President Biden on Thursday will mark the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol with a speech reflecting on the events of that day, according to excerpts released by the White House.
Biden will tell the nation, “At this moment we must decide what kind of nation we are going to be.”
He is planning to ask the American public a series of questions, including, “Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm?”
Biden will also talk about the the violent effort by supporters of former President Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election and its certification.
According to the excerpts, he will ask if the U.S. is “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?” Biden will say.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. The way forward is to recognize the truth and to live by it.”
Biden is set to mark the anniversary with a 9 a.m. speech at the Capitol in which he will “speak to the truth of what happened, not the lies that some have spread since,” according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
She added at the press briefing on Wednesday that Biden was involved in writing the speech and noted that he feels personally impacted by the events on Jan. 6, especially since he spent 36 years in the Senate.
The House is holding a series of events on Thursday to commemorate the fatal Jan. 6 attack. A moment of silence will be held on the House floor, along with a prayer vigil will be held on the Capitol Center steps.