two years ago a good quarter of the Republicans surveyed were of the opinion that the rioters at the Capitol were “mostly violent,” that figure has now fallen to just 18 percent. According to authorities, five people were killed and more than 150 security officers were injured during the protests; More than 900 rioters were subsequently sentenced to long prison sentences.
Alleged remorse of the Capitol rioters
Trump, in turn, has declared revenge to be the leitmotif for his re-election. He has promised his supporters several times that as president he would pardon people convicted of January 6th. In November, he shared a post on his Truth Social platform that, citing “peaceful protesters,” called for police to be charged instead of them. Meanwhile, research by American media last year revealed how the supposed remorse of many rioters in court turned into resistance again shortly afterwards.
Former Republican Representative Derrick Evans from West Virginia, for example, spoke to a federal judge about a “crucial mistake” and was sentenced to three months in prison; Less than a year later, he complained that he was a victim of a politically motivated justice system. Devans filmed himself on the way to the Capitol and broadcast the event live on social media.
The fact that Trump himself is charged in two cases related to the storming of the Capitol serves as evidence for his claim that he should be politically silenced. This earns him points among the Republican base: In polls, Trump is still far ahead of his Republican competitors for the presidential candidacy.
However, the Supreme Court of the United States is also likely to have a major influence on the presidential election and Trump's political future. In one case, the former president's lawyers point to complete immunity from allegations of attempted election fraud – because these relate to actions taken while in office. The case is still being heard in an appeals court, but it is understood that the question will ultimately have to be resolved by the nine highest judges in the United States.
The second case concerns a decision from the state of Colorado that disqualified Trump from the primary because of his actions on January 6, 2021, citing the 14th Insurrection Clause of the US Constitution. The former president appealed this week to the Supreme Court in Washington. On Friday, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear the appeal. A hearing is scheduled for February 8th. The pending decisions are particularly interesting because three of the six conservative judges were appointed by Trump himself.
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