A year after storming the Washington Capitol, President Joe Biden delivered his most notable speech to date. He criticized and dissected Trump’s big lie in sharp words.
President Joe Biden was belligerent when he addressed the Capitol on January 6.
The time and the place were made for an important speech by the American President. A year after the storming of the Capitol, Joe Biden vowed at the same spot where angry Trump supporters tried to violently prevent a peaceful change of power: “I will defend this nation.” Without naming his predecessor, he repeatedly attacked Trump personally: “He’s not just a former president. He is a defeated former president. “
Biden, who had to work off his stuttering at a young age, is not a great rhetorician. Often he gets tangled up, swallows words and remains aloof. But on Thursday he gave probably his most remarkable and emotional speech: «Great nations do not bury the truth. You acknowledge them, ”Biden said firmly under the dome of Statuary Hall. “Here’s the truth: a former President of the United States created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He did this because power is more important to him than principles. Because he considers his own interests to be more important than the interests of his country. And because his injured ego is more dear to him than our democracy or our constitution. He cannot accept that he has lost. ”
Democracy tested from within and without
As if he wanted to convert the millions of American citizens who still believe in Trump’s big lie of a stolen election, Biden tried to make the many contradictions of this illusion visible in a demonstration. “The former president and his supporters are still unable to explain why they believe the results of the other ballots on November 3, 2020 to be correct.” The elections for governor, for the Senate or for the House of Representatives, in which the Republicans were able to win several seats. Trump never questioned these elections, which took place on the same day and with the same voters. “The only difference: the former president didn’t lose these races, he just lost his own.”
A year after the storm, the sun rises over the Capitol. The dark clouds over American democracy have not yet cleared.
Even a year after the storming of the Capitol, Trump and his entourage are trying to glorify the rioters from back then as sincere patriots who did not want an election to be stolen. Biden also tried to expose this lie: “For me, the more than 250 million Americans are the true patriots who have peacefully expressed their will by casting their vote.” The election officials, who ensured the integrity of the ballot box, and the police officers who protected the Capitol, are also the real heroes. “You cannot only love your country if you win.”
Trump and his allies had “held a dagger to the throat” of democracy a year ago, said Biden. But the danger is not over yet: “We are in a battle for the American soul.” And the American people’s rule is also threatened with hardship from outside. The world is witnessing a trial of strength between democracies and dictatorships: “between the ambitions of the many and the greed of the few”. China and Russia assumed that the days of democracy were numbered. “They bet America will become more like them and less like us.” But he doesn’t believe that, assured Biden. “We are not that, we never were, and we should never be.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who gave a short speech to Biden, also sees her country at a critical turning point. January 6th showed that democracy simply goes under if it is not defended. “How are we going to remember January 6th?” Asked Harris. «As a moment that hastened the end of the oldest and greatest democracy in the world? Or a moment when we decided to protect and strengthen our democracy for future generations? “
The answer depends on whether Congress passes the current Democratic bills reforming electoral law. “A decision is made in this building as to whether we will preserve the right to vote and guarantee free and fair elections.”
With the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Democrats want to set national minimum standards for the election process. Then several republican-dominated states have passed their own electoral laws in the past few months, which put democratic voters at a disadvantage and encourage political influence on the electoral process. The Democrats want to stop this trend with nationwide regulation.
Republicans are loyal to Trump
The Republicans, however, are just as uninterested in the Democratic electoral reform as they are in honestly coming to terms with January 6th. After a brief moment of indignation, the majority of the Republican Party sided with its elected president and prevented a bipartisan investigation into the events of the storming of the Capitol. It doesn’t really matter what Biden is saying today, said CNN presenter Jake Tapper before the American president’s speech on Thursday. It is much more important that influential Republicans speak the truth.
But that hardly happened. The memorial services at the Capitol were largely democratic. After the Republican Senator Ted Cruz called the storming of the Capitol a “violent terrorist attack” on Wednesday, he was heavily criticized by Trump supporters. Shortly after Biden’s speech, Senator Lindsey Graham accused Biden of politicizing January 6th. Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, called the anniversary “Christmas” for left-wing media. “They will use it to slander anyone who supported Trump.”
Trump himself responded with a, as usual, angry statement to the American President’s speech: “This political theater is just a distraction from the fact that Biden has completely failed.” The big lie was the choice itself. “The Democrats want to claim January 6th to stir up fears and divide America.”
The memory of the storming of the Capitol, it should divide the USA for a long time.