‘Democracy was attacked’: Biden, Harris speak on anniversary of Capitol riot

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden delivered a blistering speech Thursday that laid the blame of the violent Capitol insurrection, one year ago, squarely at the feet of Donald Trump.

Biden’s remarks marked the one-year anniversary of the attack on the Capitol. He spoke in Statuary Hall, just outside the House chamber, which was ransacked by a mob trying to stop congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election.

“For the first time in our history, a president not just lost an election, he tried to prevent a peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol,” Biden said.

Without mentioning Trump by name, Biden said the “defeated former president” incited the insurrection and then watched on television at the White House as his supporters clubbed and assaulted Capitol Police.

“We must never let that happen again,” Biden said.

The actions have left the country in “a battle for the soul of America,” the president said.

“I did not seek this fight brought to the Capitol one year ago today, but I will defend this nation. And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy,” Biden said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking before Biden in Statuary Hall, said misinformation about the 2020 election and the events of Jan. 6 called for voting rights laws to defend democracy from threats that remain.

“We must pass voting rights bills,” Harris said.

Congressional Democrats observed the day with events, testimonials and a prayer vigil.

Republicans condemned the violence that occurred a year ago, but most avoided public appearances or statements that countered Trump’s continued insistence that the 2020 election was a result of voter fraud, a charge found baseless in lawsuits filed in key electoral states where he lost.

Cheney lone Republican

Some GOP lawmakers have sought to recast the violent insurrection as a more benign event, where protesters were exercising their First Amendment rights, until things got out of hand.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney and himself a former Republican congressman from Wyoming, were the only Republicans to attend a House ceremony led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Liz Cheney is also one of two Republicans on a House bipartisan select committee investigating the insurrection and Trump’s role in inciting the riot to block Congress from certifying the election.

She has been pilloried by Trump and GOP officials in Wyoming for participating on the panel.

Following the House ceremony, Liz Cheney said it was concerning no other GOP members were there, but reflective of the state of the Republican Party.

“Look, I think that a party who is enthralled to a cult of personality is a party that is dangerous for the country. And I think that we’ve really got to get to a place where we’re focused on substance and on issues of policy,” Liz Cheney told reporters.

When asked about GOP leadership’s reaction to the Jan. 6 insurrection, Dick Cheney told reporters: “Well, it’s not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years.”

Deadly attack

The Jan. 6 attack resulted in five deaths, including a Capitol Police officer who was attacked with bear spray. Four other officers who survived the riot later committed suicide.

FBI agents and law enforcement officers in nearly every state arrested a total of 725 people on a range of charges.

Three men from Nevada are currently in jail awaiting trial on felony charges that include assault. More suspects nationwide are being sought.

Two of the Nevada suspects brought weapons to the Capital region, but left them in a hotel room on the day of the insurrection, according to Justice Department charging documents.

All three were identified on surveillance video taken inside the Capitol, as well as on social media posts.

‘Disgraceful scene’

In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., condemned the violence of Jan. 6 and said it was carried out by criminals. He called it a dark day for Congress and the country.

“This disgraceful scene was antithetical to the rule of law,” McConnell said.

But McConnell also accused Democrats of using the anniversary for political gain.

“As I said yesterday, 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.

McConnell and other Republican senators were in Georgia on Thursday for the funeral of former Sen. Johnny Isakson.

Lawmakers in both political parties, including Nevada’s congressional delegation, were shaken by the violence of Trump supporters who carried Confederate flags, donned tactical gear and shouted racial epithets as they beat police, smashed windows, stormed the Capitol and rifled through offices.

Outside the Capitol a gallows was erected, with a noose; inside, the mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”

Vice President Pence had rejected Trump’s command to throw out the electoral votes.

Nevada senators in jeopardy

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., was on the Senate floor that day when she and other senators were whisked away by Capitol Police as rioters were outside the chamber.

Watching in disbelief the breach of the Capitol on TV from her office, Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and her staff barricaded office doors with furniture as mobs roamed hallways.

Cortez Masto recalled in a floor speech Thursday how senators from both parties had the foresight to protect the ballots to be certified.

She said Democrats, Republicans and staff were “grabbing those electoral votes. And we started going up and down stairs, through hallways, up and down stairs, through hallways, until we could get to a secure location.”

Rosen recalled that the day ended with senators doing their duty.

“We stood in that Senate chamber and we didn’t let that insurrection take that away from us,” Rosen said of the unity to certify the presidential election with Biden as winner.

Rosen said the anniversary, however, was also a somber event to remember those who lost their lives last year.

Following the riot, the House voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection. He was acquitted by the Senate, where a two-thirds majority was needed to convict.

Trump replies

In a rambling response to Biden’s speech, Trump issued a statement accusing the president of using the anniversary to distract from Biden’s policy failures. Trump also repeated the baseless claim that the presidential election was “rigged.”

Lawsuits claiming voter fraud and filed by the Republican Party and Trump supporters in swing states, including Nevada, were dismissed by federal judges in every case.

Cortez Masto, in her floor speech, said Trump supporters filed five lawsuits in Nevada claiming election fraud, all of which were dismissed.

She said there was no “widespread voter fraud in Nevada in the year 2020.”

As night fell on the Capitol, lawmakers led by Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., held a candlelight prayer vigil and observed a moment of silence for those who died.

The small vigil was held on the front steps of the Capitol.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.