Joe Biden has said that his presidential predecessor Donald Trump “lacked the courage to act” as a mob of his supporters tried to halt the congressional certification of his defeat in the 2020 election by mounting the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

In virtual remarks Monday to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Biden – who was recovering from Covid-19 – said police officers defending the Capitol were “speared, sprayed, stomped on, brutalized” for hours by white nationalists and other Trump sycophants who bought his false claims that he’d been robbed of victory by electoral fraudsters.

“The defeated former president of the United States watched it all happen as he sat in the comfort of the private dining room next to the Oval Office,” Biden said, alluding to evidence and testimony staged by the congressional committee investigating the assault during a series of public hearings throughout the summer. “While he was doing that, brave law enforcement officers are subjected to the medieval hell for three hours … dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage, face to face with a crazed mob that believed the lies of the defeated president.

“The police were heroes that day. Donald Trump lacked the courage to act.”

Biden’s criticism of Trump to the organization known as Noble came four days after the most recent hearing held by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack focused on Trump’s inaction that fateful day.

At the hearing, the eighth of its kind this summer, the committee shared testimony from former White House aides that depicted Trump as repeatedly rejecting pleas from his senior advisers and even his own family members to wave off the mob invading the Capitol.

The committee said he finally relented after three hours and seven minutes, when he issued a video message telling his supporters, “Go home. We love you. You’re very special.” By then, it had become clear they weren’t able to fully take control of the building, and a late-arriving national guard had come on the scene to reinforce the Capitol police force.

A bipartisan Senate report linked at least seven deaths to the riots that day, which unfolded immediately after Trump told his supporters in a speech to “fight like hell”. About 140 police officers were injured as the certification of Biden’s victory over Trump was slowed by several hours.

It’s unknown for now whether prosecutors intend to build a criminal case against Trump over his actions as well as inaction before the Capitol attack and after it got underway.

According to committee members, their evidence is clear that he encouraged his supporters to take desperate measures to block Biden from taking the Oval Office and then stood idly by once they began executing those plans.

Biden, in his remarks Monday, said that proved Trump isn’t the law and order politician that he long touted himself as.

“You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop,” Biden said. “You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-American.”