Biden prepares to mark a year since violent insurrection in US
6 January 2022, 08:04
There will be a series of remembrance events during the day.
President Joe Biden is preparing to mark the first anniversary of the US Capitol insurrection.
Mr Biden will gather with politicians to remember the violent attack that has fundamentally changed Congress and raised global concerns about the future of American democracy.
Marking the one-year anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, the president and congressional Democrats will start Thursday in Statuary Hall, one of several spots where rioters swarmed a year ago and interrupted the electoral count.
Mr Biden is expected to speak to the truth of what happened, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, and draw a contrast between that and “the lies some have spread since” – a reference to the continued refusal by many Republicans to affirm that Mr Biden won the 2020 election.
“I would expect that President Biden will lay out the significance of what happened at the Capitol and the singular responsibility president Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw,” Ms Psaki said during a press briefing.
A series of remembrance events during the day will be widely attended by Democrats, in person and virtually, but almost every Republican on Capitol Hill will be absent.
The division is a stark reminder of the divide between the two parties, worsening ever since hundreds of Donald Trump’s supporters violently pushed past police, used their fists and flagpoles to break through the windows of the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Mr Biden’s victory.
While congressional Republicans almost universally condemned the attack in the days afterward, most have stayed loyal to the former president.
In a bid to inform the public, Democrats investigating the insurrection plan to spend the coming months telling the American people exactly what happened on January 6. But leaders will spend the one-year anniversary appealing to broader patriotic instincts.
