PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN has marked the anniversary of the 6 January storming of the US Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters with a dark plea for Americans to defend democracy from a future of violence and election cheating.
Speaking from Statuary Hall in the Capitol, the scene of violent assaults by a Trump mob trying to stop certification of Biden’s 2020 election win a year ago, he said the riots had been “an attack on democracy”.
“One year ago today in this sacred place, democracy was attacked. Simply attacked. The will of the people was under assault. Our constitution faced the greatest of threats,” he said.
Biden praised the “brave” police officers who were at the Capitol when it was attacked.
“Outnumbered in the face of a brutal attack, the Capitol police, the DC Metropolitan Police Department, the National Guard and other brave law enforcement officials saved the rule of law. Our democracy held. We the people endured. We the people prevailed,” he said.
For the first time in our history, the president had not just lost the election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob reached the Capitol. But they failed. They failed. And on this day of remembrance, we must make sure that such an attack never, never happens again.
He said Trump has “created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election”.
“He’s done so becuase he values power over principle. Because he sees his own interests as more important than American interests. Because his ego matters more to him than our democracy or our constitution. He can’t accept he lost.”
He warned that democratic institutions are in the balance, saying the US must now decide “what kind of nation we are 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?” Biden asked.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. The way forward is to recognise the truth and to live by it.”
He went on to criticise Trump’s false claims that the 2020 US election was “stolen” from him.
“He’s not just the former president. He’s the defeated former president. Defeated by more than 7 million of your votes in a full and free and fair election. There is simply zero proof the election results were inaccurate. In fact, in every venue where evidence had to be produced, where oaths of truth had to be taken, the former president failed to make his case.”
Biden added: “We are in a battle for the soul of America, a battle that by the grace of God and goodness of this nation, we will win.”
Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke at Statutory Hall. She said: “On 6 January, we all saw what our nation would look like if the forces who seek to dismantle our democracy are successful. The lawlessness, the violence, the chaos.”
“What the extremists who roamed this halls targeted was not only a building, hallowed as it is. What they were assaulting were the institutions, the values, the ideals that generations of Americans have marched, picketed, and shed blood to establish and defend,” she said.
Biden’s speech is due to be followed by a prayer vigil.
A series of remembrance events during the day will be widely attended by Democrats, in person and virtually, but almost every Republican on Capitol Hill will be absent.
The party’s top lawmaker, Senator Mitch McConnell, is leading a delegation to a funeral of a recently deceased senator some 600 miles (965 kilometers) away in Atlanta, Georgia.
In a statement, McConnell said 6 January had been a “dark day” but called it “stunning to see some Washington Democrats try to exploit this anniversary.”
Trump, after initially planning to stage a press conference in Florida to coincide with today’s anniversary, similarly issued a statement dismissing the ceremonies as Democrats “congregating… to fan the flames of a divide that THEY created.”
Trump’s ‘lies’
Until now, Biden has mostly opted to ignore Trump, even as the Republican continues his unprecedented campaign to discredit the 2020 election and claim, fraudulently, that he won.
Apparently, no more.
“I would expect President Biden to lay out the significance of what happened at the Capitol and the singular responsibility President Trump has for the chaos and carnage,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said yesterday.
“He will forcibly push back on the lies spread by the former president in an attempt to mislead the American people and his own supporters.”
Asked if Biden would use Trump’s name, Psaki said: “I think people will know whom he’s referring to.”
‘True patriotism’
Yesterday, Capitol police chief Thomas Manger said his forces would never be caught unprepared again, as they were last year.
But the political risk may be, if anything, higher than before.
Writing in The New York Times yesterday, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter said that the United States “teeters on the brink of a widening abyss.”
“Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late,” Carter wrote.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also called for a profound look at the state of the nation.
“Without addressing the root causes of the violence on 6 January, the insurrection will not be an aberration – it could well become the norm,” he warned.
More surprising was the voice of Karl Rove, one of the chief architects of Republican strategy over the last 30 years, who wrote in the right-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial pages that there was no forgiveness for the assault on democracy.
“There can be no soft-pedaling what happened and no absolution for those who planned, encouraged and aided the attempt to overthrow our democracy. Love of country demands nothing less. That’s true patriotism,” he wrote.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said yesterday that authorities have so far arrested and charged about 725 people in connection with the attack, while asking for patience in work to untangle any deeper roots of a conspiracy.
With reporting from AFP.
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