A year following the violent assault on Capitol Hill by supporters of former President Donald Trump, the time is warning: the United States can only accept “Political violence becomes the norm”, wants to warn Joe Biden, according to an excerpt from the speech he is to give, Thursday, January 6.
“We have to decide today which nation we are going to be. Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as the norm? Are we going to be a nation that allows partisan officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are we going to be a nation that does not live in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies? “, interroge M. Biden.
“We cannot afford to become that kind of nation”, he believes in this passage communicated by the White House, a year following thousands of supporters of Mr. Trump tried to prevent the certification of his election by the US Congress. The Democratic President will speak at 3 p.m. KST in the Statues Hall of the Capitol, along with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Donald Trump’s “Special Responsibility”
Mr. Biden has long chosen to treat his predecessor with contempt, for example refusing to name him in public. But this time, the President of the United States is determined to publicly discuss the “Special responsibility” of Donald Trump in this outburst of violence, the White House has already said.
Joe Biden “Sees January 6 as the tragic culmination of what four years of Trump’s presidency have done to this country”, said his spokesperson, Jen Psaki, on Wednesday. Does the president want to give a more serious, more political turn to a mandate that gives the impression of getting bogged down? After having focused for months on economic and social policy, the White House sees much of its hopes for reforms go up in smoke because of parliamentary blockage. The new wave of Covid-19, inflation, the memory of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan are all elements that are undermining Mr. Biden’s confidence day following day.
Even more worrying: according to a very recent poll, only 55% of Americans polled believe that he was elected regularly. Donald Trump’s speeches therefore seem to have made their way into people’s minds, the American billionaire continuing to claim, without proof, that he is the real winner of the election. The Republican gave up speaking Thursday, doubtless fearing that the press conference he wanted to give from his luxurious Florida residence would be too much provocation.
Conservative Party Leaders Discretion
But the former president did not moderate his speech. He once more called Tuesday “Crime of the century” the fraud which, according to him, marred the presidential election of 2020. And, in the Republican camp, few are those who dare to criticize aloud Donald Trump. The leaders of the Conservative Party have for the most part chosen to keep a low profile Thursday.
Leader of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, estimated in February 2021 that the former president was “Morally responsible” of the events of January 6. Thursday, he will be at a funeral in the southern United States, far from the ceremonies in Washington. “Our great nation is now reeling on the edge of an ever deeper precipice. Without immediate action, we are in serious danger of experiencing a civil confrontation ”, meanwhile alarmed former President Jimmy Carter, in a column published by the New York Times.
To this deeply divided nation, Joe Biden wants to propose a way forward to strengthen democracy. The president is trying in particular to revive legislation on minority access to the right to vote. He will travel for this purpose on Tuesday to the state of Georgia, emblematic of past and present battles for civil rights.
But Joe Biden faces conservative states that multiply laws making it harder for African Americans to vote at the polls, a Supreme Court bearing the conservative mark of his predecessor, and a Congress Democrats control only a hair’s breadth of thumb. , and that they might lose completely in the legislative elections in the fall. The president’s leeway to save the” soul “ America, as he promised during his campaign, seems very limited.
