U.S. President Joe Biden urged Americans in an op-ed published on Sunday, January 5, 2025, to remember the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, emphasizing the nation's collective responsibility to reflect on that day’s events.
The article, featured in The Washington Post, coincided with Congress's meeting to officially endorse Republican leader Donald Trump as president nearly four years after his supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. This piece also precedes Trump's upcoming inauguration by two weeks.
Biden stated, "We must remember the wisdom of the saying that any nation that forgets it's past will repeat," asserting that the repetition of the events from four years ago cannot be accepted.
He expressed confidence that the election certification process would be peaceful this time.
Biden has consistently portrayed Trump as a threat to democracy, citing Trump's refusal to accept the 2020 election outcome as evidence.
His campaign for re-election prominently featured a defense of democratic values, which he suspended in July amid concerns about his age.
Kamala Harris, who succeeded Biden as the Democratic nominee, echoed similar sentiments regarding Trump.
Trump, set to begin a second non-consecutive term in two weeks, continues to deny the legitimacy of his 2020 loss and has propagated false theories about the January 6 events.
He has also pledged to grant significant pardons to those convicted of crimes related to the January 6 attack, many of which involve assaults on law enforcement officers.
After a while there will be Americans who did not see the violence of January 6 directly but will learn about it from the pictures and testimonies of that day.
He continued to say that from everything written in the history and truth books we pass on to our children we cannot allow the truth to be lost without reason.
"Endless efforts have continued to rewrite__even erase the history of the day to tell us we didn't see everything we all saw with our own eyes ", Biden said .
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