United States President Joe Biden said that American “democracy was attacked, simply attacked” during the violent riots at the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, urging the country to make sure that “such attack never, never happens again”.   

“Today, in this sacred place, democracy was attacked, simply attacked. The will of the people was under assault,” Biden said in his address to commemorate the riots at the US Capitol Building. 

The President went on to laud the law enforcement, including the Capitol Police, the DC Metropolitan Police Department and the National Guard and others, for saving “the rule of law”. 

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“Our democracy held. We, the people, endured. We, the people, prevailed,” Biden said. 

The President also launched a scathing attack on his predecessor Donald Trump, saying he prevented “peaceful transfer of power”. 

“For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol,” Biden said, without naming the former president. 

The 79-year-old Democrat went on to say that Americans need to “face up” to the truth of the Captiol riots, adding “great nations…dont bury the truth”. 

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“At this moment, we must decide what kind of nation are we going to be. Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth, but in the shadow of lies? We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. The way forward is to recognize the truth, to live by it,” Biden said. 

The President said that the rioters who stormed the US Capitol a year back “held a dagger at the throat of America — at American democracy”. 

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He said the mob did not act on “patriotism or principle” but “in service of one man”. 

Biden also said that countries like Russia and China are “betting” that America’s days of democracy “are numbered”. 

“They’re betting that America is a place for the autocrat, the dictator, the strongman,” Biden said, adding, “That is not who we are. That is not who we have ever been. And that is not who we should ever, ever be.”