Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa covering President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. government, UN, IMF, World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington and New York.
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. urged Americans in a speech on Thursday to embrace the truth, not lies, peace, not violence, and democracy, not insurrection, as the nation marks one year since the deadly January 6th assault on the United States Capitol by pro-Trump supporters.
On January 6, 2021, thousands of supporters of former President Donald J. Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Biden, a Democrat.
They broke doors and windows and threatened to hang then Vice President Mike Pence who was presiding over the certification of election results at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
The violent armed insurrectionists also threatened to assassinate House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The display of violence at the U.S. Capitol shocked the international community and left many wondering whether the United States was on the brink of collapse.
In his speech on Thursday, President Biden urged Americans to decide what type of nation they would like to have and be.
“And so at this moment we must decide what kind of nation we are going to be,” Mr. Biden will said. “Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies? We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. The way forward is to recognize the truth and to live by it.”