U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday commemorated the two-year anniversary of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol...
On that day, supporters of former president Donald Trump attacked police, broke through barricades and entered the seat of Congress, in a failed effort to prevent congressional certification of Biden's 2020 election victory.
Five people died in the ensuing riot after Trump in his waning days as president delivered a speech near the White House urging his supporters to march on the Capitol.
But as Biden seeks to commemorate the day, others have sought to downplay it.
Trump and his allies in the Republican party have, since the riot, called efforts to investigate the attack and prosecute riots part of a partisan "witch hunt."
Bennie Thompson on 12/19: "If the faith is broken, so is our democracy. Donald Trump broke that faith,"
A select House committee's series of public hearings into the attack laid the blame for the violence on Donald Trump and his false claims of election fraud, and in a referral asked the Justice Department to open a criminal probe into whether the former president committed "insurrection" against the United States.
But that committee's work ended after Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.
Biden: "On that day, more than 140 law enforcement officials suffered physical injuries, and untold numbers are suffering from the psychological toll of that day as well."
Biden on Friday appeared determined to ensure the memory of the attack endures. He honored those he called heroes from law enforcement, politics and civil service for their contributions to democracy that day and beyond.
The "Presidential Citizens Medal" was given to 14 individuals, some of them posthumously.
