By Kevin Liptak and Jeff Zeleny, CNN
Two weeks before becoming president, Joe Biden watched the January 6 attack on television from his home in Delaware, horrified as the unspeakable images of the insurrection unfolded and aghast at the sitting President’s unwillingness to condemn it.
A year later, he’ll mark that day with a speech designed to put into stark terms what the event meant for a nation still deeply split over its significance — and to make clear his predecessor’s role in eroding American democracy.
In his speech from the Capitol’s Statuary Hall on Thursday, advisers said, the President intends to touch upon his deeply personal views of the assault on democracy and the attack on the hallowed Capitol building, where he spent nearly four decades during his time as a senator.
Biden worked over the holidays to write and refine an address that will be bluntly honest about the motivations and consequences of the riot, along with the threats to American democracy that still persist. It’s a topic that drives Biden, according to officials, but one that hasn’t played a central role in his public agenda. He has left investigating the riot to Congress and made clear he won’t interject into the Justice Department’s prosecution of its perpetrators.
Still, the January 6 riot has doggedly shadowed Biden’s first year in office. The insurrection was unsuccessful in preventing him from becoming president, but it has instead become a persistent reminder of the divisions he once...
Why it Matters Federal research agencies face mounting pressure to prevent fraud in grant-making, and Congress is moving to hold them accountable. A House subcommittee grant fraud hearing schedule...