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Joe Biden has marked the second anniversary of the January 6 insurrection by awarding medals to heroes who “did not flinch” when the US Capitol came under attack and warning that democracy cannot be taken for granted.
The US president on Friday awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to 14 people, some posthumously, and spoke with passion – and flashes of humour – at a White House ceremony.
The event in the East Room, against a backdrop of seven flags and portraits of the founding US president George and first lady Martha Washington, struck a sharp contrast with the Capitol itself where Republicans were struggling for a fourth day to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives.
Biden had commemorated the first anniversary of the riot by visiting the Capitol itself and denouncing former president Donald Trump, whose supporters staged the January 6 attack after he urged them to fight like hell. This time, he devoted most of his remarks to praising the heroes of that day who held the line.
But his sense of rage at the attempted coup was undimmed.
“Two years ago on January 6, our democracy was attacked,” the president said. “There’s no other way of saying it. The US Capitol was breached, which had never happened before in the history of the United States of America, even during the civil war.”
He added: “All of it – all of it – was fueled by the lies” Trump told about being robbed of victory over Biden in the 2020 election.
“But on this day two years ago, our democracy held because we the people – as the constitution refers to us – we the people did not flinch,” Biden said.
