Biden lambasts Trump over US Capitol violence, says 'don't dare call them protesters'

President-elect Joe Biden lambasted Donald Trump on January 7 as two top Democrats in Congress called for immediate removal of the outgoing US President from the office even as his tenure ends in nearly 13 days. Following the chaos of January 6 when Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol building as the Congress convened to verify Biden’s electoral college votes. People who gathered outside the federal building smashed doors and broke windows claimed to ‘take the house back’.

While Trump’s most senior cabinet members have either resigned or are discussing his removal, Biden termed the day as ‘one of the darkest days’ and even refused to acknowledge the mob as ‘protesters’. At an event introducing his nominee for attorney general, Biden did not address demands off Trump’s removal but called the supporters who swarmed the building as “domestic terrorists”. Biden also accused Trump of an “all-out assault on the institutions of our democracy.”

"Yesterday, in my view, was one of the darkest days in the history of our nation," said the 78-year-old Democrat, who will be sworn in as the 46th US president on January 20.

"They weren't protesters, don't dare call them protesters. They were a riotous mob, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists...I wish we could say we couldn't see it coming but that isn't true. We could see it coming. The past four years we have had a president who has made his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law, clear in everything he has done,” he added.

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Pelosi, Schumer urged Mike Pence to invoke 25th Amendment

Biden’s remarks came as House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer urged US vice president Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment that allows a majority of the cabinet to remove a sitting president proven unfit to carry his duties. Pelosi not only described Trump as a “very dangerous person”, but also called the present situation as “an emergency of the highest magnitude”.

"By inciting sedition, as he did yesterday, he must be removed from office," she said. "While it's only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America.”

"If the vice president and the cabinet do not act, the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment," Pelosi said.

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