joe biden pennsylvania speech
President-elect Joe Biden on August 31.
Reuters/Alan Freed
  • President-elect Joe Biden delivered a speech on Wednesday afternoon condemning the “violent siege of the Capitol” and attempted coup carried out by President Donald Trump’s supporters as Biden spoke. 
  • Biden called on Trump to “step up” and demand that his supporters end their attack on American democracy and violence in Washington, DC.
  • “I call on President Trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege,” he said. 
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

President-elect Joe Biden delivered a speech on Wednesday afternoon condemning the “violent siege of the Capitol”  carried out by President Donald Trump’s supporters as Biden spoke.

“At this hour, our democracy’s under unprecedented assault unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times,” Biden said.

Biden called on Trump to “step up” and demand that his supporters end their attack on American democracy and violence in Washington, DC. 

“I call on President Trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege,” he said. 

Biden called the thousands of pro-Trump rioters un-American.

"America's about honor, decency, respect, tolerance. That's who we are; that's who we've always been," Biden said. "The certification of the Electoral College vote is supposed to be a sacred ritual whose purpose is to affirm ... American democracy." 

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