‘Never Forget!’ Biden Calls Out Bid To ‘Erase’ Jan 6 Capitol Riot As a ‘Shameful Attack’ On ‘Democracy’ in Searing Editorial
President Joe Biden slammed those trying to “rewrite” and “erase” the “violent” events of the 2021 Capitol riot in a scathing editorial published in The Washington Post ahead of the fourth anniversary.
On January 6, 2021, a crowd of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C., following a rally where Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims of a stolen election.
The rioters breached security perimeters, vandalized offices, and clashed with law enforcement, temporarily halting the certification of Biden’s victory. Lawmakers were evacuated, several people died during or soon after the unrest, and dozens more were injured.
The chaos exposed deep partisan and societal divides in the years since, prompting condemnations and subsequent investigations into how and why the unprecedented incident occurred.
In a scathing editorial published in Sunday’s Washington Post, Biden urged Americans to “never forget” and warned that the nation must not fall prey to revisionist narratives seeking to blur the events of that day.
After an opening in which he outlined the “pro forma” and “routine” process set to be undertaken on Monday for the certification of Trump’s 2024 presidential election victory, Biden quickly pivoted to revisiting 2021.
Violent insurrectionists attacked the Capitol, threatened the lives of elected officials and assaulted brave law enforcement officers.
We should be proud that our democracy withstood this assault. And we should be glad we will not see such a shameful attack again this year.
The president continued, highlighting concerns that segments of the public could become dangerously misinformed if what happened was distorted historically.
We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it. We cannot accept a repeat of what occurred four years ago.
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. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession. To explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand.
This is not what happened.
In time, there will be Americans who didn’t witness the Jan. 6 riot firsthand but will learn about it from footage and testimony of that day, from what is written in history books and from the truth we pass on to our children. We cannot allow the truth to be lost.
Biden said that he had invited Trump to the Capitol and intended to be present at the inauguration on Jan. 20 but that Americans should “commit to remembering” the riots of four years ago.
We should never forget it is our democracy that makes everything possible — our freedoms, our rights, our liberties, our dreams. And that it falls to every generation of Americans to defend and protect it.
