President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver remarks Thursday to mark one year since the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol, according to a schedule released by the White House.
Both have been vocal in rejecting the violence and failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
In the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invoked the January 6 anniversary in an effort to move voting rights legislation that has been stalled in the Senate. Schumer said in a letter to Democratic senators Monday that the Senate would debate and vote on changing the chamber’s rules on the filibuster — the requirement for 60 votes to end debate — if Republicans block voting rights legislation again. A source familiar with the strategy tells CBS News that talks among some Democratic senators about potential rules changes will continue this week.
“Make no mistake about it: this week Senate Democrats will make clear that what happened on January 6th and the one-sided, partisan actions being taken by Republican-led state legislatures across the country are directly linked, and we can and must take strong action to stop this antidemocratic march,” Schumer wrote.
In a joint bulletin issued by multiple federal agencies, U.S. officials are warning that “threat actors” may take advantage of the upcoming one-year marker, although there are currently no specific or credible threats, according to an intelligence assessment obtained by CBS News. According to the intelligence bulletin, lone offenders are the most likely threat to the upcoming anniversary.
Attorney General Merrick Garland will address the American public and Justice Department employees on Wednesday on what the Justice Department is doing to hold people responsible for the attack accountable. Hundreds of individuals have been charged in connection to the assault.
“In remarks to the Justice Department workforce, the Attorney General will also reaffirm the department’s unwavering commitment to defend Americans and American democracy from violence and threats of violence,” a Justice Department official said. “While he will not speak to specific individuals or charges, the Attorney General will discuss the department’s solemn duty to uphold the Constitution, follow the facts and the law, and pursue equal justice under law without fear or favor.”
On the anniversary of the assault on the Capitol, former President Trump plans to hold his own press conference on Thursday at his Florida home, where he is expected to reiterate his false claims of mass voter fraud.
Four people died the day the riot occurred, and one Capitol Police officer died the next day from injuries sustained during the attack. Scores of law enforcement officers were injured.
On that day, then-President-elect Biden urged Trump to “demand an end to this siege.” The former president’s near silence for hours during the attack prompted the resignations of several White House staff members.
“At this hour, our democracy’s under unprecedented assault,” Mr. Biden said on January 6. “Unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times. An assault on the citadel of liberty, the Capitol itself. An assault on the people’s representatives and the Capitol Hill police, sworn to protect them. And the public servants who work at the heart of our Republic. … Let me be very clear. The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America. Do not represent who we are.”
The work of the select House committee investigating the assault continues, as its members try to obtain communications and other records surrounding the attack, as well as the days leading up to it.
Representative Liz Cheney, one of the two Republicans on the committee, said Sunday on “Face the Nation” that she expects Trump on Thursday to “make the same false claims about the election that he knows to be false and the same false claims about the election that he knows caused violence on January 6.”
— CBS News’ Nikole Killion, Andy Triay and Nicole Sganga contributed to this report
