2 years ago
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Marking the second anniversary of one of the nation’s darkest days, President Joe Biden paid tribute Friday to the heroism displayed on Jan. 6, 2021, while also warning that the forces that fueled the violence at the U.S. Capitol still lurk.
Biden touted the nation’s healing over the last two years but condemned the riot at the very citadel of the nation’s democracy. He derided the mob “as sick insurrectionists” who wreaked havoc and drew blood in the name of Donald Trump.
“All of it was fueled by lies about the 2020 election,” Biden said. “But on this day two years ago, our democracy held. We the People, as our Constitution refers to us, ‘We the people’ did not flinch.”
Biden also honored 14 Americans who stood up for democracy after the 2020 election, awarding medals to members of law enforcement, including Capitol Police officers who held off rioters, as well as election officials who stood their ground in the face of Trump’s onslaught of lies.
Two years later, the images from that day remain horrifying. The scene that unfolded — mobs pushing through police barricades, breaking windows, then occupying seats of power — was one that Americans are accustomed to watching in distant lands with authoritarian regimes.
But Biden made clear that the violence — which included gunshots fired in the Capitol, one death, and an armed occupation of the Senate floor — was born from the man who swore an oath to protect the very democratic traditions that rioters tried to undo in his name.
“Our democracy was attacked. The U.S. Capitol was breached, which had never happened before in our nation’s history, even in the Civil War,” said Biden, who warned that the anti-democratic forces had not subsided.
“We know it could happen again,” Biden said. “There’s no guarantee. Except for us. Except for all of you.”
The event, emotional at times, largely focused on those who sacrificed so much that day. Biden described in vivid detail the assaults at the capital and awarded one of the nation’s highest civilian honors to several law enforcement officers, including Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn and Eugene Goodman.
Others hailed were local officials such as Russell “Rusty" Bowers, the former speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, as well Georgia poll workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, who both withstood threats on their lives from Trump supporters in the weeks after the 2020 election.
Three of the medals given to law enforcement officers were done so posthumously: Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood of the U.S. Capitol Police and Jeffrey Smith of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police. Sicknick suffered a stroke the day after the riot; both Smith and Liebengood died by suicide in the wake of the insurrection.
“All of America watched it on television. America owes you,” the president said. “It owes you all a debt of gratitude, one we can never fully repay unless we live up to what you did.”
Eli Stokols contributed to this report.
English (US) ·