A lone protester demonstrating towards the January 6 attacker stands outdoors the Capitol throughout Biden’s speech
Madam Vice President, my fellow Individuals: To state the plain, one yr in the past in the present day, on this sacred place, democracy was attacked — merely attacked. The desire of the folks was underneath assault. The Structure — our Structure — confronted the gravest of threats.
Outnumbered and within the face of a brutal assault, the Capitol Police, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Division, the Nationwide Guard, and different courageous regulation enforcement officers saved the rule of regulation.
Our democracy held. We the folks endured. And we the folks prevailed.
For the primary time in our historical past, a president had not simply misplaced an election, he tried to forestall the peaceable switch of energy as a violent mob breached the Capitol.
However they failed. They failed.
And on this present day of remembrance, we should make it possible for such an assault by no means, by no means occurs once more.
I am talking to you in the present day from Statuary Corridor in america Capitol. That is the place the Home of Representatives
met for 50 years within the a long time main as much as the Civil Battle. That is — on this ground is the place a younger congressman of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, sat at desk 191.
Above him — above us, over that door main into the Rotunda — is a sculpture depicting Clio, the muse of historical past. In her fingers, an open guide by which she information the occasions happening on this chamber under.
Clio stood watch over this corridor one yr in the past in the present day, as she has for greater than 200 years. She recorded what befell. The true historical past. The true information. The true reality. The information
and the reality that Vice President Harris simply shared and that you just and I and the entire world noticed with our personal eyes.
The Bible tells us that we will know the reality, and the reality shall make us free. We will know the reality.
Properly, right here is the God’s reality about January sixth, 2021:
Shut your eyes. Return to that day. What do you see? Rioters rampaging, waving for the primary time inside this Capitol a Accomplice flag that symbolized the trigger to destroy America, to tear us aside.
Even throughout the Civil Battle, that by no means, ever occurred. Nevertheless it occurred right here in 2021.
What else do you see? A mob breaking home windows, kicking in doorways, breaching the Capitol. American flags on poles getting used as weapons, as spears. Fireplace extinguishers being thrown on the heads of law enforcement officials.
A crowd that professes their love for regulation enforcement assaulted these law enforcement officials, dragged them, sprayed them, stomped on them.
Over 140 law enforcement officials had been injured.
We have all heard the law enforcement officials who had been there that day testify to what occurred. One officer referred to as it, quote, a med- — ‘medieval’ battle, and that he was extra afraid that day than he was combating the warfare in Iraq.
They’ve repeatedly requested since that day: How dare anybody — anybody — diminish, belittle, or deny the hell they had been put by?
We noticed it with our personal eyes. Rioters menaced these halls, threatening the lifetime of the Speaker of the Home, actually erecting gallows to hold the Vice President of america of America.
However what did we not see?
We did not see a former president, who had simply rallied the mob to assault — sitting within the non-public eating room off the Oval Workplace within the White Home, watching all of it on tv and doing nothing for hours as police had been assaulted, lives in danger, and the nation’s capital underneath siege.
This wasn’t a bunch of vacationers. This was an armed revolt.
They weren’t seeking to uphold the need of the folks. They had been seeking to deny the need of the folks.
They had been seeking to uphold — they weren’t seeking to uphold a free and truthful election. They had been seeking to overturn one.
They weren’t seeking to save the reason for America. They had been seeking to subvert the Structure.
This is not about being slowed down prior to now. That is about ensuring the previous is not buried.
That is the one approach ahead. That is what nice nations do. They do not bury the reality, they withstand it. Appears like hyperbole, however that is the reality: They withstand it.
We’re an excellent nation.
My fellow Individuals, in life, there’s reality and,
tragically, there are lies — lies conceived and unfold for revenue and energy.
We have to be completely clear about what’s true and what’s a lie.
And right here is the reality: The previous president of the
United States of America has created and unfold an online of lies concerning the 2020 election. He is achieved so as a result of he values energy over precept, as a result of he sees his personal pursuits as extra vital than his nation’s pursuits and America’s pursuits, and since his bruised ego issues extra to him than our democracy or our Structure.
He cannot settle for he misplaced, though that is what 93 United States senators, his personal Legal professional Normal, his personal Vice President, governors and state officers in each battleground state have all stated: He misplaced.
That is what 81 million of you probably did as you voted for a brand new approach ahead.
He has achieved what no president in American historical past — the historical past of this nation — has ever, ever achieved: He refused to just accept the outcomes of an election and the need of the American folks.
Whereas some brave women and men within the Republican Celebration are standing towards it, attempting to uphold the ideas of that occasion, too many others are reworking that occasion into one thing else. They appear now not to wish to be the occasion — the occasion of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan, the Bushes.
However no matter my different disagreements are with Republicans who assist the rule of regulation and never the rule of a single man, I’ll all the time search to work along with them to search out shared options the place attainable. As a result of if we now have a shared perception in democracy, then something is feasible — something.
And so, at this second, we should resolve: What sort of nation are we going to be?
Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm?
Are we going to be a nation the place we enable partisan election officers to overturn the legally expressed will of the folks?
Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the sunshine of the reality however within the shadow of lies?
We can’t enable ourselves to be that sort of nation. The best way ahead is to acknowledge the reality and to dwell by it.
The Massive Lie being instructed by the previous president and plenty of Republicans who concern his wrath is that the revolt on this nation really befell on Election Day — November third, 2020.
Take into consideration that. Is that what you thought? Is that what you thought once you voted that day? Participating in an revolt? Is that what you thought you had been doing? Or did you assume you had been finishing up your highest responsibility as a citizen and voting?
The previous president and his supporters try to rewrite historical past. They need you to see Election Day because the day of revolt and the riot that befell right here on January sixth because the true expression of the need of the folks.
Are you able to consider a extra twisted approach to have a look at this nation — to have a look at America? I can’t.
Here is the reality: The election of 2020 was the best demonstration of democracy within the historical past of this nation.
Extra of you voted in that election than have ever voted in all of American historical past. Over 150 million Individuals went to the polls and voted that day in a pandemic — some at grea- — nice danger to their lives. They need to be applauded, not attacked.
Proper now, in state after state, new legal guidelines are being written — to not shield the vote, however to disclaim it; not solely to suppress the vote, however to subvert it; to not strengthen or shield our democracy, however as a result of the previous president misplaced.
As a substitute of wanting on the election outcomes from 2020 and saying they want new concepts or higher concepts to win extra votes, the previous president and his supporters have determined the one approach for them to win is to suppress your vote and subvert our elections.
It is incorrect. It is undemocratic. And albeit, it is un-American.
The second Massive Lie being instructed by the previous President and his supporters is that the outcomes of the election of 2020 cannot be trusted.
The reality is that no election — no election in American historical past has been extra intently scrutinized or extra fastidiously counted.
Each authorized problem questioning the ends in each court docket on this nation that would have been made was made and was rejected — typically rejected by Republican-appointed judges, together with judges appointed by the previous president himself, from state courts to america Supreme Court docket.
Recounts had been undertaken in state after state. Georgia — Georgia counted its outcomes 3 times, with one recount by hand.
Phony partisan audits had been undertaken lengthy after the election in a number of states. None modified the outcomes. And in a few of them, the irony is the margin of victory really grew barely.
So, let’s communicate plainly about what occurred in 2020. Even earlier than the primary poll was solid, the previous president
was preemptively sowing doubt concerning the election outcomes. He constructed his lie over months. It wasn’t based mostly on any information. He was simply searching for an excuse — a pretext — to cowl for the reality.
He isn’t only a former president. He is a defeated former president — defeated by a margin of over 7 million of your votes in a full and free and truthful election.
There’s merely zero proof the election outcomes had been inaccurate. In truth, in each venue the place proof needed to be produced and an oath to inform the reality needed to be taken, the previous president did not make his case.
Simply take into consideration this: The previous president and his supporters have by no means been in a position to clarify how they settle for as correct the opposite election outcomes that befell on November third — the elections for governor, United States Senate, the Home of Representatives — elections by which they closed the hole within the Home.
They problem none of that. The President’s title was first, then we went down the road — governors, senators, Home of Representatives. One way or the other, these outcomes had been correct on the identical poll, however the presidential race was flawed?
And on the identical poll, the identical day, solid by the identical voters.
The one distinction: The previous President did not lose these races; he simply misplaced the one which was his personal.
Lastly, the third Massive Lie being instructed by a former President and his supporters is that the mob who sought to impose their will by violence are the nation’s true patriots.
Is that what you thought once you seemed on the mob ransacking the Capitol, destroying property, actually defecating within the hallways, rifling by desks of senators and representatives, looking down members of congress? Patriots? Not in my opinion.
To me, the true patriots had been the greater than 150 [million] Individuals who peacefully expressed their vote on the poll field, the election employees who protected the integrity of the vote, and the heroes who defended this Capitol.
You possibly can’t love your nation solely once you win.
You possibly can’t obey the regulation solely when it is handy.
You possibly can’t be patriotic once you embrace and allow lies.
Those that stormed this Capitol and those that instigated and incited and those that referred to as on them to take action held a dagger on the throat of America — at American democracy.
They did not come right here out of patriotism or precept. They got here right here in rage — not in service of America, however moderately in service of 1 man.
Those that incited the mob — the actual plotters — who had been determined to disclaim the certification of the election and defy the need of the voters.
However their plot was foiled. Congressmen — Democrats and Republicans — stayed. Senators, representatives, workers — they completed their work the Structure demanded. They honored their oath to defend the Structure towards all enemies, international and home.
Look, of us, now it is as much as all of us — to ‘We the Individuals’ — to face for the rule of regulation, to protect the flame of democracy, to maintain the promise of America alive.
That promise is in danger, focused by the forces that worth brute energy over the sanctity of democracy, concern over hope, private achieve over public good.
Make no mistake about it: We’re residing at an inflection level in historical past.
Each at dwelling and overseas, we’re engaged anew in a wrestle between democracy and autocracy, between the aspirations of the numerous and the greed of the few, between the folks’s proper of self-determination and self- — the self-seeking autocrat.
From China to Russia and past, they’re betting that democracy’s days are numbered. They’ve really instructed me democracy is just too gradual, too slowed down by division to reach in the present day’s quickly altering, difficult world.
They usually’re betting — they’re betting America will develop into extra like them and fewer like us. They’re betting that America is a spot for the autocrat, the dictator, the strongman.
I don’t consider that. That isn’t who we’re. That isn’t who we now have ever been. And that isn’t who we must always ever, ever be.
Our Founding Fathers, as imperfect as they had been, set in movement an experiment that modified the world — actually modified the world.
Right here in America, the folks would rule, energy can be transferred peacefully — by no means on the tip of a spear or the barrel of a gun.
They usually dedicated to paper an concept that could not dwell as much as — they could not dwell as much as however an concept that could not be constrained: Sure, in America all persons are created equal.
We reject the view that in case you succeed, I fail; in case you get forward, I fall behind; if I maintain you down, I by some means elevate myself up.
The previous President, who lies about this election, and the mob that attacked this Capitol couldn’t be additional away from the core American values.
They wish to rule or they’ll break — break what our nation fought for at Lexington and Harmony; at Gettysburg; at Omaha Seashore; Seneca Falls; Selma, Alabama. What — and what we had been combating for: the best to vote, the best to manipulate ourselves, the best to find out our personal future.
And with rights come obligations: the duty to see one another as neighbors — possibly we disagree with that neighbor, however they are not an adversary; the duty to just accept defeat then get again within the enviornment and take a look at once more the following time to make your case; the duty to see that America is an concept — an concept that requires vigilant stewardship.
As we stand right here in the present day — one yr since January sixth, 2021 — the lies that drove the anger and insanity we noticed on this place, they haven’t abated.
So, we now have to be agency, resolute, and unyielding in our protection of the best to vote and to have that vote counted.
Some have already made the final word sacrifice on this sacred effort.
Jill and I’ve mourned law enforcement officials on this Capitol Rotunda not as soon as however twice within the wake of January sixth: as soon as to honor Officer Brian Sicknick, who misplaced his life the day after the assault, and a second time to honor Officer Billy Evans, who misplaced his life defending this Capitol as properly.
We take into consideration the others who misplaced their lives and had been injured and everybody residing with the trauma of that day — from these defending this Capitol to members of Congress in each events and their staffs, to reporters, cafeteria employees, custodial employees, and their households.
Do not child your self: The ache and scars from that day run deep.
I stated it many instances and it is no extra true or actual than after we take into consideration the occasions of January sixth: We’re in a battle for the soul of America. A battle that, by the grace of God and the goodness and gracious — and greatness of this nation, we are going to win.
Imagine me, I understand how tough democracy is. And I am crystal clear concerning the threats America faces. However I additionally know that our darkest days can result in mild and hope.
From the dying and destruction, because the Vice President referenced, in Pearl Harbor got here the overcome the forces of fascism.
From the brutality of Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge got here historic voting rights laws.
So, now allow us to step up, write the following chapter in American historical past the place January sixth marks not the top of democracy, however the starting of a renaissance of liberty and truthful play.
I didn’t search this battle dropped at this Capitol one yr in the past in the present day, however I cannot shrink from it both.
I’ll stand on this breach. I’ll defend this nation. And I’ll enable nobody to position a dagger on the throat of our democracy.
We are going to be sure that the need of the folks is heard; that the poll prevails, not violence; that authority on this nation will all the time be peacefully transferred.
I consider the facility of the presidency and the aim is to unite this nation, not divide it; to elevate us up, not tear us aside; to be about us — about us, not about ‘me.’
Deep within the coronary heart of America burns a flame lit virtually 250 years in the past — of liberty, freedom, and equality.
This isn’t a land of kings or dictators or autocrats. We’re a nation of legal guidelines; of order, not chaos; of peace, not violence.
Right here in America, the folks rule by the poll, and their will prevails.
So, allow us to bear in mind: Collectively, we’re one nation, underneath God, indivisible; that in the present day, tomorrow, and perpetually, at our greatest, we’re america of America.
God bless you all. Could God shield our troops. And should God bless those that stand watch over our democracy.