US President, Joe Biden Plans White House Event on Jan 6 Attack
By Boniface Ihiasota, USA
According to a schedule made public by his office, US President Joe Biden intends to hold a White House event to mark the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
At the occasion on Friday, Biden will have a rare opportunity to speak about the events that were sparked by the violent riot by supporters of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.
Their actions, Excel Breaking News learnt prevented the Democrat’s 2020 victory from being certified.
While Biden has condemned the violence as a threat to democracy and the rule of law, he rarely mentions his predecessor by name in public and has focused his presidential campaign on bringing the nation together and mending its ideological divides.
Biden, who is about to begin his third year in office, has stated his intention to run for a second four-year term but has not yet officially declared himself.
Trump has already declared that he will run for his party’s nomination once more in 2024 despite never conceding loss in the 2020 election.
Inquiring into the 2021 attack, the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives panel recommended federal prosecutors to indict Trump for four crimes, including obstruction and rebellion, last month.
Trump has criticized the House investigation as political and is currently the subject of two other federal investigations.
The former president gave a fiery speech to his supporters on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, and publicly chastised then Vice President Mike Pence for not going along with his scheme to reject ballots cast for Biden.
Trump then waited hours before making a public statement as thousands of his supporters raged through the Capitol, assaulting police and threatening to hang Pence.
Five people, including a police officer, died during or shortly after the incident and more than 140 police officers were injured. The Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage.
“A former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle,” Biden said at an event at the Capitol last year marking the event, never speaking Trump’s name. “He can’t accept he lost.”
Biden’s schedule said Friday’s ceremony would take place in the White House’s East Room. No further details were provided.
