Reading President Biden's speech (see video below) on the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection by violent Trumpists, several lines are worth memorializing for their impact and searing honesty. While the White House released segments of his speech earlier, the extent to which he ripped his malignant loser predecessor in the full speech was bracing:
"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. But they failed. They failed. [snip]
We shall know the truth. Well here is God's truth about Jan. 6, 2021. Close your eyes. Go back to that day. What do you see? Rioters rampaging, waving for the first time inside this Capitol, the confederate flag that symbolizes the cause to destroy America, to rip us apart. [snip]
We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie. And here's the truth. The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He's done so because he values power over principle. Because he sees his own interest as more important than his country's interest than America's interest, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution. He can’t accept he lost. [snip]
Former president's supporters are trying to rewrite history. They want you to see Election Day as the day of insurrection. And the riot that took place here on Jan. 6 as a true expression of the will of the people. Can you think of a more twisted way to look at this country? To look at America? I cannot. [snip]
We're engaged anew in a struggle between democracy and autocracy. Between aspirations of the many and the greed of the few, between the people's right of self-determination and self-seeking autocrat." (our emphasis)
It was certainly Biden's strongest and most pointed denunciation of the former guy and his enablers for their betrayal of the Constitution and the peaceful transfer of power.* It also laid the moral and political basis for passing voting rights legislation, as the insurrection that occurred on January 6 is continuing non-violently in dozens of legal and legislative maneuvers by Republican Trumpists in states across the country to illegitimately seize power the next time.
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* the execution should have been better, e.g., VP Harris walking away as if uninterested, random people briefly appearing in the Rotunda background during his speech.
(photo: Bloomberg News)
