This event, of rare violence, claimed the lives of five people. Hundreds more had been injured.
America cannot accept that “political violence becomes the norm“. This is the warning that Joe Biden launches to his compatriots on Thursday, January 6, a year after the violent assault on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.
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“We have to decide today which nation we are going to be. Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as the norm? Are we going to be a nation that allows partisan officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are we going to be a nation that does not live in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies?“Asks Joe Biden, according to an excerpt from the speech that the American president must deliver to commemorate the events of January 6, 2021.”We can’t afford to be that kind of nation“, He launches in this passage communicated by the White House, a year after thousands of supporters of Donald Trump tried to prevent the certification of his election by the American Congress. The 79-year-old Democrat will speak at 2:00 p.m. GMT in the “hall of statuesFrom the Capitol, with Vice President Kamala Harris.
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The “responsibilityFrom Trump
It is in this same imposing framework that a year ago, the United States and the world, astonished, saw supporters of the former American president parading, while outside, other rioters s ‘attacked the police.
Joe Biden has long chosen to treat his predecessor with contempt, for example by refusing to name him in public. But this time, the American president is determined to speak publicly about the “special responsibilityDonald Trump in this outburst of violence, has already indicated the White House. Joe Biden “sees January 6 as tragic crowning achievement of what four years of Trump’s presidency has done to this country“, Declared its spokesperson Jen Psaki on Wednesday.
Does the president want to give a more serious, more political turn to a mandate that gives the impression of getting bogged down? After having focused for months on economic and social policy, the White House sees much of its hopes for reforms go up in smoke because of parliamentary blockage. The new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, inflation, the memory of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan: all of these elements which day after day undermine Joe Biden’s confidence rating.
SEE ALSO – Assault on the Capitol: a possible pursuit of Donald Trump? “There are a lot of obstructions to the board of inquiry“
Only 55% of Americans think this election is regular
Even more worrying: according to a very recent poll, only 55% of Americans believe he was elected regularly. Because Donald Trump’s speeches have made their way into people’s minds: the American billionaire continues to claim, without proof, that he is the real winner of the election. So of course, the Republican gave up speaking Thursday, no doubt aware that the press conference he wanted to give from his luxurious Florida residence would be too much of a provocation.
But the former president did not moderate his verb in any way. He again described Tuesday as “crime of the centuryThe fraud which, according to him, marred the presidential election of 2020. And in the Republican camp, few are those who dare to criticize aloud Donald Trump. Most Conservative Party leaders chose to keep a low profile Thursday.
Few like Karl Rove, former adviser to George W. Bush and for decades one of the great strategists of the Republican Party, unequivocally condemn the assault on Capitol Hill. “There can be no (…) absolution for those who planned, encouraged and aided in this attempt to overthrow the countryHe writes in the Wall Street Journal. But these extremely rare positions among Republicans risk being stifled by the most thunderous supporters of Donald Trump. For example, the elected member of the House of Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, who holds ultra-conservative positions on the right to abortion or firearms. She announced a press conference in Washington for, she promises, “expose the truth about January 6, 2021“.
“Precipice“
Leader of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, estimated in February 2021 that the former president was “morally responsibleOf the assault of January 6. But Thursday, he goes to a funeral in the southern United States, far from the ceremonies in Washington. “Our great nation is now reeling on the edge of an ever deeper precipice. Without immediate action, we are at serious risk of civil confrontation», Alarmed the former president Jimmy Carter, in a column published by the New York Times.
To this deeply divided nation, Joe Biden wants to propose a way forward to strengthen democracy. The president is trying in particular to revive legislation on minority access to the right to vote. He will travel for this purpose on Tuesday to the state of southern Georgia, emblematic of past and present battles for civil rights.
But Joe Biden faces conservative states that multiply legislation making it harder for African Americans to vote at the polls, a Supreme Court bearing the conservative mark of his predecessor, and a Congress Democrats control only a hair’s breadth of the thumb. , and that they could lose completely in the legislative elections next fall. The president’s leeway to save the “soulFrom America, as he promised during his campaign, seems very limited.
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