Joe Biden blasted President Donald Trump on Thursday for 'inciting a mob to attack the Capitol' and said if it was Black Li...
Joe Biden blasted President Donald Trump on Thursday for 'inciting a mob to attack the Capitol' and said if it was Black Lives Matter protesters who had done such a thing, they 'would have been treated very, very differently.'
Biden, during the announcement of his attorney general nominee, used his opening remarks to hold President Trump accountable for insurgents who stormed Capitol Hill, breached the Senate chamber, and caused a path of destruction in their wake.
Trump had egged on the mob through social media posts where he falsely claimed he lost the election and at a rally earlier Wednesday when he encouraged his supporters to march on Capitol Hill.
Biden laid out the case against Trump, saying 'the past four years we have had a president who's made his contempt for our democracy, our constitution, the rule of law clear in every he has done.'
The president elect noted Trump has spent his presidency attacking the press and intelligence agencies, used the language of 'autocrats and dictators,' and tear gassing peaceful protesters in 'pursuit of a photo opportunity in the service of his re-election' - a reference to Trump's walk across Lafayette Square in June to have his photo taken with the bible in front of St. John's church.
Joe Biden blasted President Trump for 'inciting a mob to attack the Capitol'
Joe Biden laid out the case against President Trump, saying 'the past four years we have had a president who's made his contempt for our democracy, our constitution, the rule of law clear in every he has done'
He went on to point out more than 60 judges - including some appointed by Trump - ruled against the president's election challenges and that the Supreme Court also struck down an attempt to overthrow the results.
He praised the judicial branch for its actions under pressure from the president.
'Take a look at the pressure it was just subjected to by a sitting president of the United States of America,' Biden said. 'At every level the judiciary rose to the moment during this election. Did its job. Acted with complete fairness and impartiality with honor and integrity. When history looks back on this moment we have just passed through I believe it will say our democracy survived in no small part because of the men and women that represent an independent judiciary in this nation.'
He went on to say all of Trump's actions led to 'a culmination of attack on the institutions of democracy, this time the congress itself. Inciting a mob to attack the capitol, to threaten elected representatives of the people of this nation and even the vice president to stop the congress from ratifying the will of the American people and just completed free and fair election.'
President-elect Joe Biden called the attack on the Capitol 'one of the darkest days in the history of our nation'
Joe Biden said the insurgents who stormed the building were 'domestic terorrists'
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris spoke about the treatment of the largely white protesters in the Capitol, compared with the strong arming police did with Black Lives Matter protesters
Biden's justice department team will be led by Federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, who is his nominee for attorney general
Biden also argued Black Lives Matter protesters would have been treated differently if they had been the ones to invade the Capitol.
'No one can tell me that if it had been a group of black lives matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn't have been treated very, very differently,' he said.
'We all know that is true. And it is unacceptable. Totally unacceptable!,' he added.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris also spoke about the treatment of the largely white protesters, compared with the strong arming police did with Black Lives Matter protesters.
'We witnessed two systems of justice, when we saw one that let extremists storm the United States Capitol and another that released tear gas on peaceful protesters last summer,' Harris said.
Biden summed up Wednesday's events in the Capitol - where at least four people died - as 'one of the darkest days in the history of our nation.'
He said the pro-Trump mob weren't protesters but 'domestic terrorists.
'It was not protest. It was chaos. They weren't protesters. Don't dare call them protesters. They were a riotous mob, insurrectionists. Domestic terrorists. It is that basic. It is that simple,' he noted.
Biden then vowed his Justice Department would be independent and not subject to any political pressure.
'I want to be clear to those who lead this department, who you will serve: you won't work for me. You are not the president or the vice president's lawyer. Your loyalty is not to me. It's to the law, the constitution, the people of this nation, to guarantee justice,' he said.
At the event, Biden introduced his Justice Department team, to be led by federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland as attorney general.
Garland is a federal appeals court judge who, in 2016, was snubbed by the Republican Senate for a seat on the Supreme Court, which was left vacant after the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
He is expected to be confirmed by the Senate, which will be controlled by Democrats when Biden takes office.
'More than anything, we need to restore the honor, the integrity, the independence of the Department of Justice that´s been so badly damaged,' Biden said of his choices.
Garland promised to restore an equal commitment to law, pointing to Wednesday's riot at the Capitol as an example.
'As everyone who watched yesterday's events in Washington now understands, if they did not understand before, the rule of law is not just some lawyers' turn of phrase, it is the very foundation of our democracy,' Garland said.
Biden also announced Obama administration homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco (left) would serve as deputy attorney general, former Justice Department civil rights chief Vanita Gupta (center) as associate attorney general, and Kristen Clarke (right) will be an assistant attorney general for civil rights
Biden also announced Obama administration homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco would serve as deputy attorney general and former Justice Department civil rights chief Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general, the No. 3 person at the Justice Department.
He also named an assistant attorney general for civil rights, Kristen Clarke, the president of advocacy group Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
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