WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden blamed Donald Trump and his supporters Thursday for holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy” with election fraud claims that sparked last year’s deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, using the anniversary of the attack to warn that America’s system of government remains under urgent threat.
The president set the tone on a day of remembrance that brought fiery speeches, moments of silence and anguished accounts from lawmakers recalling the terrifying hours of Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters laid siege to the Capitol and rioters tried to stop the routine, ceremonial certification of election results.
Almost no Republicans joined Biden and the Democrats in what some hoped would be a day of reconciliation. Instead, it was a fresh and jarring display of a nation still deeply torn by the riot, by its unsettled aftermath and by Trump’s persisting grip on a large swath of the country. Leading up to the Capitol attack – and since – Trump has insisted widespread voter fraud cost him re-election, even though the claim was rejected by his own administration, the states, the courts, the Electoral College and eventually Congress.
“For the first time in our history, a president not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol,” Biden said. “You can’t love your country only when you win.”
Biden’s criticism of his predecessor was rife with condemnation for the assault that has fundamentally changed Congress and the nation and has raised global concerns about the future of American democracy.