Washington [US]: US President Joe Biden marked the first anniversary of the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot by blaming former President Donald Trump. Speaking at Congress on Thursday morning (local time), President Biden held his predecessor responsible for the attack on the seat of American democracy. ” For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election. He tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob reached the Capitol,” Biden said in a speech from the US Capitol. “But they failed. They failed. And on this day of remembrance, we must make sure that such an attack never, never happens again.” Without naming Trump, Biden aggressively lay blame for what happened that day on Trump. Biden called out the former president for weaving what he called a “web of lies” around the 2020 election and attacking American democracy as no other leader has before. “We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie,” Biden said. “And here’s the truth: The former president of the United States of America has created spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle — because he sees his own interest is more important than his country’s interest and America’s interest — because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution.” In his most forceful remarks yet against Trump, Biden said “He can’t accept he lost,” “He can’t accept he lost even though that’s what 93 United States senators, his own attorney general, his own vice president, governors and state officials and every battleground state, all said, he lost.” Biden also linked Trump and his attempt to overturn election loss to Russia and China. “Make no mistake about it – we’re living at an inflection point in history both at home and abroad. … between people’s right to self-determination and self-seeking autocrats.” During his speech at Statuary Hall inside the Capitol building, Biden also spoke about the work needed to do to strengthen American democracy and institutions. “And so at this moment we must decide what kind of nation we are going to be,” Biden said. Speaking about that violent day, which included five fatalities, the President said,”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.” A somber Vice President Kamala Harris, in remarks ahead of Biden, who was at the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6 last year, reflected on what happened inside the Capitol building. “Extremists who roamed these halls targeted” last year was not only an attack on the lives of elected leaders and the 2020 election. “What they sought to degrade and destroy was not only a building, hallowed as it is. What they were assaulting. were the institution’s the values, the ideals that generations of Americans have marched, picketed, and shed blood to establish and defend,” she said. 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 to a conversation with American historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham. “The purpose is to establish and preserve the narrative” of Jan. 6, according to a statement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The days events, Pelosi said, “are intended as an observance of reflection, remembrance and recommitment, in a spirit of unity, patriotism and prayerfulness.” There will also be a prayer vigil on the Capitol steps led by Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer later in the evening GOP leaders won’t be in the Capitol on Thursday with the House out of session and a number of Republican senators heading to Georgia to attend a memorial service for the late Sen. Johnny Isakson. In Washington, DC, one year ago, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building as Congress was meeting to certify Biden’s presidential election victory. Investigators have so far arrested 725 suspects in connection with the attack and the insurrection launched the largest investigation in FBI history. The events of January 6 led to Trump’s second impeachment by the House of Representatives.And a House select committee continues to investigate the events leading up to the riots. Two Trump allies — Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon — have been held in criminal contempt for declining to cooperate with committee investigators after being subpoenaed.
