Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
President Joe Biden’s half-hour speech on the anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol will likely be remembered less for the time he spent attempting to rally the nation around shared ideals and more for the strident criticism he aimed at former President Donald Trump.
Biden gave one of the more energetic, impassioned speeches of his presidency and spoke of the importance of defending democracy and the American way. However, it was his biting criticism of Trump that carried the headlines after the speech’s conclusion. Biden never mentioned Trump by name, only referring to him as “the former President.”
“For the first time in our history, a President had not just lost an election,” Biden said, “he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob reached the Capitol. But they failed. They failed. And on this day of remembrance, we must make sure that such an attack never, never happens again.”
Biden later added, “Because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution, he can’t accept he lost.”
The current President returned to one of his favored slogans from the 2020 campaign as he stated that a battle was being waged “for the soul of America” and cast Trump and Trump supporters as nagging dangers to the United States.
“A former President of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election,” Biden said. “He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s interest and America’s interest.”
Biden later added, “The former President and his supporters have decided the only way for them to win is to suppress your vote and subvert our elections. It’s wrong. It’s undemocratic. And frankly it’s un-American.”
At one point in the speech, Biden promised to not allow anyone to “place a dagger at the throat of democracy” and that he’d ensure “the will of the people is heard, that the battle prevails, not violence, that authority of this nation will always be peacefully transferred.”
In her brief speech commemorating the attacks and introducing Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris took a different approach. She never mentioned President Trump, by name or title, and chose only to rail more broadly against “extremists” and “forces who seek to dismantle.”
“What was at stake then, and now, is the right to have our future decided the way the Constitution prescribes it: by we, the people — all the people,” Harris said. “We cannot let our future be decided by those bent on silencing our voices, overturning our votes, and peddling lies and misinformation; by some radical faction that may be newly resurgent but whose roots run old and deep.”
As of this writing, former President Trump had not responded to Biden’s remarks. Two days ago, he cancelled his own Jan. 6 press conference, citing “the total bias and dishonesty of the January 6th Unselect Committee of Democrats, two failed Republicans, and the Fake News Media.”
Thursday’s speech was one of many events scheduled as federal lawmakers commemorate the Jan. 6 riots. A prayer vigil is scheduled for later today.
USA Today’s Matthew Brown and Sean Rossman provide a full transcript of President Biden’s Speech here.