President Joe Biden used a Monday night White House press conference to attempt to reframe the November general election around Donald Trump’s alleged actions on January 6, 2021.
Biden’s speech came in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of former President Donald Trump on Monday, holding in a 6-3 decision that presidents are covered by limited immunity from criminal prosecutions for actions taken while in office. The ruling is a significant blow to the Biden Department of Justice’s prosecutions against Biden’s political opponent — which Trump and his allies have characterized as politically motivated lawfare.
But if Biden’s aides thought Biden’s under-five-minute speech would rally his base and reassure a nation increasingly questioning Biden’s ability to handle the job, they are likely disappointed.
Biden, despite reading from a teleprompter, repeatedly slurred his words — at one point seeming to mistakenly read “end of quote” — in a shaky effort more notable for its delivery than content (and what appeared to be a newly applied spray tan). Despite the speech’s brevity, Biden refused to answer questions from multiple reporters asking about his fitness for office and if he would step down from the ticket.
“Only four years ago, my predecessor sent a violent mob to the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power,” Biden said, repeating a narrative Trump has refuted with evidence and that Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) “get Trump” January 6 Committee apparently destroyed evidence to perpetuate.
Biden continued, apparently straying from the teleprompter. “But also with our own eyes, we sat there and watched it happen that day,” he said. “Attack on the police [sic], the ransacking of the capitol, a mob [indiscernible] hunting down the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, gallows erected to hang the Vice President Mike Pence, I think it’s fair to say is [sic] one of the darkest days in the history of America.”
Undeterred by his stumbles, Biden pressed on, saying, “Now the man who sent that mob to the U.S. Capitol is facing potential criminal conviction for what happened that day, and the American people deserve to have an answer in the courts before the upcoming election.”
After Monday’s ruling, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Washington prosecution of Trump for alleged election interference connected with January 6 is possibly dead, or at least critically wounded, as Biden acknowledged Monday night.
Smith’s appointment itself might be ruled unconstitutional in Judge Aileen Cannon’s Florida court overseeing Smith’s prosecution of Trump for retaining classified documents. In a concurring opinion to Monday’s ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas questioned the legality of the appointment, providing Cannon a roadmap to rule U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith to an office that does not exist with authority Garland does not possess.
Biden asserted, “the public has a right to know the answer about what happened on January 6, before they are asked to vote again this year.”
Many Americans who oppose Biden would agree with that statement. Interestingly, the men Biden referenced who erected a gallows allegedly to hang Pence are not among the hundreds at the Capitol on January 6 who have been identified, despite being clearly captured on video.
Biden said, “now the American people have to do what the court should have been willing to do but will not. The American people are gonna have to render a judgment about Donald Trump’s behavior.”
He soldiered on, insisting, “the American people must decide whether Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy on January 6 makes him unfit for public office in the highest office of the land. The American people must decide if Trump’s embrace of violence to preserve his power is acceptable. Perhaps most importantly, the American people must decide if they want to entrust the president once again, the presidency to Donald Trump, now knowing he’ll be even more emboldened to do whatever he pleases whenever he wants to do.”
If Trump’s lead in the polls holds, Biden will not like the American people’s final judgment.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
