WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden will accuse his predecessor Donald Trump of still posing a threat to democracy on Thursday, during a speech on the first anniversary of the deadly assault on Capitol Hill Washington.
The damage caused by the attack on the headquarters of the United States Congress by supporters of the former Republican president, with the aim of overturning the results of the presidential election of November 2020, was scattered, the read and Capitol staff have resumed their work and the protective barriers have been removed.
But Joe Biden, his Democratic Party and a few rare Republican opponents believe that Donald Trump’s inflammatory statements before the riot, claiming without proof that his electoral defeat was the product of vast fraud, continue to weigh on the political climate.
According to a Reuters / Ipsos opinion poll, around 55% of Republican readers remain convinced by Donald Trump’s accusations, yet rejected by dozens of courts.
“Are we going to be a nation that allows partisan election officials to challenge the popular will that has been legally expressed? Are we going to be a nation that does not live in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies?” will say Joe Biden in the precincts of the Capitol, according to excerpts from his speech broadcast by the White House.
“We cannot afford to become that kind of nation. To move forward, we must recognize the truth,” said the American president again.
Joe Biden, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday, “is lucid about the threat the former president poses to our democracy and how the former president constantly works to undermine the core values of the country. ‘America and the rule of law’.
“THE BIG LIE HAS TAKEN ROOT”
Joe Biden’s speech will mark the start of a series of commemorations for the event involving Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and other leaders of Congress, mostly from the Democratic ranks.
The House of Representatives will not sit and many Republican senators will be absent to attend the funeral of former Republican senator Johnny Isakson, who died in December.
Four people died on the day of the assault, a Capitol policeman defending the building died the next day from his injuries. Some 140 other police officers were injured in the attack and four police officers have killed themselves since then.
The precedent created by Donald Trump raises fears some commentators of future chaotic transfers of power, especially in the event of a narrow result in the presidential election, while Joe Biden won widely in November 2020, with seven million votes ahead of him. his opponent.
“The fact that the big lie has taken root as it did, and that it has even intensified and worsened over the past twelve months is even more dangerous than January 6 itself,” said Edward Foley, Ohio State University law professor.
Donald Trump retains a strong popularity with the Republican electorate, weighs on the choice of candidates who will run in the parliamentary elections on November 8 and regularly suggests that he will seek a new presidential term in 2024.
The former president on Tuesday canceled a press conference he planned to organize this Thursday but should speak on January 15 at a meeting in Arizona.
INSURRECTION, “NEW NORM”?
Most Republican officials have stuck with Donald Trump. Shortly after the assault on Capitol Hill, more than half of the readership of the Grand Old Party had voted against the validation of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
Some well-known Republican people still seek today to minimize the door of the assault of January 6, assimilating the meutiers of the tourists, or suggesting that the attack could have been perpetrated by federal agents.
Those who held the former president to account, including Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, were stigmatized by their colleagues. They are the only two Republicans participating in a congressional investigation into the events of January 6, in which more than 300 witnesses, including some close advisers to Trump, have already been interviewed. Some 725 people are targeted by criminal proceedings in connection with the assault.
Democrats hope to take advantage of this anniversary to plead in favor of an overhaul of the federal electoral law, but have not yet managed to muster enough support to ensure its adoption in the Snat.
For the leader of the democratic majority in the Snat Chuck Schumer, the insurgency could well no longer be an “aberration” but “become the norm” unless Congress attacks the “roots” of January 6 with reforms.
(French version Jean-Stphane Brosse)
by Andy Sullivan and Richard Cowan