Biden to blame Trump for ‘chaos and carnage’ of 6 January attack – live | US news

Attorney general Merrick Garland said thus far, the justice department has filed charges against 725 defendants “in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia” in connection to the 6 January attack.

Of those defendants, 325 were charged with felonies – 20 have already pleaded guilty.

Garland noted that investigators have “issued 5,000 subpoenas, seized 2,000 devices, pored through 20,000 hours of video footage and searched through 15 terabytes of data”.

“The actions we have taken thus far will not be our last,” he said. “The justice department remains committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law — whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy.”

Attorney general Merrick Garland has taken the podium to reaffirm that the justice department’s commitment to defending the American democracy. He alluded to a major point in the Biden administration’s agenda: voter rights protections.

“We will protect the cornerstone of our democracy: the right to every eligible citizen to cast a vote that counts,” he said.

Tomorrow, Joe Biden will address the nation on the anniversary of one the worst days in the country’s history, the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

Now it appears far-right representatives Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene will be providing a response.

As a reminder, many have voiced unhappiness with the justice department and how attorney general Merrick Garland has been handling the investigation into the 6 January attack on the US Capitol – the main criticism being that the justice department has not taken enough action, gotten to the origins of the organizing behind the attack or made any mention about Donald Trump’s role in the whole event.

In a moment, attorney general Merrick Garland will provide remarks on the justice department’s investigation into the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. Watch live here.

It’s been an expectant and reflective morning in Washington as those in the capital prepare for the anniversary tomorrow of the Trump-inspired insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 last year.

Stay tuned for the rest of the day’s coverage of US political news as it happens.

Here’s where things stand:

• Stephanie Grisham, former White House press secretary under Donald Trump, will meet today with the House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, CNN is reporting
• Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, is tweeting out what leading Republicans said in the immediate aftermath of the violence a year ago, condemning the insurrection and blaming Donald Trump, in a bid to “not let them forget”.
• Just 55% of Americans polled believe Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election – even though proof of his legitimate victory has been established in courts across the country time and time again, a new Axios-Momentive poll is reporting .
• As Washington prepares for the January 6 insurrection’s anniversary, attorney general Merrick Garland will deliver remarks this afternoon on the investigation by the justice department into the attack. This is separate from the investigation by the special congressional bipartisan committee that we’ve been hearing so much from in recent months, led by the committee chair, congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.

While the Republicans of Congress may be a little wishy-washy when it comes to the 6 January attack on the US Capitol – and exactly who bears responsibility for it – the White House said Americans should be prepared for Joe Biden to speak tomorrow about “the singular responsibility of President Trump for the chaos and carnage that we saw”.

“President Biden has spoken repeatedly about how the former president has abused his office, undermined the constitution and ignored his oath to the American people in order to amass more power for himself and his allies,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at today’s press briefing.

CNN is reporting that Stephanie Grisham, former White House press secretary under Donald Trump, will meet today with the House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

Grisham was fired from as press secretary and White House communications director in April 2020, replaced by Kaleigh McEnany. She returned immediately as chief of staff to then-first lady Melania Trump.

Grisham was one of the longest serving members of the Trump administration, starting her time with Trump as a press aide on his campaign. On 6 January, she became the first administration official to resign as a result of the attack.

Grisham confirmed in her memoir that on 6 January, she sent Melania Trump a text asking, “Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?” Melania Trump, who CNN reported was conducting a photo shoot of some carpets in the White House that she had had installed, replied: “No.”

It wasn’t until 11 January that Melania Trump acknowledged the insurrection.

Speaking of the 147 members of Congress who objected to the certification of the 2020 election result, HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery asked all of them, one year later, if they thought Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fairly – a fact that has been proven in courts across the country again and again at this point.

Nearly all declined to answer, Bendery said.

Though Rick Scott, the senator from Florida, responded with, “He’s the constitutionally elected president. I’ve said it like a zillion times” – he told HuffPost that he did not regret voting against certifying the election result.

Senators Josh Hawley and Tommy Tuberville both had similar answers – that Biden won the election fairly, but they did not regret their vote against certifying that win.

Only one aide out of the 139 House Republicans who voted against certification responded to Bendery’s inquiries – congressman Pete Sessions does not regret his vote, and still had concerns about widespread voter fraud, allegations of which, once again, have never been proven.

However, congressman Tom Rice told Politico last month that he should have voted to certify “because President Trump was responsible for the attack on the Capitol.”

“In the wee hours of that disgraceful night, while waiting for the Capitol of our great country to be secured, I knew I should vote to certify,” Rice said. “But because I had made a public announcement of my intent to object, I did not want to go back on my word. So, yeah, I regret my vote to object.”

The Insurrection Index has identified more than 1,000 Americans in positions of public trust who acted as accomplices in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election result, either by participating in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol or spreading the “big lie” that the vote count had been rigged.

This index was set up by Public Wise, a voting rights group whose mission is to fight for government that reflects the will and the rights of voters, with legal advice from Marc Elias, one of the most influential election lawyers in the US who was Hillary Clinton’s top counsel in the 2016 presidential campaign and who successfully led Joe Biden’s resistance to Trump’s blitzkrieg of lawsuits contesting the 2020 results.

Some of the individuals listed in the index include:

• Mark Finchem, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives who was present at Trump’s “stop the steal” rally in Washington on 6 January and who is now vying to become Arizona secretary of state – the top election official who oversees the presidential count.
• Jake Hoffman, a lawmaker who represents Arizona’s 12th district, who wrote to fellow Republicans a day before the Capitol insurrection urging them to pressure then vice-president Mike Pence into blocking Biden’s victory.
• The 147 members of Congress who objected to the certification of the 2020 election results.

The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington has more here:

The Guardian’s David Smith takes a look at the control that Donald Trump has had on the Republican party – and how it’s grown since the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

Here’s a sweet story from one of the worst days in our country’s history.

Politico Huddle tells the tale of how in the chaos of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, Joe Lowry, the director of emergency preparedness for the House of Representatives, found a gold earring on the floor of the house chamber balcony.

Assuming it was lost in the rush to safety, he tweeted out his discovery, hoping to reunite it with its owner. After holding onto the earring for almost an entire ear, he tried again, just ahead of the one-year anniversary of the attack.

Almost immediately, Politico reporter Sarah Ferris recognized it as hers. She went back after evacuation to try and find it, but to no avail.

Ferris told the Huddle that she had borrowed those earrings from her mother, who is now “very thrilled I didn’t forever lose her favorite earrings.”

With one day to go to the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, congressman Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, is tweeting out what Republicans said in the immediate aftermath of the violence in a bid to “not let them forget”.

All these quotes have been previously reported and the ones republished below are fact-checked. But after a year of hearing leaders like Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell backtrack – plus, you know, the whole acquittal of Donald Trump in his second impeachment – it’s jarring to remember how strongly they spoke against the former president in the days that followed.

A new Axios-Momentive poll is reporting today that just 55% of Americans polled believe Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election – even though proof of his legitimate victory has been proven in courts across the country time and time again.

Of those polled, 26% definitively said no, they did not believe Biden legitimately won – a fact that has, once again, been proven false – and 16% said they were not sure.

About 37% of those surveyed say they’ve lost faith in American democracy, while 10% said they never had any faith. But this figure skews more toward the right than toward the left — 47% of Republicans said they lost faith while only 28% Democrats agreed.

Ahead of the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, about 57% of Americans — about half of Republicans and seven in 10 Democrats — believe that more events like 6 January will happen in the next few years. Only about 58% said they support the work of the House select committee investigating the events of 6 January — 88% among Democrats, 58% among independents and 32% among Republicans.

Ahoy there, live blog readers. Happy Wednesday.

Much of today’s focus appears to be in preparation of tomorrow’s anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

Attorney general Merrick Garland will deliver remarks this afternoon on the investigation by the justice department into the attack. The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin noted that for some, “patience is wearing thin with Garland”, who has yet to tie Donald Trump to the events of the insurrection.

“Garland does not want to give specifics about who is being investigated and for what. Fine. But he then must describe the crime,” Rubin wrote. “On the eve of the anniversary of the Capitol riot, he must explain in clear terms that the assault on democracy was both violent and nonviolent, beginning well before 6 January.”

Ahead of Garland’s remarks, senate majority leader Chuck Schumer will be speaking about the attack at the senate rules committee oversight meeting. Reminder that earlier this week, Schumer connected the anniversary of the attack to another attack on our democracy – the attack on voter rights. He laid down a plan to hold to a vote by or on 17 January, Martin Luther King Jr Day, to change the rules to the filibuster, a parliamentary tactic that Republicans have used repeatedly to block voter rights legislation, using strong language about the 6 January anniversary.

Meanwhile, Trump has cancelled his planned Mar-A-Lago press conference for tomorrow, just as the House select committee investigating the attack requested the cooperation of Trump adviser and Fox News host, Sean Hannity. Politico is reporting that this news came as a relief to congressional Republicans, who knew they’d be asked to give a response to whatever Trump said.