'Democracy Was Attacked': Biden Marks One Year Since Storming of US Capitol

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the US Capitol on January 6, one year after, in Biden’s words, a “violent mob breached” the building.

“One year ago today, in this sacred place, democracy was attacked,” Biden said at the beginning of his speech.

Biden said President Donald Trump bore responsibility for the attack. He accused Trump of trying “to prevent the peaceful transfer of power” by “rallying a mob to attack” the Capitol, and “doing nothing for hours as police were assaulted, lives were at risk, the nation’s Capitol under siege.”

Trump, Biden said, had “created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election […] because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s.”

“He can’t accept he lost,” Biden said.

“So at this moment we must decide what kind of nation we are going to be," he said. “Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? […] 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. The way forward is to recognize the truth, and to live by it,” Biden said.

The president said efforts were underway to “rewrite history” about the election and the events of January 6, and said new laws were being written in “state after state” that aimed to suppress voting rights and “subvert” elections. “The former president and his supporters have decided the only way for them to win is to suppress your vote,” Biden said.

“You can’t love your country only when you win; You can’t obey the law only when it’s convenient; You can’t be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies,” the president continued.

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke first in the live broadcast, describing the “violence and chaos” of the day. “We cannot let our future be decided by those bent on silencing our voices, overturning our votes and pedaling lies and misinformation,” Harris said. Credit: The White House via Storyful