Biden warns of US peril from Trump 'dagger'

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK－Officials and lawmakers in the United States on Thursday used the first anniversary of the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol to reflect on the "darkest day" for the country and the "fragility of democracy", as the country seems more divided than ever.

In a 25-minute address from Statuary Hall, where rioters had roamed a year earlier, US President Joe Biden said:"I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation. And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy."

Biden offered himself as a guardian of the US' democracy in the speech discussing the horrors of the Jan 6 insurrection that sought to overthrow his 2020 election victory. Former president Donald Trump's refusal to accept the reality of his defeat spawned a conspiracy that came close to shattering the nation's system of government and continues to ripple through society a year later, The Associated Press commented.

"I believe the power of the presidency and the purpose is to unite this nation, not divide it. To lift us up, not tear us apart," Biden said, accusing Trump of spreading a "web of lies" about the 2020 election.

"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 breached the Capitol. But they failed," Biden said. "And on this day of remembrance, we must make sure that such an attack never, never happens again."

To date, the US Justice Department has charged more than 720 individuals for storming the Capitol, and more than 150 rioters have pleaded guilty to charges, from assaulting police to felony obstruction, according to Bloomberg News. But on the anniversary of the attack, top Republicans were far more muted. Some acknowledged the terror of the day, but quickly pivoted to bashing Democrats. Many avoided observances planned at the Capitol. And there were still others that did not say anything at all.

The party's top congressional leaders were missing from Thursday's commemoration events at the Capitol. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did not make an appearance or issue a statement. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who delivered one of the sharpest denunciations of Trump after the attack, was in Atlanta for the funeral of former senator Johnny Isakson.

Former vice-president Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney, a Republican representative of Wyoming, were the only Republicans on the House floor for a moment of silence to mark one year since the Jan 6 attack, according to local media.

'Big lie'

Trump, said Biden in the speech, is not just a former president, but a defeated one whose "bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy".

He refuted Trump's "big lie"－three of them, actually－and efforts to continue to sow doubt about the conduct of an election that even the former president's own attorney general and judicial picks determined to be fair and free of significant misconduct.

He also mocked the self-described patriotism of those who attacked law enforcement and breached the Capitol, as well as that of the man who inspired them to do it. "You can't love your country only when you win," Biden said.

The anniversary marked Biden's most forceful condemnation of his predecessor, after a maiden year in office spent trying, often unsuccessfully, to avoid talking about "the former guy".

"I'm tired of talking about Donald Trump," he said four weeks into his presidency. "I don't want to talk about him anymore."

But moments after Biden's speech, Trump fired back with written statements from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

"This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact that Biden has completely and totally failed," Trump wrote. "The Democrats want to own this day of Jan 6th so they can stoke fears and divide America. I say. Let them have it because America sees through their lies and polarizations."

One year after the deadly attack on the Capitol, Democrats and Republicans still differ sharply over its key aspects, aftermath and the related congressional investigation, underscoring an increasingly partisan Congress, a more divided country and growing distrust in the democracy.

The country has not learned the lessons of the riot which led to multiple deaths, more than 100 injuries and damage to the Capitol, US experts warned. As US partisan politics continues to decay, they said the country still faces the risk of a repeated incident.

Xinhua - Agencies - China Daily