The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is set to play a prominent role in the upcoming presidential election, with the two leading candidates for the White House pushing dueling narratives about the legacy of the day’s events.
For President Biden, the attack on the Capitol — when supporters of then-President Trump stormed the complex to try and halt the certification of the 2020 election results — serves as a reminder of how fragile U.S. democracy is and the danger Trump poses to it. It is yet another example of the ongoing battle for the soul of the nation, as Biden put it during his 2020 campaign, a theme he has doubled down on as he seeks another term.
Trump, meanwhile, has minimized the events of Jan. 6 to push the narrative that he and his supporters are being unfairly targeted. He has pledged to pardon those charged with crimes in connection to the riots and continues to rail against investigations into that day, as well as his own criminal charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The conflicting approaches from the leading White House candidates reflect how, three years after the riots, the events of Jan. 6 have become yet another political tool for elected officials to use to motivate voters.
“I think obviously we’re a couple years removed, but it still seems to be very top of mind for some voters,” said Sarah Matthews, a former Trump White House official who resigned over the events of Jan. 6. “Obviously, Biden has kind of framed a lot of his messaging toward the fact that democracy is at stake, and I think that’s going to be a central theme of his campaign.”
Biden is set to speak in Valley Forge, Pa., on Friday, using a backdrop associated with the American Revolution to discuss the resonance of Jan. 6 three years later.
“This Saturday will mark the three-year anniversary of when — with encouragement from Donald Trump — a violent mob breached our nation’s Capitol. It was the first time in our nation’s history that a president tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez told reporters this week.
“The threat Donald Trump posed in 2020 to American democracy has only grown more dire in the years since,” she added. “Our message is clear and it is simple: We are running a campaign like the fate of our democracy depends on it. Because it does.”
Biden has been preparing for this speech throughout the week; he had lunch Wednesday with a group of scholars and historians about it. The White House said the group discussed “the ongoing threats to democracy and democratic institutions both here in America and around the world.”.
“The president tends to — and he’s done this before, he’s met with historians before — ahead of an important national moment, which we’re about to see certainly as it relates to Jan. 6,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday about the lunch.
Biden’s reelection campaign released its first paid ad of 2024 the day before the speech, which focused on democracy and attacked Trump. The 60-second ad, narrated by Biden, is set to run over the next week in key swing states and argues that Trump has made efforts to “erode American democracy and excuse — and even promote — political violence.”
Friday’s remarks will be Biden’s fifth major speech focused on democracy. His fourth was in the critical swing state of Arizona in September, during which he invoked the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Trump critic and longtime Biden friend.
The president’s other speeches on democracy took place in January 2022 to mark the first anniversary of Jan. 6, in September 2022 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and in November 2022 in Washington, D.C., just days before the midterm elections.
“[Biden’s] not known for harsh political rhetoric or pearl-clutching, so when he speaks about threats to our democracy, the public listens. His speech on the anniversary of Jan. 6 isn’t important just because of the political ramifications, it’s important because we can never forget what Donald Trump did,” said Michael Starr Hopkins, a Democratic strategist.
The president increasingly has targeted Trump in recent remarks and in particular during speeches to donors when fundraising across the country.
Biden, while in Philadelphia last month, said Trump poses a threat to democracy and highlighted a notable anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
“I don’t believe that on our 250th anniversary, this nation will turn to Donald Trump. Folks, imagine, imagine that moment and ask: ‘What do we want to be?’” Biden said. “If we do our job in 2024, we will have done something few generations have been able to say they’ve done. We will able to say literally, we saved democracy.”
Trump, meanwhile, is spending the third anniversary Saturday on the campaign trail; he has two events in Iowa planned ahead of the state’s crucial caucuses. He has invoked Jan. 6 during rallies before, most notably during his first 2024 campaign event in Waco, Texas, last April where he put his hand over his heart while a song played sung by a group of inmates that are incarcerated for their role in the attack.
But the events of Jan. 6 have also become a major source of various legal problems for Trump as he seeks the GOP nomination and a return to the White House in 2024.
Trump was indicted in August by federal prosecutors over his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, which culminated with the Jan. 6 riots, when his supporters tried to halt the official proceeding to certify the results.
Decisions in Colorado and Maine, if allowed to stand, would remove Trump from the ballot on the grounds that he engaged in an insurrection, barring him from a second White House term under a clause in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Trump’s campaign is appealing both rulings — and he will remain on the ballot in those states until the cases plays out legally.
The former president for weeks after the 2020 election falsely claimed it was rigged and fraudulent. He later encouraged his supporters to descend on Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, the day Congress was to certify the results, and during a rally that day near the White House, he urged those in attendance to make their voices heard at the Capitol.
Trump has downplayed the events of Jan. 6 while campaigning and framed his prosecution and charges against hundreds of rioters as politically motivated.
“I call them the ‘J-6 hostages,’ not prisoners. I call them the hostages, what’s happened. And you know, it’s a shame,” Trump said at a November rally.
The former president has said he would consider pardoning some of those charged in connection to the Capitol attack, and he spoke earlier this year at a fundraiser organized for Jan. 6 defendants.
Some Trump allies view the focus from Democrats on Jan. 6 as overblown.
“I just think that Democrats wake up every morning … and they look at the calendar, the iPhone says Jan. 6, 2021. The date never changes,” former senior Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said during a recent Fox News appearance. “And then they get into an electric vehicle and go get an abortion. I just described the Democratic Party to you in seven seconds.”
But polling ahead of the third anniversary of the attack suggests Jan. 6 still resonates with a large swath of voters.
A Washington Post-University of Maryland survey published Tuesday found 53 percent of the public say Trump bears at least a “good amount” of responsibility for the attack at the Capitol.
The poll also found 55 percent of Americans say the events of Jan. 6 should never be forgotten, including 86 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of independents, a sign the issue could effectively turn out the voters Biden will need to win reelection.
But, in a sign of the effect of Trump’s constant claims that the 2020 election was rigged, the poll also found 62 percent of Americans said Biden’s win was legitimate, down 7 percentage points from 2021.
“President Biden has earned the trust of the American people and owes it to them to ensure that we never forget how delicate our democratic experiment can be when left in the wrong hands,” said Hopkins, CEO of Northern Starr Strategies.