Former President Bill Clinton says the attack on the US Capitol has been fuelled over four years of "poison politics" and lit by President Donald Trump.
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Clinton said in a statement on Wednesday night that the riot by Trump supporters at the Capitol in Washington resulted from a combination of deliberate disinformation that created distrust in the system and pit Americans against one another.
He wrote, "The match was lit by Donald Trump and his most ardent enablers, including many in Congress, to overturn the results of an election he lost."
His wife, Hillary Clinton, lost a bitter election to Trump in 2016 and conceded to him immediately. Trump has refused to accept his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden in November and is trying to cast him as an illegitimate president.
Trump had encouraged his supporters to come to Washington to fight Congress' formal approval of Biden's win.
He held a rally earlier on Wednesday and urged his supporters to march to the Capitol, telling them to "get rid of the weak Congress people" and saying, "get the weak ones get out; this is the time for strength."
Australian Associated Press
