Today's politics recap
-
Speaking on the anniversary of the 6 January insurrection led by supporters of Donald Trump, Joe Biden denounced his predecessor for spreading a “web of lies” about the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Biden said that “for the first time in our history, the president had not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob reached the Capitol”.
- As Democrats led a day of events to commemorate the deadly insurrections, Republicans largely stayed out of sight – with many attending the funeral of former senator Johnny Isakson in Georgia. However, Liz Cheney, the co-chair of the House select committee investigating the insurrection, and Dick Cheney, her father and the former vice-president, attended remarks by House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
- Far-right extremists Matt Gaetz and Majorie Taylor Greene hosted an event during which they put forth unfounded conspiracy theories. They baselessly blamed Democrats and the Capitol Police for the deadly attack.
- Kamala Harris was inside the Democratic National Committee building on this day last year, when a pipe bomb was discovered outside, Politico reported. Harris’s evacuation from the DNC building was not previously known and raises questions about the then-vice-president-elect’s security on the day of the insurrection.
– Maanvi Singh
Updated
DHS warned of an increase in extremist content and threats ahead of insurrection anniversary
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has warned of an increase in extremist content and threats against US lawmakers in the days leading up to the anniversary of the 6 January insurrection, according to a memo obtained by the Guardian.
The memo, sent on Thursday to state and local law enforcement, said that DHS had no indication of a specific and credible plot, but that the agency and the FBI had “identified new content online that could inspire violence, particularly by lone offenders, and could be directed against political and other government officials, including members of Congress, state and local officials, and high-profile members of political parties, including in locations outside of [Washington DC]”.
John Cohen, the head of DHS’s office of intelligence and analysis, outlined a range of content on “extremist related platforms” that was concerning.
In one instance, an “unknown individual” posted a video online listing 95 members of Congress who, the video claimed, were involved in voting to certify the “fraudulent” presidential election, echoing far-right misinformation that has spread since last year. The video called for the Congress members to be hanged in front of the White House and was posted on a forum that hosts QAnon conspiracy theories and was reposted by Telegram users and on blogs. The video was viewed more than 60,000 times across platforms, the memo said. Cohen also warned of a separate posting that referenced 6 January “as an appropriate day to conduct assassinations against named Democratic political figures, including [the president], because of the perceived fraudulent election”.
The US Secret Service, the Capitol Police and the DC Metropolitan Police agencies were aware of the online activity and have initiated investigations “as appropriate”, Cohen wrote in the memo, adding that the Federal Protective Service had also expanded patrols in and around federal facilities across the US.
The memo comes amid reports of a sharp rise in threats against lawmakers over the last year. Earlier on Thursday, Joe Biden denounced Donald Trump for spreading a “web of lies” about the 2020 election and accused Trump and his allies of holding a “dagger at the throat of American democracy”.
Updated
Last year, a photo of New Jersey representative Andy Kim crouched down, cleaning up at the Capitol rotunda following the insurrection went viral.
One year later, Kim has shared an ode to the building that was rampaged by supporters of Donald Trump on 6 January 2021. “This building, the Capitol, it belongs to you. To all of us. It’s our job to take care of it,” he wrote.
My favorite room is the Rotunda. I believe it is the most beautiful room in the most beautiful building in America. Over the course of 3 yrs in Congress, I’ve taken hundreds of photos of this room and it never loses its magic. 8/16 pic.twitter.com/7DYdq7URuh
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) January 6, 2022
Updated
“We prayerfully mark one year since the insurrection and patriotically honor the heroes who defended the Capitol and our democracy that day,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at the brief vigil. “Let us all here join in a moment of silence in memory of those who lost their lives and sacrificed so much for our democracy that day.”
“We come before you because we need your help. We need your help in these troubled times. We need your help for this beloved nation,” Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church said. “We need your help for those who have been traumatized and troubled by the painful events of one year ago and all that has continued since.”
Members of Congress are now speaking outside the Capitol, ahead of a candlelit vigil to commemorate the deadly insurrection.
Updated
Last year, a Senate investigation found that the deadly insurrection was “planned in plain sight” but intelligence failures left lawmakers, staff and police officers vulnerable on 6 January.
Despite gathering online data about plots to storm the capitol since December 2020, poor planning and a lack of coordination ahead of 6 January meant that the warnings went unheeded. It is still unclear who planted the live, potentially deadly pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC that day.
Kamala Harris was inside the Democratic National Committee building on this day last year, when a pipe bomb was discovered outside, Politico reports.
From Politico:
Capitol Police began investigating the pipe bomb at 1:07 p.m., according to an official Capitol Police timeline of events obtained by POLITICO. The timeline says that Capitol Police and the Secret Service evacuated an unnamed “protectee” at approximately 1:14 p.m, seven minutes later. The four people, among them a White House official and a former law enforcement official, confirmed that Harris was the Secret Service protectee identified in the timeline, which has circulated on Capitol Hill.
Harris’ presence inside the building while a bomb was right outside raises sobering questions about her security that day. It also raises the chilling prospect that the riots could have been far more destructive than they already were, with the incoming vice president’s life directly endangered. Federal law enforcement officials have faced harsh criticism for failing to anticipate the chaotic scene around the Electoral College certification one year ago, despite receiving a host of warnings about possible chaos.
Harris’s evacuation from the DNC building has not been previously reported, though she has alluded to her absence from the Capitol during the insurrection.
Updated
Historians mark 6 January with urgent warning on threats to US democracy
Some of America’s most prominent historians gave an urgent warning about the state of American democracy as they gathered on Capitol Hill on Thursday to commemorate the 6 January insurrection.
Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham condemned the attack on the Capitol, which was carried out by a group of former president Donald Trump’s supporters to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
They warned that the US remained at a crucial turning point amid ongoing threats to its democratic systems.
“What you saw a year ago today was the worst instincts of both human nature and American politics,” Meacham said. “And it’s either a step on the way to the abyss or it is a call to arms figuratively for citizens to engage.”
Echoing Meacham’s message, Goodwin argued that this moment represents an opportunity for Americans to rededicate themselves to the cause of democracy, citing the example set by those who fought for the Union in the civil war and marched for civil rights in the 1960’s.
“We’ve come through these really tough times before,” Goodwin said. “We’ve had lots of people who were willing to step up and put their public lives against their private lives. And that’s what we’ve got to depend on today. That’s what we need in these years and months ahead.”
The historians’ comments came as many Americans, particularly those who support Trump, continue to deny the dark reality of the Capitol insurrection.
Only about 4 in 10 Republicans describe the 6 January attack as very violent or extremely violent, according to a recent AP-NORC poll. About 30% of Republicans say the insurrection was not violent at all, while another 30% say it was only somewhat violent.
Read more:
‘I was there’: Democrat recalls horror and fury on day of Capitol attack
It was a visceral cry at the moment of maximum peril for American democracy.
A furious mob had overrun police and was nearly at the door of the House of Representatives. Inside the chamber, Republican Paul Gosar was launching a spurious challenge to Joe Biden’s election victory in Arizona.
Then, at the back of the gallery on the second floor, Democrat Dean Phillips rose to his feet and screamed at the top of his lungs at Gosar: “This is because of you!”
The outburst was out of character for a “Minnesota nice” congressman with a reputation for moderation and working across the aisle. But a year later, Phillips remains convinced it was an urgent and necessary response to the deadly insurrection inspired by then president Donald Trump.
“It’s not my style to break decorum and to scream,” he told the Guardian, “but I have to say at that moment I felt the way that tens of millions of Americans did, which is there were people responsible for what was about to transpire and there are moments where you do what you got to do, and I had to do it. I don’t regret it one bit because it’s true.”
Phillips, 52, comes from a business background. He led a family-owned distillery – producing vodka, gin, rum and other liquors – and ice cream company. He was elected to Congress in 2018, representing Minnesota’s third congressional district, and is vice chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
“I never imagined I’d be doing this,” he admits. “I woke up the morning after the 2016 election, saw the reaction of my daughters, who were 18 and 16 at that time – their fear, their tears – and I promised them right then and there I would do something, and here I am.”
Read more:
Today so far
- Joe Biden spoke forcefully on the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, blaming the insurrection on Donald Trump and his “web of lies”. But it’s up to the justice department to determine any actual consequences for the former president, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.Donald Trump issued a number of responses to Biden’s speech, to which Psaki replied, “Well, it looks like he saw the speech. I guess that’s good news. Maybe he learned something.”
-
Very few Republicans made appearances at commemoration events today - many were attending the funeral of former senator Johnny Isakson in Georgia. But congresswoman Liz Cheney and her father, former vice-president Dick Cheney, were the exception when they attended House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s remarks.
Former VP Dick Cheney had strong words for how current GOP leaders have responded to the Capitol attack that took place one year ago:
— Ali Zaslav (@alizaslav) January 6, 2022
“It's not leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years.” pic.twitter.com/usUaSzK0gM
Asked about the treatment of his daughter Liz from their party, former VP Dick Cheney replied: “My daughter can take care of herself.”
— Ali Zaslav (@alizaslav) January 6, 2022
He later added that he came to the Capitol today, on 1/6, to “support Liz” pic.twitter.com/ruHB2Px0fV
- Far-right extremists Matt Gaetz and Majorie Taylor Greene were the only Republicans to actually host an event today. It was only to put forth unfounded conspiracy theories.
Updated
Far-right congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene appears to have changed her tune - once again - about the events of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
At the press conference with congressman Matt Gaetz to announce unfounded conspiracy theories, she said she was “very upset with what happened that day”.
GOP GA Rep Greene on 1/6 riot: I was very upset with what happened that day, and it was because it completely interrupted the work that we had worked very hard on all throughout Christmas, preparing for January 6th to object on behalf of Americans.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 6, 2022
Previously, Greene referred to 6 January as the Republicans’ “1776 moment” in reference to the American revolution.
In October, while talking about the 6 January attack, she said, “If you think about what our Declaration of Independence says, it says to overthrow tyrants.”
The only Republican event commemorating the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol was hosted by far-right extremists Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Big disclaimer: none of the following is backed by evidence or facts.
The presser is just Gaetz insinuating feds caused the entire riot
— Arthur Delaney 🇺🇸 (@ArthurDelaneyHP) January 6, 2022
One year ago today Gaetz said it was antifa. He has graduated to pointing to people in videos and speculating they are feds. That’s it.
— Arthur Delaney 🇺🇸 (@ArthurDelaneyHP) January 6, 2022
Speaking to Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in a conversation on Capitol Hill, historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham argued that the 6 January insurrection demonstrated the need for Americans to defend their democracy.
Meacham described the events of 6 January as “the worst instincts of both human nature and American politics”. “The reality of American life is that we have to defend this experiment,” Meacham said.
Goodwin expressed hope that pro-democracy Americans will have the opportunity to “write the chapter of our story,” citing the example set by those who fought for the Union in the Civil War and marched for civil rights in the 1960’s.
“We’ve come through these really tough times before,” Goodwin said.
“We’ve had lots of people who were willing to step up and put their public lives against their private lives. And that’s what we’ve got to depend on today. That’s what we need in these years and months ahead.”
A group of historians is now holding a conversation on Capitol Hill about the significance of the 6 January insurrection and the importance of preserving American democracy.
The conversation is moderated by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, and she is joined by prominent historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham.
Introducing the three experts, House speaker Nancy Pelosi underscored the need to set the record straight about the violent insurrection, which resulted in the deaths of five people.
“One year later, it is essential that we do not allow anyone to rewrite history or whitewash the gravity of what took place,” the Democratic speaker said.
“It is our duty to find the facts of January 6 to ensure that such an assault on our democracy cannot happen again.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was questioned about the lack of Republicans participating in today’s commemorations for the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. She responded that the question would be better asked of the Republicans.
“We’re talking about some Republicans in Congress - not all, but many, far too many, in our view and in the president’s view - who need to take a look at themselves and what role they want to play in the history books,” she said. “When their children and grandchildren look at the history books, do they want to be perpetuating the big lie? Do they want to be walking like silent lemmings behind the former president, who fomented an insurrection? Or do they want to be part of saving our democracy?”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked what Joe Biden’s forceful speech means for the justice department investigation into the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
Critics have been unhappy with attorney general Merrick Garland - in particular, many had been hoping Garland’s speech yesterday would have been more like the president’s speech today in clearly laying blame for the attack at the feet of Donald Trump.
Psaki made clear that any criminal consequences that Trump may face will be up to the justice department, which acts independently of the Biden administration. No matter what Biden said today, “the president wants the justice department and the attorney general to act independently, as the attorney general demanded when he accepted the job and as the president expected and demanded from any attorney general he was going to select,” Psaki said.
Vice-president Kamala Harris has drawn some criticism from conservatives for naming the 6 January attack on the US Capitol along with the attack on Pearl Harbor and 9/11 as some of the darkest days for American democracy.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded today that even on the darkest days in US history, “there were no Confederate flags being waved in the Capitol” - members of the mob proudly waved a Confederate flag in the Capitol after they breached the gates, something even Confederate soldiers weren’t ever able to do during the American civil war.
“In very dark moments in our history, there were not people storming our nation’s Capitol, trying to take over the office and threatening the speaker of the House,” Psaki said. “For those who are being critics of the vice president’s remark, instead of focusing or analyzing comparisons of moments in history, I would suggest they be a part of solving the threat to democracy that is happening today.”
Joe Biden will speak about voter rights next week, an issue that Democrats say is our the next great challenge facing our democracy. Lawmakers like senate majority leader Chuck Schumer have tied the events of the 6 January attack to the attack on voter rights across the country.
A big hurdle for passing nationalized voter rights protections is the filibuster, a parliamentary tool that Republicans have used repeatedly to block legislation. Schumer has set a deadline of 17 January, Martin Luther King Jr Day, for holding a vote to change the rules of the filibuster, but has yet to detail exactly what that would mean.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that Biden will speak more on the issue on Tuesday, but has already stated his support for changing filibuster rules “if that is a change that needs to happen”.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki fielded a question about how Joe Biden never referred to Donald Trump by name in his forceful speech laying blame on his predecessor for the events of the 6 January attack of the US Capitol.
“There’s only one president in the history of this country that fomented an insurrection which prompted the seizing of our nation’s Capitol. I think everybody knew who he was referring to,” Psaki said.
“But as the president said today this day and the work we need to do moving forward is not about one person. It’s about the country reflecting on who we are in this moment, who we want to be moving forward, and what steps we need to take to protect our own democracy.”
When asked for comment on Trump’s response to the speech, Psaki responded, “Well, it looks like he saw the speech. I guess that’s good news. Maybe he learned something.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki has taken the podium for today’s press briefing, and is immediately asked why now Joe Biden is going so hard at Donald Trump.
This briefing is taking place mere hours after Biden squarely blamed Trump and his debunked lies about election fraud for the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
“The president launched his campaign on the idea that the former president posed a unique threat to our country,” Psaki said. “We’d argue that he never shied away from making clear that his predecessor posed a threat to democracy throughout the course of his presidency.”
Psaki continued: “We are at an inflection point, in order to protect our democracy, to preserve it going forward, there is more we need to do. He made very clear that the risk we have at stake here is our democracy, burying what happened on January 6 and not taking action to protect people’s fundamental rights.”
On the one-year anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, Joe Biden accused his predecessor, Donald Trump, of being the first president in US history to try to “prevent a peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol.”
Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney has had a tumultuous year in the Republican party following the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
She was ousted from her leadership position in the Republican caucus over her refusal to stop blaming Donald Trump for inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol, and the Wyoming Republican party stopped recognizing her as a member after she voted to impeach him because of 6 January.
It appears it got tense with her party even earlier though - the day of the 6 January attack. Cheney has now confirmed to the New York Times one infamous tidbit from that day: when she told her Republican colleague and staunch Trump ally congressman Jim Jordan that he “fucking did this”.
Jordan had been standing in the aisle as members of Congress were being escorted away from the mob and he said to Cheney: “We need to get the ladies away from the aisle. Let me help you.”
To which she sharply replied: “Get away from me. You fucking did this.”
She confirms a now infamous moment from Jan 6th. pic.twitter.com/5v0lU5CN7S
— Michael Barbaro (@mikiebarb) January 6, 2022
Donald Trump has issued another statement in response to the speech that Joe Biden gave today commemorating the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
Once again, much of the statement is the former president repeating the disproven claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and that “they’re the ones who tried to stop the peaceful transfer with a rigged election” - a statement that is not only false, because once again, all allegations that the election was rigged have been disproven, but makes no sense because had Trump won like he wanted to happen, there would not have been a transfer of power? He also does not specify who means by “they”.
“To watch Biden speaking is very hurtful to many people,” he said.
Nancy Pelosi commented on the large amount of Republicans that did not show up to remarks on the Capitol attacks of 6 January 2021.
While speaking to a reporter from Business Insider about the lack of Republican attendance at today’s remarks, the House speaker said: “I think the message was very clear, by the president of the United States.”
“I think the message was very clear, by the President of the United States,” @SpeakerPelosi tells me after I asked what her message is for Republicans who didn’t show up for today’s Jan 6 events.
— bryan metzger (@metzgov) January 6, 2022
Wyoming representative Liz Cheney and her father, former vice-president Dick Cheney, were the only Republicans present for Pelosi’s speech compared with about 32 Democrats.
Pelosi acknowledged during her speech that Covid-19 greatly reduced the number of Congress members attending her remarks in-person.
As @SpeakerPelosi reads the prayer, the GOP side of the House is nearly empty. (The Cheneys are an exception.) It is a down week, of course, but it is inescapable difference as you look at the floor. I now count 32 Democrats.
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) January 6, 2022
.@SpeakerPelosi now on the floor greeting former VP Cheney who was standing next to his daughter @RepLizCheney - the only two Republicans seen in the House chamber for the moment of silence.
— David Chalian (@DavidChalian) January 6, 2022
Updated
Nancy Pelosi gives remarks on Capitol attack
Nancy Pelosi has just finished delivering remarks on the events of 6 January 2021.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi leads chamber in moment of silence for “fallen heroes,” officers who died in wake of Jan. 6 assault on U.S. Capitol. https://t.co/3n2Q6Ah47S pic.twitter.com/RY27MxqAoZ
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 6, 2022
The House speaker’s remarks began with a prayer from the House chaplain, Margaret Kibben, who spoke on the political turmoil following 6 January.
“On this anniversary of national discord and despair, send your healing spirit among us and tend to the dispiritedness and disagreement here within and around the people’s house,” said Kibben.
Pelosi then gave remarks, honoring personnel on the ground who helped protect members of Congress during the attack.
“As we acknowledge the horror of that day, in the face of extreme danger, they all risked their safety for our democracy by protecting the Capitol complex, members, staff, press, etc,” said Pelosi.
Pelosi also conducted a moment of silence to remember those who died on 6 January.
A live stream is available at the top of the blog.
Updated
Interim summary
- On the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, Joe Biden placed the blame for the day’s events on Donald Trump.
Last year, for the first time in our history, a president who just lost an election tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol.
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 6, 2022
But they failed.
And on this day of remembrance we must make sure that such an attack never happens again.
Here is the truth: The former president of the United States has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election.
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 6, 2022
He’s done so because he values power over principle. Because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or Constitution.
You can’t love your country only when you win.
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 6, 2022
You can't obey the law only when it's convenient.
You can't be patriotic when you embrace or enable lies.
- Donald Trump responded by saying Biden “used my name today to try to further divide America”.
- The House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol believes former vice-president Mike Pence will cooperate with their inquiry.
Updated
House speaker Nancy Pelosi will be delivering remarks commemorating the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol today at 12pm local time. We’ll have a livestream here.
Joe Biden answered the question on why he never called Donald Trump by name in his speech on the anniversary of the 6 January attack of the US Capitol, despite having very strong words to say about him in blaming him for the attack.
“It’s not about me. It’s not about the vice-president. That’s what bothers me most about the attitude that’s emerging in American politics,” Biden told reporters. “It’s not about whether I’m president, or she’s vice-president. It’s about the system, and about if somebody decides to put himself above everything.”
Q: "Why didn't you mention President Trump by name?"
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 6, 2022
President Biden: "I did not want to turn it into a contemporary political battle between me and the president. It's way beyond that. It's way beyond that." pic.twitter.com/5INA64BvoD
Updated
Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, said the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol was like “Christmas” for New York and Washington-based media.
“The DC-New York media, I mean, this is their Christmas, January 6, OK?” he told New York Times reporter Patricia Mazzei. “They are going to take this and milk this for anything they could to try and to try to be able to smear anyone anyone who ever supported Donald Trump.”
Reminder that many members of the DC press corps were in the Capitol when the mob stormed the gates and had to hide for their lives. Journalists were assaulted and harassed that day, with insurrectionists making nooses out of camera cords and scratching “Murder the Media” into a door at the Capitol.
Donald Trump has responded to Joe Biden and his strong words blaming him for the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
Biden “used my name today to try to further divide America,” Trump said - even though Biden did not once mention Trump by name in his speech.
“The Democrats want to own this day of January 6th so they can stoke fears and divide America. I say, let them have it because America sees through theirs [sic] lies and polarizations.”
The Associated Press has collected a sampling of what some of the insurrectionists who stormed the US Capitol in the 6 January attack are saying as they face prison time or are pleading guilty.
Some, like Robert Palmer of Florida, directly blame Donald Trump for misleading them, while others remain defiant.
“I have realized that we, meaning Trump supporters, were lied to by those that at the time had great power, meaning the then sitting President, as well as those acting on his behalf,” Palmer wrote in a handwritten letter.
“They kept spitting out the false narrative about a stolen election and how it was ‘our duty’ to stand up to tyranny. Little did I realize that they were the tyrannical ones desperate to hold on to power at any cost, even by creating the chaos they knew would happen with such rhetoric.”
Palmer was sentenced to more than five years in prison for throwing a fire extinguisher and attacking police officers.
“My conservative creed still remains the same. However, the system of governance, a constitutional republic, and the processes in place for deciding who sits in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk transcends any one candidate or party,” wrote Devlyn Thompson in a handwritten letter. “That peaceful transfer of power and the method set out for achieving it are worthy of protection. My message to fellow conservatives, or any American dissenting with the current administration, is that we must continue our work within the confines of the system and condemn the actions on January 6th as atrocious.”
Thompson, of Seattle, pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer with a baton and was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.
“The only plan I had was to go to the White House Ellipse to listen to President Trump’s speech. He said during his speech that he would be going to the capitol after he spoke and he asked us to walk there together after his speech,” Valerie Elaine Ehrke wrote in a letter to the court. “I left his speech early to walk back to my hotel room because I was cold. Once back in my room, I saw on the news that people where (sic) at the capitol building. ... Having travelled a long way to attend this rally, I decided to put on an extra layer of clothing and walk to the capitol.”
Trump never went to the Capitol that day. Ehrke, of California, was sentenced to three years’ probation.
Former president Barack Obama issued a statement on the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol to warn that “our democracy is at greater risk today than it was back then”.
“Although initially rejected by many Republicans, the claims that fanned the flames of violence on January 6th have since been embraced by a sizeable portion of voters and elected officials – many of whom know better,” Obama said in the statement. “State legislatures across the country have not only made it harder to vote, but some have tried to assert power over core election processes including the ability to certify election results. And those remaining Republican officials and thought leaders who have courageously stood their ground and rejected such anti-democratic efforts have been ostracized, primaried, and driven from the party.”
One year ago, a violent attack on our Capitol made it clear just how fragile the American experiment in democracy really is. Here’s my statement on what the anniversary means, and what we need to do today. pic.twitter.com/9rjbjPLwLH
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 6, 2022
Joe Biden ended his speech on the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol with an oft-repeated phrase of his: that we are in a “battle for the soul of America”.
“We are in a battle for the soul of America, a battle that by the grace of God and the goodness and greatness of this nation, we will win,” he said. “I know how difficult democracy is. I’m crystal clear about the threats that America faces. But I also know that our darkest days can lead to light and hope.”
Joe Biden called the actions of the insurrectionists and Donald Trump “un-American”.
“They want to rule or they will ruin, ruin what our country fought for at Lexington and Concord, at Gettysburg, and Omaha Beach, Seneca Falls and Selma, Alabama, and what we’re fighting for now: The right to vote. The right to govern ourselves. The right to determine our own destiny,” Biden said.
“With rights come responsibilities. The responsibility to see each other as neighbors. Maybe we disagree with that neighbor, but they’re not an adversary. The responsibility to accept defeat, and then get back in the arena and try again the next time to make your case. The responsibility to see that America is an idea, an idea that requires vigilant stewardship.”
Updated
Joe Biden is hammering hard on Donald Trump in his speech on the one-year anniversary of the 6 January attack of the US Capitol, but it may be necessary. In going hard at Trump, he is going hard at the “big lie” of widespread election fraud and that Biden didn’t really win the election - which has been disproven time and time again.
But even though this lie has been disproven time and time again, more than 40% of Americans still do not believe that Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election.
“He’s not just the former president,” Biden said of Trump. “He’s the defeated former president, defeated by more than 7m of your votes, in a full and free and fair election. There is simply zero proof the election results were inaccurate. In fact, in every venue where evidence had to be produced, where oaths of truth had to be taken, the former president failed to make his case.
Biden continued: “Just think about this: the former president and his supporters have never been able to explain how they accept as accurate the other election results on November 3, elections for governor, United states senator, House of Representatives, elections where they closed the gap in the house. They challenged none of that.”
Updated
Biden: Trump 'has created and spread a web of lies'
Joe Biden continued to go strong against Donald Trump in his speech on the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol:
“The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election,” Biden said.
“He has done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interests as more important than his country’s interests. Because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our constitution.
“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 in every battleground state have said: he lost. That’s what 81 million of you did when you voted for a new way forward.”
Updated
Biden lays responsibility of 6 January attack on Trump
Joe Biden has taken the podium to speak on the anniversary of the 6 January attack of the US Capitol, and he immediately comes out strong in laying the responsibility of the mob’s actions on Donald Trump.
“One year ago today in this sacred place, democracy was attacked,” Biden said. “The will of the people was under assault. The constitution, our constitution, faced the gravest of threats.”
Biden continued: “For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election, he tried to prevent a peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol”.
Updated
Vice-president Kamala Harris said she tells young people that she meets that the 6 January attack “reflects the dual nature of democracy: its fragility and its strength”.
“You see, the strength of democracy is the rule of law,” she said. “The strength of democracy is the principle that everybody is to be treated equally, that elections should be free and fair, that corruption should be given no order. The strength of democracy is that it empowers the people. The fragility of democracy is this: if we are not vigilant, if we don’t defend it, democracy will not stand. It will falter. And it will fall.”
Vice-president Kamala Harris has taken the podium to speak about the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. Harris was vice-president-elect on that day, but she was also a senator. Though she had left the building at the time the mob breeched the gates, she spoke of how her staff was forced to convert “filing cabinets into barricades.”
Harris said the day now lives on as one of the worst days in American history along with attack on Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
“What the extremists who roamed these halls targeted was not just the lives of elected leaders,” Harris said. “What they sought to degrade and destroy was not only a building, hallowed as it is. What they were assaulting were the institutions, the values, the ideas that generations of Americans have marched, picketed and shed blood to establish and defend.”
Updated
Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris are preparing to speak to the American public from National Statuary Hall, just south of the rotunda that was invaded and besmirched by rioters during the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
We’ll have a livestream for you here on this blog.
Updated
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has used his statement on the 6 January attack on the US Capitol - “was a dark day for Congress and our country” - to throw a potshot at the Democrats.
“It has been stunning to see some Washington Democrats try to exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predated this event,” McConnell said in a statement. “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.”
Democrats like senate majority leader Chuck Schumer have been tying the insurrection - in which supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election result of Joe Biden’s victory - to the Republican attack on voter rights across the country.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine has more on what Republicans have done across the country in terms of voting restrictions:
Meanwhile, here is what McConnell said about the insurrection, one year ago:
Remember what Republican leaders said before amnesia set in. I took notes that night:
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) January 5, 2022
Mitch McConnell (Jan6): "The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people...They tried to disrupt our democracy, they failed…This failed insurrection.” THREAD
Senator McConnell: “Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty. There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) January 5, 2022
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer was on CBS reflecting on the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, when he was “within 30ft of those rioters”. He recounted how a Capitol police officer in bulletproof vest, carrying a sub-machine gun, grabbed him by the collar and said: “Senator, we are in danger”.
“When democracy is in danger, it often starts with a mob,” Schumer said. “Not everyone is part of the mob, but people excuse the mob. People egg on the mob. Donald Trump is still doing it, and we’re seeing violence still right now, threats of violence, against election workers, poll workers, across the country.”
“If we don’t believe in the integrity of our elections, what happens to our democracy?": @SenSchumer says he is worried about Americans’ mistrust in future elections — and some lawmakers’ willingness to forget last year’s violent attack on the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/udLMAJrqSl
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) January 6, 2022
Updated
An interesting tidbit coming out of the Today Show interview with Liz Cheney, the vice-chair of the special House committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, is that she said she is looking forward to former vice-president Mike Pence cooperating with the committee – as well as continuing the cooperation the committee has been having with Pence’s team.
“Former vice-president Pence was a hero on January 6,” Cheney said. “He refused the pressures of the former president, he did his duty and the nation should be very grateful for the actions he took that day. We look forward to continuing the cooperation we’ve had from members of the former vice president’s team and look forward to his cooperation.”
As former vice-president, Pence was serving as president of the Senate one year ago when the insurrectionists stormed the Capitol. He had been unwilling to go along with Donald Trump and his plan to commandeer Pence’s largely ceremonial role at the joint session of Congress for the certification of the 2020 presidential election result of Joe Biden’s victory.
That day, Trump supporters chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” and Pence was evacuated along with other high-ranking members of Congress. But later, Pence has done his best to not talk about the attack – or speak ill of Trump whatsoever, staying consistent along party lines.
Updated
Here’s more from Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the special House committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, who was on the Today Show this morning.
She told Savannah Guthrie that our institutions “only held because of people who were willing to stand up against the pressure from former president Trump, people in his own Department of Justice ... elected officials at the state level who stood up to him and the law enforcement officers here at the Capitol.”
“We came very close, and we need to recognize how important it is that the system depends on individuals and that it never happens again,” Cheney said.
Guthrie asked Cheney if she thought our democracy was still in a fragile state. Cheney replied, “The threat continues.”
“Donald Trump continues to make the same claims that he knows caused violence on January 6 and it’s very important, if you look at what’s happening in my own party, the Republican party, rather than reject what happened on the 6th, reject the lies about the election and make clear that a president who engaged in those activities can never be president again – unfortunately, too many in my own party are embracing the former president, looking the other way and refusing to minimize the danger,” Cheney said. “That’s how democracies die and we simply cannot let that happen.”
Updated
Liz Cheney: Trump’s conduct on day of attack was ‘a supreme dereliction of duty’
Hello, live blog readers.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of one of the worst days in US history: the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. The day a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election result of Joe Biden’s victory – clashing with police, destroying property and leaving five people dead.
In his remarks from the Capitol steps today, Biden is expected to lay out the “singular responsibility” that Trump has for the “chaos and carnage” of that day, according to the White House.
Though his attorney general, Merrick Garland, may have disappointed some critics calling for swifter and harsher justice – in particular for the former president – with his speech yesterday detailing the justice department investigation, Biden’s strong stance against Trump is sure to draw him favors. Biden has been “clear-eyed” about the “threat the former president represents to our democracy”, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said in a briefing on Wednesday.
The Guardian’s David Smith has more here:
Meanwhile, Liz Cheney, the vice-chair of the special House committee investigating the 6 January insurrection said live this morning that the committee looks forward to the cooperation of former vice-president Mike Pence – who had to be evacuated from the chambers that day, as many in the mob were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence”.
She also said said Trump’s conduct on the day was “a supreme dereliction of duty”.
Updated
