President Joe Biden, in a speech marking the anniversary of the U.S. Capitol riot, plans to blast the “shadow of lies” that led to a failed insurrection meant to nullify his election victory over Donald Trump.
Biden is set to speak at the U.S. Capitol at 9 a.m. Thursday, with his address expected to focus on the danger posed by Trump’s ongoing lies about the November 2020 presidential election results. He is not expected to use the event to push the Democratic Party’s sweeping voting rights legislation ― he plans to travel to Georgia to deliver a speech on the proposed law next week.
“At this moment we must decide what kind of nation we are going to be,” Biden will say, according to speech excerpts released by the White House. “Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies?”
“We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation,” Biden will conclude.
It’s unclear if Biden will mention by name the former president, whose repeated lies about widespread vote fraud provoked the riot. During the White House briefing on Wednesday, press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “has been clear-eyed about the threat the former president represents to our democracy and how the former president constantly works to undermine basic American values and rule of law.”
But when reporters pressed her on whether that meant he would call out Trump by name, Psaki demurred.
“We’ll see,” she said. “We’re finalizing the speech. But I think people will know who he’s referring to.”
Trump had announced his own plan to hold a press conference on Thursday, but he canceled that event after realizing it was unlikely to draw extensive television coverage.
Biden’s speech is one of several events at the Capitol set to commemorate the day of the attack and the ultimate certification of the Electoral College vote. Included on the schedule are a prayer vigil, a discussion with historians and a moment of silence. Across the country, right-wing groups are holding their own vigils intended to celebrate the rioters ― though mainstream congressional Republicans are largely avoiding those events.
