(WASHINGTON) — Thursday marks one year since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Democrats plan to observe the anniversary with somber tributes at the building that’s the symbol of American democracy.
The events in Washington will include a moment of silence, a panel discussion with historians, first-hand testimonies from lawmakers and a prayer vigil on the Capitol steps.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are scheduled to make remarks at the Capitol where the White House says the president will address the “singular responsibility” former President Donald Trump had “for the chaos and carnage” witnessed and commemorate law enforcement officers who protected the lives of lawmakers last year. No Republican leaders are expected to attend the ceremonies.
ABC News Live will provide all-day coverage of Thursday’s events at the Capitol and examine the continuing fallout for American democracy one year since the Jan. 6 siege.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 06, 4:59 pm
Almost no GOP support for Jan. 6 ceremonies
While Democrats took a lead on the day’s ceremonies, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — both Trump loyalists — held an event of their own at the Capitol to deflect blame. Trump earlier this week canceled a planned press conference to mark the anniversary from Mar-a-Lago.
Republican leaders were not present at the Capitol with Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who serves as vice-chair on the House select committee investigating the attack, and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, rebuking GOP leadership after an earlier moment of silence in the House chamber.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is instead attending the funeral of late GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson in Atlanta. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who said on Jan. 6, 2021, from the House floor that “President Trump bears responsibility” for the “attack on Congress by mob rioters,” has repeatedly accused Democrats of politicizing the day.
Most House Republicans are at home “talking to their constituents about things that actually affect them” like inflation and high gas prices, according to a House Republican leadership aide.
-ABC News Benjamin Siegel
Jan 06, 4:50 pm
Biden confronts Trump’s role on Jan. 6: Full transcript
Biden took the oath of office just days after the violent attack on the Capitol last Jan. 6, but he has fastidiously tried to prevent those unprecedented circumstances — or his predecessor — from dominating his first year in the White House.
But on the anniversary of the insurrection, he confronted Trump in a direct, personal way, in some of his strongest language yet.
“We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie. And here’s truth,” he said, speaking from Statuary Hall in the Capitol that rioters ransacked last year. “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.”
Click here to read a full transcript of Biden’s speech.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Sarah Kolinovsky
Jan 06, 4:36 pm
House lawmaker reflects on facing Capitol attack in wake of son’s death
In an interview with ABC News Live on Thursday, Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin reflected on the whirlwind period between the death of his 25-year-old son and Trump’s second impeachment trial following the attack.
Raskin’s son, Tommy Raskin, died by suicide on New Year’s Eve 2020. The day after his son was buried, Raskin was on Capitol Hill when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
“The day after we buried Tommy in a small family COVID-19 graveside service, we had the violent insurrection at the Capitol and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election by Donald Trump,” said Raskin, who wrote about the experience in his new book, “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy.”
“I felt like I had an obligation to do it, that Tommy would be completely with me the whole way,” Raskin said. “And this was a chance to try to stand up and articulate, not just my love, but our family’s love, of our Constitution and our freedom and our democracy and the idea of human rights — the opposite of everything that was on display on Jan. 6.”
Raskin is a member of the Jan. 6 House select committee tasked with investigating the attack. To date, the committee has issued at least 50 subpoenas to individuals for information, according to an ABC News count, with at least 19 of those being Trump administration officials. It has conducted more than 300 depositions.
-ABC News’ Allie Yang
Jan 06, 3:45 pm
By the numbers: Day of the insurrection
Five people died during or after the riot, including four protesters and one law enforcement officer. Separately, four officers who responded to the riot have died by suicide.
Approximately 140 police officers were injured the day at the Capitol including about 80 U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department, according to the Justice Department. Lawmakers on Thursday praised the group for holding the line and protecting the Capitol from even more bloodshed last year.
Approximately $1.5 million in damage was done to the Capitol building, according to federal prosecutors.
“Well over 10,000” people came onto the Capitol grounds last year, according to Capitol Police, and at least 2,000 people actually entered the building. At least 706 individuals have been charged with crimes, according to an ABC News count, and approximately 150 individuals have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin, Alexander Mallin and Will Steakin
Jan 06, 3:25 pm
Officer Sicknick’s parents recognized for son’s sacrifice
Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was injured while confronting the mob during the insurrection, suffered multiple strokes hours after serving on the front lines and died, was recognized several times by lawmakers on Thursday.
While leading members of Congress in sharing their reflections, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., called attention to Sicknick’s parents who were present in the caucus room, asking them to stand and be recognized.
“For those of you joining us at home, Brian Sicknick was an officer who gave his life on Jan. 6, 2021, in defense of this Capitol and in defense of many of us,” Crow said.
“We sit in here and owe your family a debt of gratitude that we can never repay,” Crow told his parents. “We will be there for you and your family going forward, and you are now a part of our family as well.”
Jan 06, 3:05 pm
Lawmakers reflect on Capitol attack
In a large House caucus room, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. — a decorated Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran who helped barricade the House chamber on Jan. 6 and defend the lives of his colleagues — led members in sharing their reflections on the insurrection.
Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., argued the importance of agreeing about the truth of that day and pulled out a piece of glass he said he picked up from a broken window in the Capitol in the aftermath of Jan. 6 that he carries in his pocket each day.
“Truth is clear as this shard of broken glass that I have carried with me the last 365 days… as a reminder — a constant reminder — in my pocket of the brutality of that day,” he said. “Only truth and accountability will give us the opportunity to find a path toward reconciliation. Only truth will begin to thaw the bitterness that characterizes our current divisions.”
Rep. Val Demmings, D-Fla., who is running against Republican Sen. Marco Rubio for Senate, called out lawmakers who have whitewashed the day and “forgotten their oath,” she said, “overshadowed by their quest for power and their pathetic fear of election officials counting every vote.”
“Many people call themselves patriots. But true patriots don’t lie. They don’t steal. They don’t cheat,” she said, taking the chance to thank law enforcement officers as the former police chief in Orlando. “But out of the ashes, good things can rise.”
Jan 06, 2:26 pm
Historians commemorate Jan. 6 in panel discussion
In a panel discussion moderated by Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden, historians John Meacham and Doris Kearns Goodwin addressed the significance of the anniversary of the attack and the importance of sharing a common truth about the events of the day instead of whitewashing what happened.
“This is about our future and all of us have a responsibility to remember that a more perfect union is about we the people, not a singular person,” Meacham said.
He echoed Biden in calling the moment Americans face now “an inflection point” and said the founders would “want us to defend their experiment.”
“In my lifetime this is the hardest moment for democracy,” Goodwin added. “We have to recognize how deep that challenge is and not to sugar coat it, as Lincoln would say… but I think it can come back again.”
The panel got some help at the top from the cast of the Broadway hit “Hamilton” — which explores the foundations of American democracy and George Washington’s choice to surrender power after two terms.
“You’re all stewards of the American experiment,” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda said in a pre-recorded video, before the cast sang, via Zoom, the song “Dear Theodosia” from the musical.
-ABC News Benjamin Siegel
Jan 06, 1:26 pm
Dick Cheney blasts GOP leadership, praises daughter
Former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney departed the House chamber after the moment of silence walking alongside his daughter, and told ABC News, “Very proud of Liz,” when asked for some parting thoughts.
The somewhat frail former vice president — clad in crisp navy pinstripe suit — was greeted by a swarm of reporters and still photographers as he became the unwitting star of this unusual day on Capitol Hill.
“It’s great coming back,” he said. “Liz is doing a hell of a job. I’m here to support her.”
When asked for his reaction to Republican leadership’s handling of the day, Cheney — not one to mince words — said, “Well, it’s not a leadership that resembles any of the folks that I knew when I was here for 10 years — dramatically.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who holds the seat her father once held, said GOP leadership is “very concerning,” adding, “I think a party that is in thrall to a cult personality is a party that is dangerous to the country, and I think we clearly have got to get to a place we are we are focused on substance and on issues.”
The former vice president took the long walk across the Capitol toward the Senate chamber, stopping momentarily to take in his own white stone bust outside the office of Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who is far from the Capitol, and instead, at a funeral for a late GOP senator in Atlanta.
-ABC News’ Trish Turner, Mariam Khan and Benjamin Siegel
Jan 06, 1:12 pm
One year ago at this hour, a mob of Trump supporters moved on the Capitol
One year ago at this hour, a mob of Trump supporters moved toward the Capitol after a speech from the former president at the Ellipse.
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said then, stoking anger in the fired-up crowd, telling them he would march with them to the Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s electoral vote win.
“Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you,” he told them.
The temporary fencing that ringed the Capitol for more than six months after, and again briefly for a September demonstration has not returned for the dark anniversary, though that could change quickly if conditions warrant, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas in a recent interview.
Thursday’s ceremonies are scheduled to conclude in the evening with a prayer vigil on the Capitol center steps. Members of the House and Senate were invited to observe the anniversary with prayer and music.
Jan 06, 12:38 pm
Pelosi holds moment of silence to mark violent attack
Ahead of calling for a moment of silence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on the attack last year and highlighted the “courage and patriotism” of the law enforcement officers she said served as “defenders of our democracy.”
“Because of them, Congress was able to defeat the insurrection — to return to the Capitol that same night to ensure that the peaceful transfer of power took place. Because of them and our members, the insurrection failed,” she said. “As we reflect on that darkest day, we remember that the insurrection sought not only to attack the building, but to undermine democracy itself.”
“When the violent assault was made on the Capitol, its purpose was to thwart Congress’s constitutional duty to validate the electoral count and to ensure the peaceful transfer of power — but the assault did not deter us from our duty,” Pelosi added, going on to call the Capitol, a “symbol of democracy to the world.”
Before leading the chamber — and all those watching — in a moment of silence, Pelosi named those officers who died during or after the Capitol assault, and asked members to “rise for a moment of silence in their memory.”
While dozens of Democrats were present, Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., were apparently the lone Republicans in the House chamber for the moment of silence on Jan. 6.
Jan 06, 12:04 pm
Dick Cheney on House floor for moment of silence
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to lead lawmakers in a moment of silence commemorating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack at noon.
Ahead of the tribute, former Vice President Dick Cheney was seen in the chamber with his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., one of two Republicans on the House committee investigating the Capitol attack and of only a handful in the GOP that continues to rebuke the former president.
One by one, Democrats walked over to introduce themselves to Cheney, a former House lawmaker with floor privileges for life, and shake his hand.
“It’s an important historical event,” he told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl at the Capitol. “You can’t overestimate how important it is.”
He added, “I’m deeply disappointed we don’t have better leadership in the Republican Party to restore the Constitution.”
As Democrats met with Cheney, there were no other GOP House members on the floor.
-ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel
Jan 06, 11:00 am
Trump responds to Biden, again pushes false election claims
Trump responded to Biden’s scathing Jan. 6 speech this morning with a lengthy statement claiming it’s Biden who “used my name today to try to further divide America.”
Though Biden didn’t actually mention Trump by name, it was clear he was referencing Trump throughout his speech, fact-checking Trump’s persistent false claims the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden by 74 Electoral College votes and over seven million popular votes.
He and his allies filed over 60 lawsuits challenging the outcome of the election over alleged fraud, despite no evidence of widespread fraud that could have had a significant impact on the results. Nearly every single lawsuit was rejected, thrown out, or withdrawn, including two denials from the U.S. Supreme Court.
-ABC News’ Will Steakin and Olivia Rubin
Jan 06, 10:34 am
Biden explains why he didn’t call Trump out by name in speech
After his strongest speech to date laying blame at Trump for violence at the Capitol, reporters pressed Biden on his way out of the building why he did not mention the former president by name, and he argued that he didn’t want to make it into a “contemporary political battle” between the two of them.
“I think we just have to face the facts of what happened. Draw a clear picture for the American people. It’s not about me, it’s not about the vice president, it really isn’t. That’s the thing that bothers me the most about the attitude that seems emerging in some degree in American politics,” Biden said. “It’s about the system, and somebody who decides to put himself above everything. And, so, I did not want to turn it into a contemporary political battle between me and the president. It’s way beyond that.”
A reporter followed up, “Does calling him out divide more than it heals, though?”
“No no, look. The way you have to heal — you have to recognize the extent of the wound. You can’t pretend. This is serious stuff. And a lot of people — understandably — want to go — you know, ‘I’d just as soon not face it.’ You’ve got to face it. That’s what great nations do. They face the truth, deal with it, and move on,” Biden said.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Sarah Kolinovsky
Jan 06, 10:26 am
Biden lays out 3 ‘big lies’ from Trump, vows to stand for truth
Laying out the three “big lies” he said the former president has tried to sell around the 2020 election — that the election was stolen, the results couldn’t be trusted, and that those who stormed the Capitol a year ago were patriots — Biden tore into Trump as a loser in denial in his remarks.
“So 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 of the shadow of lies?” he said. “The way forward is to recognize the truth, and to live by it.”
Asking Americans to recall the scenes from last year, Biden described in detail the attacks on law enforcement, the gallows erected to “Hang Mike Pence” and chants to harm Pelosi, before turning to President Trump’s inaction.
“What did we not see? We didn’t see a former president who had just rallied the mob to attack sitting in the private dining room off the oval office in the White House watching it all on television. And doing nothing. For hours. As police were assaulted. Lives at risk. The nation’s capital under siege,” Biden lamented.
“I did not seek this fight brought to this Capitol one year ago today. But I will not shrink from it either. I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation,” he said. “And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy.”
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Justin Gomez
Jan 06, 10:24 am
Biden rejects Trump’s characterization of mob as ‘patriots’
In front of the presidential seal, flanked by two American flags, inside the Capitol’s Statuary Hall — a rare place for a president to speak but from where pro-Trump rioters stormed last year — Biden directly blamed Trump for last year’s violence and rejected the former president’s characterization of the mob as “patriots.”
“Is that what you thought when you looked at the mob ransacking the Capitol, destroying property — literally defecating in the hallways — rifling through the desks of senators and representatives, hunting down members of Congress? Patriots? Not in my view,” he said in a firm tone.
“To me, the true patriots were the more than 150 Americans who peacefully expressed their vote at the ballot box,” Biden continued.
“The former president — who lies about this election — and the mob that attacked this Capitol could not be further away from the core American values. They want to rule or they will ruin — ruin what our country fought for at Lexington and Concord, at Gettysburg and Omaha Beach, Seneca Falls, Selma, Alabama,” he said, invoking ideals of American democracy.
Rejecting Trump’s election lies one by one, Biden repeated that despite the former president building his false case over months that there is “zero proof the election results are inaccurate.”
Jan 06, 9:52 am
Biden calls Trump plot to overturn the election a ‘dagger at the throat of America’
Without mentioning Trump by name, Biden blamed him over and over again for the violence that erupted at the Capitol last year and the serious danger his “web of lies” poses to the country.
“Those who stormed this Capitol, and those who instigated and incited, and those who called on them to do so, held a dagger at the throat of America and American democracy,” Biden said about Trump and his allies.
Biden hinted at how plotting to try to take the election from him — and more so, the will of American voters — began well in advance of Jan. 6 as Trump sewed doubt in the election with his supporters as it neared.
“They didn’t come here out of patriotism or principle. They came here in rage — not in service at American rather and service of one man. Those who incited the mob — the real plotters — were desperate to deny the certification of this election,” Biden said.
“The former president and his supporters have decided the only way for them to win is to suppress your vote and subvert our elections, it’s wrong, it’s undemocratic and frankly, it’s unAmerican,” Biden said, appearing to speak both directly about Trump, leaning into the camera, and to the American people.
He said Americans “cannot allow ourselves” to be a kind of nation that stands for lies and by a former president that has violently rejected a peaceful transfer of power.
Jan 06, 9:33 am
Biden slams Trump for spreading ‘web of lies’ around election loss
In his most forceful remarks yet against Trump, Biden called out the former president — without using his name — for weaving what he called a “web of lies” around the 2020 election and attacking American democracy as no other leader has before.
“We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie,” Biden said. “And here’s the truth: The former president of the United States of America has created 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 is more important than his country’s interest and America’s interest — because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution.”
“He can’t accept he lost,” Biden said. “He can’t accept he lost even though that’s what 93 United States senators, his own attorney general, his own vice president, governors and state officials and every battleground state, all said, he lost.”
Establishing Trump as a “defeated former president — by a margin of 7 million votes in a free and fair election,” Biden defended his win against Trump and his supporters by laying out the facts of the election.
Jan 06, 9:21 am
Harris ties ‘fragility of democracy’ to push for voting rights legislation
A somber Vice President Kamala Harris, in remarks ahead of Biden, said what the “extremists who roamed these halls targeted” last year when was not only an attack on the lives of elected leaders and the 2020 election.
“What they sought to degrade and destroy was not only a building, hallowed as it is. What they were assaulting. were the institution’s the values, the ideals that generations of Americans have marched, picketed, and shed blood to establish and defend,” she said.
The vice president, who was at the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6 last year, reflected on what she called “the dual nature of democracy: its fragility and its strength.”
“The strength of democracy is the rule of law,” she said. “And the fragility of democracy is this. That if we are not vigilant, if we do not defend it, democracy simply will not stand. It will falter and fail.”
She ended her remarks with a call to pass Democrats voting rights bills in the Senate as restrictive voting laws are enacted across the country.
“But we, the American people, must also do something more. We cannot sit on the sidelines. We must unite in defense of our democracy,” she said.
Jan 06, 9:16 am
Biden arrives at the Capitol
Arriving on Capitol Hill, reporters asked the president ahead of his remarks how he was feeling heading into the day.
The president, flanked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, appeared to respond, “Praying that we will never have a day like we had a year ago today.”
Notably, he did not respond when asked if he held Trump personally responsible for the attack.
The three walked towards Statuary Hall, which rioters stormed through one year ago.
Jan 06, 9:02 am
Excerpts from Biden’s prepared remarks on Jan. 6
To mark one year since a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed through the Capitol — including Statuary Hall where Biden will soon speak — and attempted to breach the House chamber in an attempt to undo the 2020 election, in his remarks this morning, Biden will say that Americans are facing a moment when “we must decide what kind of nation we are 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?” Biden will say according to speech excerpts released by the White House.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. The way forward is to recognize the truth and to live by it,” the excerpt read.
While Biden is not expected to mention the former president by name, the White House said he will lay out the “singular responsibility President Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw.”
Upon Biden’s arrival to the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer greeted him. The pair flanked the president as they walked towards Statuary Hall.
Jan 06, 8:46 am
Fortified fencing, massive force, not part of anniversary scene
Armored military vehicles, concertina wire atop non-scalable fencing and the massive show of force that fortified Capitol Hill in the aftermath of the violent attack on democracy last Jan. 6 are not defining Thursday’s anniversary.
The security posture in Washington, by comparison, appears fairly ordinary. The temporary fencing that ringed the Capitol for more than six months, and again briefly for a September demonstration has not returned, though that could change quickly if conditions warrant, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas in a recent interview.
In a briefing Tuesday, Manger said his office was aware of several events planned for the day but that “most of them aren’t of much concern to us.”
“There’s no intelligence that indicates that there would be any problems,” he said.
Jan 06, 8:30 am
By the numbers: DOJ investigates Jan. 6
At least 704 accused rioters have been charged by the Department of Justice, according to an ABC News count. At least 172 have pleaded guilty to their changes.
The FBI is still seeking 350 individuals believed to have committed violent acts on the Capitol grounds, according to the DOJ, including over 250 who assaulted police officers.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin, Alexander Mallin and Will Steakin
Jan 06, 8:06 am
Capitol Police union praises officers’ ‘dedication and commitment’
The union representing United States Capitol Police officers praised the “dedication and commitment” of those who protected the Capitol building one year ago.
“Today, we recognize the dedication and commitment to mission of the men and women who put their own lives and safety on the line to defend the U.S. Capitol,” Gus Papathanasiou, chair of the union, said in a statement Thursday. “We especially pay tribute to Officer Sicknick who died after being injured during the rioting, and to Officer Liebengood who tragically took his own life after the attack.”
According to Papathanasiou, 80 Capitol Police officers sustained injuries that day, with some so serious they are still not back at work. He said members of the force remain “committed to our mission,” but that comes with an increase in officers as well as improved intelligence and communications between officers and leadership.
Papathanasiou noted that the legacy of Jan. 6 — from a policing perspective — should be a police force that is better prepared, with an eye toward readiness if an attack of such scale ever occurred again.
“Going forward, this Union will work with the Department to ensure those sacrifices will not be in vain,” he added. “We must ensure that the events of January 6th are never repeated.”
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
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