President Joe Biden is decrying what he calls an “unrelenting effort” to downplay a mob of Donald Trump supporters overrunning the U.S. Capitol in an try to dam certification of the 2020 election — looking for to distinction that day’s chaos with what he guarantees will likely be an orderly transition returning Trump to energy for a second time period.
In an opinion piece revealed Sunday in The Washington Submit, Biden recalled Jan. 6, 2021, writing that “violent insurrectionists attacked the Capitol.”
“We must be proud that our democracy withstood this assault,” Biden wrote. “And we must be glad we is not going to see such a shameful assault once more this 12 months.”
Congress will convene amid snow in Washington on Monday to certify Trump’s victory in November’s election — in a session presided over by the candidate he defeated, Vice President Kamala Harris. No violence, and even procedural objections, are anticipated this time, marking a return to a U.S. custom that launches the peaceable switch of presidential energy.
That is regardless of Trump persevering with to disclaim that he misplaced to Biden in 2020, already musing publicly about staying past the Structure’s two-term White Home restrict, and promising to pardon a number of the greater than 1,250 individuals who’ve pleaded responsible or had been convicted of crimes for the Capitol siege.
In his opinion piece, Biden says of the certification course of, “After what all of us witnessed on Jan. 6, 2021, we all know we are able to by no means once more take it with no consideration.” He would not point out Trump instantly however says “an unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the historical past of that day.”
“To inform us we didn’t see what all of us noticed with our personal eyes,” Biden wrote. “We can’t permit the reality to be misplaced.”
He vowed that the “election will likely be licensed peacefully. I’ve invited the incoming president to the White Home on the morning of Jan. 20, and I will likely be current for his inauguration that afternoon,” regardless that Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
“However on this present day, we can’t overlook,” Biden added. “We should always decide to remembering Jan. 6, 2021, yearly. To recollect it as a day when our democracy was put to the take a look at and prevailed. To do not forget that democracy — even in America — isn’t assured.”
The revealed piece adopted Biden telling reporters on the White Home earlier Sunday that the historical past of what occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, “shouldn’t be rewritten” and including, “I don’t suppose it must be forgotten.”
Biden spent a lot of 2024 warning voters that Trump was a severe risk to the nation’s democracy. And this previous week, the president awarded the Presidential Residents Medal to Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson, leaders of the congressional investigation into the Capitol riot.
As he did along with his opinion piece, Biden used his Sunday feedback to reporters to emphasize that his administration is overseeing a peaceable handover of energy — not like the final one.
”I’ve reached out to verify the sleek transition,” Biden stated of Trump’s incoming administration. “We’ve obtained to get again to fundamental, regular switch of energy.”
Requested if he nonetheless considered his soon-to-be successor within the White Home as a risk to democracy, Biden responded, “I believe what he did was a real risk to democracy. I’m hopeful we’re past that now.”
