Capitol heroes honoured as bitter divisions linger
US President Joe Biden has conferred high honours on those who stood against the January 6 Capitol mob two years ago and the menacing effort in state after state to upend the election result, declaring that ‘‘America is a land of laws, not chaos’’ – even as disarray rendered Congress dysfunctional for a fourth straight day.
Democrats at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue yesterday commemorated the police officers who were attacked, and the election workers and state officials who faced fierce intimidation from supporters of former president Donald Trump to keep him in office after his defeat.
‘‘Our democracy held,’’ Biden said in awarding Presidential Citizens Medals to about a dozen recipients in the White House’s East Room. ‘‘We the people did not flinch.’’
However, democracy’s vulnerability was equally on display at the Capitol as Republicans struggled to break their stalemate over the next House speaker, leaving that chamber in limbo for what should have been the first week under a GOP majority.
Lawmakers held a moment of silence, which drew mostly Democrats, with brief remarks from Democratic leaders but none from the GOP.
The event was focused on the Capitol Police officers who protected the building that day, and the families of law enforcement officers who died after the riot. More than 140 officers were seriously injured.
While playing up the heroism of the honourees, Biden can’t ignore warning signs that such an attack could happen again.
Many of the Republican lawmakers who brought baseless claims of election fraud or excused the violence on January 6 continue to serve and are newly empowered. Trump’s 2024 candidacy has been slow off the starting blocks, but his war chest is full, and some would-be rivals for the Republican presidential nomination have channelled his false claims about the 2020 election.
At least nine people who were at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 died during or after the rioting. Two officers, Howard Liebengood of the Capitol Police and Jeffrey Smith of the Metropolitan Police, died by suicide in the following days. Biden honoured both yesterday with posthumous medals.
A woman was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber.
A third officer collapsed and died after battling the protesters. A medical examiner later determined that he died of natural causes. The Metropolitan Police announced months later that two more of their officers who had responded to the insurrection had also died by suicide.
The House committee investigating the attack wrapped up its work with a recommendation to the Justice Department to prosecute the former president. A special counsel and ultimately Attorney-General Merrick Garland will now decide whether to indict him.