Joe Biden’s verbal attack on Donald Trump was met with almost imperceptible silence from leading Republicans on Thursday’s anniversary of the United States Capitol riots, yielding the stage to the fury of the former president whose personality still dominates his match.
The citadel of American democracy was under a heavier guard than normal when Biden lashed out at Trump for instigating the riots with the “lie” that the 2020 elections were stolen, which no court has ever verified.
But as Biden’s Democrats promised “never again,” warning that democracy will be on the ballot in the November midterm elections and the 2024 presidential race, Republican lawmakers were conspicuous by their absence.
No Republican leaders participated in the Capitol events commemorating the deadly January 6 assault.
Instead, Senate Top Republican Mitch McConnell, who was attending the funeral of a deceased colleague in Georgia, issued a statement accusing Democrats of trying to “blow up” the anniversary, while House party leader Kevin McCarthy he had not yet made public statements.
With the nation stunned by the assault on the Capitol a year ago, both men had broken ranks to condemn Trump for stoking the violence.
Since then, however, they have quietly stepped down, along with nearly the entire party, bowing to Trump’s enormous influence among voters and the potential bid to return as president in 2024.
With no other prominent Republican voices to guide the narrative, Trump filled the void.
“This political theater is just a distraction from the fact that Biden has completely and totally failed,” Trump charged, in one of a series of snappy remarks rejecting the president.
“Never forget the crime of the 2020 presidential election. Never give up!” Trump thundered, doubling down on his baseless claim that the election was “rigged.”
‘Poisonous bile’
Democrats have implored Republicans to oppose Trump’s corrosive claims of voter fraud, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Thursday how the billionaire’s “poison bile” could erode American democracy.
“Too many expect the American people to just look the other way and forget that day took place,” Schumer said of Jan. 6.
Like Schumer, Biden called on Americans to confront the severity of the unrest on Capitol Hill and draw the consequences.
“Close your eyes. Go back to that day. What do you see?” Biden said. “You have to face it. That is what great nations do. They face the truth, they face it and they move on. ”
A year later, most of the physical signs of the insurrection have been erased. Statues were cleaned with paint and blood, broken windows and doors were replaced, and looted legislators’ offices were repaired and refitted.
But magnetometers installed after the insurrection remain on the doors of the House chamber, and the US Capitol police force has been reinforced.
A Trump ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, acknowledged the crimes of the rioters, hundreds of whom are currently being prosecuted.
But his statement was far from the display of “unity” that Vice President Kamala Harris appealed to in her own anniversary address.
Instead, Graham attacked the Biden presidency as “in free fall not because of the attack on our Capitol, but because of failed policies and weak leadership.”
‘Violence for voting’
Only two Republicans appeared to be present during the minute of silence in the House for the United States Capitol police officers who died in the wake of the riots: the outspoken critic of Trump, Liz Cheney, and her father, the former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“An extraordinary picture of where the politics of this country are,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy tweeted in response.
“It is just unsettling. It is an ominous warning for what is to come, ”House Democrat Eric Swalwell told AFP after a nightly vigil on the steps of the United States Capitol, which was also attended almost exclusively by Democrats.
“If you go ahead without being held accountable for what happened on January 6, you are embracing the concept of violence rather than voting.”
Some Republicans seemed eager to cover up the events entirely.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump acolyte who, like him, has been banned from Twitter, called a press conference with fellow far-right congressman Matt Gaetz “to expose the truth about January 6” and insist that what happened did not it was an insurrection.
Republicans and Trump supporters have been “constantly vilified over the past year,” Greene said.
“We did not want the Republican voice to go unnoticed and we did not want today’s historical narrative to be hijacked,” Gaetz added.