Joe Biden launched his most visceral attack yet on Donald Trump on the first anniversary of the US Capitol riot, accusing his predecessor of holding a “dagger to the throat of America.”

Mr Biden called Mr Trump a “defeated president” to whom his his own “bruised ego” was more important than democracy and the constitution.

The US president said: “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. I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy.”

He added: “Those who stormed this Capitol and those who instigated and incited it, those who called on them to do so, held a dagger at the throat of America and American democracy.

“They didn’t come here out of patriotism or principle, they came here in rage, not in service of America, but rather in service of one man.”

Mr Biden lambasted Mr Trump over his inaction on Jan 6 last year.

In a speech at the Capitol he said: “A former president who had just rallied the mob to attack, sitting in a 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 Capitol under siege.

“He’s not just a former president, he’s a defeated former president, defeated by over seven million of your votes in a full and fair and free election. There is simply zero proof the election results were inaccurate.”