- For the first time in our history,
a president had not just lost an election --
He tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power
as a violent mob breached the Capitol.
But they failed.
They failed.
And on this day of remembrance, we must make sure
that such an attack never, never happens again.
A mob breaking windows,
kicking in doors, breaching the Capitol.
American flags on poles being used as weapons,
as spears.
Fire extinguishers being thrown at the heads of police officers.
A crowd that professes their love for law enforcement
assaulted those police officers.
We didn't see a former president
who had just rallied the mob to attack
sitting in the private dining room
off the Oval Office in the White House,
watching it all on television and doing nothing.
The former president of the United States of America
has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election.
He's done so because he values power over principle.
Because he sees his own interest
as more important than his country's
interest and America's interest.
And because his bruised ego matters more to him
than our democracy or our Constitution.
He can't accept he lost.
But whatever my other disagreements
are with Republicans who support the rule of law,
and not the rule of a single man,
I will always seek to work together with them,
to find shared solutions where possible.
What kind of nation are we going to be?
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?
You can't love your country only when you win.
You can't obey the law only when it's convenient.
You can't be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies.
Those who stormed this Capitol and those who instigated
and incited and those who called on them to do
so held a dagger at the throat of America.
We're living at an inflection point in history,
both at home and abroad.
We're engaged anew in a struggle between democracy and autocracy,
between aspirations of the many and the greed of the few.
We are in a battle for the soul of America.
A battle that by the grace of God
and the goodness and the greatness of this nation
we will win.