Topline
President-elect Biden offered an uncharacteristically explosive condemnation of the violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday after Trump supporters charged police and stormed the building as lawmakers attempted to certify Biden’s victory.
US President-elect Joe Biden speaks at the Queen Theater on January 6, 2021, in Wilmington, ... [+]
Key Facts
Biden called the breach an “unprecedented assault” on the “citadel of liberties” and the “public servants who work at the heart of our republic.”
Biden spoke at length during a press conference in Delaware as a mob of hundreds of Trump supporters occupied the U.S. Capitol, in opposition to President Trump, who called on them to be peaceful and go home.
“This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. And it borders on sedition,” Biden said, adding that it “must end now.”
But Biden expressed optimism, claiming the “scenes of chaos to not reflect true America, do not reflect who we are,” calling the Trump supporters “a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness.”
Biden called on President Trump to go on national television and “demand an end to this siege,” and on the “mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward.”
The president-elect even went as far as to call the event an “insurrection”: “To storm the capitol, to smash windows... it's not a protest, it's insurrection.”
Key Background
Biden has often been hesitant to adopt the fiery rhetoric of some of his Democratic colleagues when discussing the president and his supporters, instead opting for a staid tone and continued pleas for bipartisanship. “Let’s give each other a chance,” he told Trump supporters during his victory speech in November.
Crucial Quote
“This god awful display today is bringing home to every Republican and Democrat and independent in this nation: you must step up,” Biden said Wednesday.
What To Watch For
Biden has indicated he will continue to seek bipartisan consensus despite Democrats seizing control of the Senate after victories in the Georgia runoffs on Wednesday.
