On the anniversary of the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, President Joe Biden will blame former President Donald Trump singularly for the chaos, despite scant FBI finding scant evidence the attack was coordinated.
January 6 riot anniversary: Biden to blame Trump
Although President Joe Biden rarely mentions his predecessor, he is set to speak on Thursday morning in Statuary Hall, a section of the Capitol complex that rioters breached, the BBC reported.
According to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, the president’s speech “will lay out the significance of what happened at the Capitol, and the singular responsibility President Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw.”
“He will forcibly push back on the lies spread by the former president – in an attempt to mislead the American people and his own supporters, as well as distract from his role in what happened,” Psaki continued.
“President Biden has been clear-eyed about the threat the former president represents to our democracy,” Psaki added.
CNN anniversary special
CNN will be hosting a two-hour special commemorating the anniversary entitled “Live from the Capitol: January 6, One Year Later.” The conversation will include remarks from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and nine other House members.
What’s the latest on the January 6 committee?
Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), the vice chairwoman of the House Select Committee panel investigating the January 6 insurrection, said on Thursday that she is looking forward to cooperation from Vice President Mike Pence and his team.”
“We look forward to continuing the cooperation that we’ve had with members of the former vice president’s team, and I look forward as well to his cooperation,” Cheney said during an interview on the Today show, CNN reported.
It is unclear if Pence will speak to the committee, but Marc Short, Pence’s former chief of staff, and Alyssa Farah, Pence’s former press secretary, speak with the panel Axios reported.
According to a source familiar with their involvement, said the team members “would not have cooperated without the approval of Pence.”
FBI finds scant evidence capitol attack was coordinated
After arresting over 570 alleged participants last August, the FBI concluded that prominent supporters of then-President Donald Trump did not centrally coordinate the violence. “Ninety to ninety-five percent of these are one-off cases,” according to a former senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation. “Then you have five percent, maybe, of these militia groups that were more closely organized.”
“But there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take hostages,” the source added.
Since then, Federal authorities have currently filed criminal charges against 705 people as part of the riot investigation, with one-fourth of the defendants pleading guilty, NBC reported.
McConnell: Democrats trying to “exploit” January 6 anniversary
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued a statement calling the January 6 anniversary “a dark day for Congress in our country,” saying that he supports “justice for those who broke the law.”
The United States Capitol, the seat of the first branch of our federal government, was stormed by criminals who brutalized police officers and used force to try to stop Congress from doing its job,” McConnell said. “This disgraceful scene was antithetical to the rule of law.”
McConnell also criticized Democrats, who he says are trying to “exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals.”
“It is especially jaw-dropping to hear some Senate Democrats invoke the mob’s attempt to disrupt our country’s norms, rules, and institutions as a justification to discard our norms, rules, and institutions themselves,” McConnell added. “A year ago today, the Senate did not bend or break. We stuck together, stood strong, gaveled back in, and did our job. Senators should not be trying to exploit this anniversary to damage the Senate in a different way from within.”
