Thursday marks one year since a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building hoping to block lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
Biden marked the anniversary with a scathing speech at the Capitol in which he strongly condemned the violence and said Trump “has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election.”
Speaking from Statuary Hall just outside the House chamber, Biden said that “for the first time time in our history a president not just lost the election, he tried to prevent a peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol.”
“We must make sure that never happens again.”
Biden never uttered Trump’s name, but he referred repeatedly to the former president with forceful, and at times personal denunciations of his actions. Trump, Biden said “values power over principle,” his “bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy,” and “he can’t accept that he lost.”
“He’s not just a former president,” Biden said of Trump, “He’s a defeated former president.”
Harris marked the day in a speech before Biden
Speaking before Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris said that the “American spirit is being tested.”
“The answer to whether we will meet that test resides where it has always resided in our country, with you, the people,” she said.
Harris said “the work ahead will not be easy,” and called on the Senate to pass voting rights legislation — an unlikely prospect unless the Senate changes its’ rules to prevent a Republican-led filibuster.
“We cannot sit on the sidelines,” Harris said. “We must unite in defense of our democracy.”
While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called Jan. 6th “a dark day for our country,” he accused Democrats of trying to “exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predated this event.”
He added: “It is especially jaw-dropping to hear some Senate Democrats invoke the mob’s attempt to disrupt our country’s norms, rules, and institutions as a justification to discard our norms, rules, and institutions themselves.”
There’s are day-long events planned at the Capitol
Democratic lawmakers have planned a daylong series of events at the Capitol to mark the anniversary, ranging from a moment of silence on the House floor at noon ET to a conversation with historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham, moderated by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden at 1 p.m. ET. The purpose is “to establish and preserve the narrative” of Jan. 6, according to a statement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
There will also be a prayer vigil on the Capitol steps led by Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at 5:30 p.m. ET. Lawmakers will also have the opportunity to share their reflections of the day.
The day’s events, Pelosi said, “are intended as an observance of reflection, remembrance and recommitment, in a spirit of unity, patriotism and prayerfulness.”
You can watch the day’s events here:
Biden is expected to lay blame for what happened that day on Trump, Psaki said.
“I would expect that President Biden will lay out the significance of what happened at the Capitol and the singular responsibility President Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw,” she said. “And he will forcibly push back on the lie spread by the former President in an attempt to mislead the American people and his own supporters, as well as distract from his role in what happened.”
He will also speak to the work needed to do to strengthen American democracy and institutions “to reject the hatred and lies we saw on January 6th and to unite our country,” Psaki said.
“And so at this moment we must decide what kind of nation we are going to be,” Biden plans to say, according to an excerpt of his remarks. “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? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies? We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation.”
Democratic lawmakers have planned a day-long series of events at the Capitol to mark the anniversary, ranging from a moment of silence on the House floor at 12 p.m. ET, to a conversation with historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham, moderated by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden at 1 p.m. ET. The purpose is “to establish and preserve the narrative” of Jan. 6, according to a statement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
There will also be a prayer vigil on the Capitol steps led by Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at 5:30 p.m. ET. Lawmakers will also have the opportunity to share their reflections of the day.
The days events, Pelosi said, “are intended as an observance of reflection, remembrance and recommitment, in a spirit of unity, patriotism and prayerfulness.”
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