America prepares to commemorate assault on Capitol more divided than ever

A deeply divided America will recall the Jan.6, 2021 assault on the Capitol on Thursday, with Democrats insisting the institutions are strong as anger and conspiracy theories that fueled the attack continue to rage.

Justice Secretary Merrick Garland will take stock on Wednesday of the criminal investigation into supporters of former Republican President Donald Trump who a year ago tried to prevent US congressmen from certifying the election of Joe Biden.

The US federal police estimate that at least 2,000 people were involved, of which 225 are accused of having committed violent acts.

Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who took office after the attack, testified before a Senate committee Wednesday.

“On January 6, he brought to light very important operational failures,” he acknowledges in the written version of his testimony, published by the Senate. “These problems have to be solved, and this is what we are doing.”

The objective of the Capitol police and the government is to reassure, to show that American institutions have learned the lessons of the violent clashes with the security forces and the unprecedented irruption of Trump supporters who walked freely through the corridors and even they dared to enter the parliamentarians’ offices.

On that same Capitol, President Biden will recall on Thursday that American democracy remains fragile, in a speech with Vice President Kamala Harris.

“He will talk about the work that remains to be done to secure and strengthen our democracy and our institutions, to reject the hatred and lies we saw on January 6, to unite the country,” his spokesperson Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

“January 6 was not the thoughtless and spontaneous action of a violent crowd. It was an attempt to violently reverse the outcome of free and fair elections. Make no mistake, the reasons that caused January 6 still exist, “said the leader of the Senate Democrats, Chuck Schumer, on Wednesday.

“If we do not address the roots of this violence, this insurrection will not remain an aberration, it will become the norm,” he warned.

Trump changes his mind

Former President Trump has finally decided to give up giving the press conference he had scheduled for Thursday in Florida, considered a provocation by Democrats and which was putting Republicans in trouble.

But the irascible millionaire did not soften his speech at all. In a statement on Tuesday he again described the elections as “fraud” which, he said without providing any evidence, tarnished the last presidential elections. “The crime of the century,” he wrote about the elections.

Although Trump renounces the limelight on the anniversary day, he will return to the subject at a rally scheduled in Arizona on January 15. Because despite losing by more than seven million votes to Biden, he insists that he was the real winner in 2020.

And this statement is nothing more than the most inflammatory element of an attack speech against Biden in everything, from his immigration policy to his way of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and that all seems like a gamble – not yet declared – to regain power in 2024.

Republicans, who are still heavily influenced by the former president, seem to choose to keep a low profile.

In a message dated January 2, its leader in the House of Representatives, which together with the Senate forms the United States Congress, wrote that “the actions of that day (January 6) were illegal.”

But Kevin McCarthy also criticized Democrats, who he says are using what happened on January 6 “as a partisan weapon to divide the country.”

Mitch McConnell, leader of the Republicans in the Senate, has already announced that he will not be present on Thursday during the commemorations in Washington. He will attend the funeral of a former US senator in Atlanta, in the southern United States. Away from the Capitol, where members of the Senate and House of Representatives are invited to a moment of recollection on Thursday, at 22:30 GMT.