Biden didn't mention Trump's name once in a speech condemning the 'defeated former president' on the anniversary of the Capitol riot

• President Joe Biden delivered a 25-minute speech on the anniversary of the Capitol riot.
• He didn't say former President Donald Trump's name once.

President Joe Biden delivered poignant remarks on Thursday commemorating the first anniversary of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

But he didn't mention former President Donald Trump by name once in the 25-minute speech.

Instead, Biden repeatedly referred to Trump as "the former president" and explicitly blamed him for the violence that unfolded at the US Capitol last year, as Congress was getting ready to certify Biden's victory in the November 2020 general election.

He went on to say that Trump "can't accept he lost" the election "because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution."

"Even though that's what 93 United States senators, his own attorney general, his own vice president, governors, and state officials in every battleground state have all said he lost," Biden said. "That's what 81 million of you did when you voted for a new way forward."

When he was asked after the speech why he didn't call Trump out by name, Biden told reporters that "I did not want to turn it into a contemporary political battle between me and the [former] president. It's way beyond that."

He also said it's critical to "face the facts" regarding the 2020 election and the Capitol insurrection, during which thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol following a "Save America" rally during which Trump urged his followers to "fight like hell" against Biden's win.

"It's not about me," Biden told reporters after his speech on Thursday. "It's not about whether I'm president or [Kamala Harris] is vice president. It's about the system and about somebody who decides to put himself above everything."