President Joe Biden is decrying what he calls an “unrelenting effort” to downplay a mob of Donald Trump supporters overrunning the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block certification of the 2020 election — seeking to contrast that day’s chaos with what he promises will be an orderly transition returning Trump to power for a second term.
In an opinion piece published Sunday in The Washington Post, Biden recalled Jan. 6, 2021, writing that “violent insurrectionists attacked the Capitol.”
“We should be proud that our democracy withstood this assault,” Biden wrote. “And we should be glad we will not see such a shameful attack again this year.”
Congress is convening in Washington on Monday to certify Trump’s victory in November’s election — in a session presided over by the candidate he defeated, Vice President Kamala Harris. No violence, or even procedural objections, are expected this time, marking a return to a U.S. tradition that launches the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
That’s despite Trump continuing to deny that he lost to Biden in 2020, already musing publicly about staying beyond the Constitution’s two-term White House limit, and promising to pardon some of the more than 1,250 people who have pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes for the Capitol siege.
In his opinion piece, Biden says of the certification process, “After what we all witnessed on Jan. 6, 2021, we know we can never again take it for granted.” He doesn’t mention Trump directly but says “an unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day.”
“To tell us we didn’t see what we all saw with our own eyes,” Biden wrote. “We cannot allow the truth to be lost.”
