Jan. 6 updates: Biden tears into Trump for inciting Capitol attack

After his strongest speech to date blaming Trump for the violence at the Capitol, reporters pressed Biden on his way out of the building why he did not mention the former president by name, and he argued that he didn’t want to make it into a "contemporary political battle" between the two of them. 

"I think we just have to face the facts of what happened. Draw a clear picture for the American people. It's not about me, it's not about the vice president, it really isn’t. That’s the thing that bothers me the most about the attitude that seems emerging in some degree in American politics," Biden said. "It’s about the system, and somebody who decides to put himself above everything. And, so, I did not want to turn it into a contemporary political battle between me and the president. It's way beyond that."

A reporter followed up, "Does calling him out divide more than it heals, though?"

"No no, look. The way you have to heal -- you have to recognize the extent of the wound. You can't pretend. This is serious stuff. And a lot of people -- understandably -- want to go -- you know, 'I’d just as soon not face it.' You've got to face it. That's what great nations do. They face the truth, deal with it, and move on," Biden said.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle and Sarah Kolinovsky

Laying out the three "big lies" he said the former president has tried to sell around the 2020 election -- that the election was stolen, the results couldn’t be trusted, and that those who stormed the Capitol a year ago were patriots -- Biden tore into Trump as a loser in denial in his remarks.

"So at this moment, we must decide what kind of nation are we going to be? Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth, but of the shadow of lies?" he said. "The way forward is to recognize the truth, and to live by it."

Asking Americans to recall the scenes from last year, Biden described in detail the attacks on law enforcement, the gallows erected to “Hang Mike Pence" and chants to harm Pelosi, before turning to President Trump’s inaction. 

"What did we not see? We didn't see a former president who had just rallied the mob to attack sitting in the private dining room off the Oval Office in the White House watching it all on television. And doing nothing. For hours. As police were assaulted. Lives at risk. The nation's capital under siege," Biden lamented.

"I did not seek this fight brought to this Capitol one year ago today. But I will not shrink from it either. I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation," he said. "And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy."

-ABC News' Molly Nagle and Justin Gomez

In front of the presidential seal, flanked by two American flags, inside the Capitol's Statuary Hall -- a rare place for a president to speak but from where pro-Trump rioters stormed last year -- Biden directly blamed Trump for last year's violence and rejected the former president's characterization of the mob as "patriots."

“Is that what you thought when you looked at the mob ransacking the Capitol, destroying property -- literally defecating in the hallways -- rifling through the desks of senators and representatives, hunting down members of Congress? Patriots? Not in my view," he said in a firm tone.

“To me, the true patriots were the more than 150 Americans who peacefully expressed their vote at the ballot box," Biden continued. 

"The former president -- who lies about this election -- and the mob that attacked this Capitol could not be further away from the core American values. They want to rule or they will ruin -- ruin what our country fought for at Lexington and Concord, at Gettysburg and Omaha Beach, Seneca Falls, Selma, Alabama," he said, invoking ideals of American democracy.

Rejecting Trump’s election lies one by one, Biden repeated that despite the former president building his false case over months that there is "zero proof the election results are inaccurate."

Without mentioning Trump by name, Biden blamed him over and over again for the violence that erupted at the Capitol last year and the serious danger his "web of lies" poses to the country.

"Those who stormed this Capitol, and those who instigated and incited, and those who called on them to do so, held a dagger at the throat of America and American democracy," Biden said about Trump and his allies.

Biden hinted at how plotting to try to take the election from him -- and more so, the will of American voters -- began well in advance of Jan. 6 as Trump sewed doubt in the election with his supporters as it neared.

"They didn't come here out of patriotism or principle. They came here in rage -- not in service at American rather and service of one man. Those who incited the mob -- the real plotters -- were desperate to deny the certification of this election," Biden said.

"The former president and his supporters have decided the only way for them to win is to suppress your vote and subvert our elections, it's wrong, it's undemocratic and frankly, it's unAmerican," Biden said, appearing to speak both directly about Trump, leaning into the camera, and to the American people.

He said Americans "cannot allow ourselves" to be a kind of nation that stands for lies and by a former president that has violently rejected a peaceful transfer of power.