According to Biden, he received a text message from his 21-year-old granddaughter Finnegan Biden pointing out how much more aggressive the police were with Black Lives Matter protesters.
“No one can tell me that if it was a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they would not be treated very, very differently from the crowd of thugs who stormed the Capitol. We all know that is true, and it is unacceptable… completely unacceptable, “said Biden in Wilmington, Delaware. “The American people saw it clearly.”
Earlier this year, US police and the National Guard at one stage used gas to disperse a crowd of peaceful protesters outside the White House so Trump could walk across Lafayette Park to visit a church damaged by rioters. Scenes of police raging protesters in cities across the country surfaced in May and June following the assassination of George Floyd by police.
However, after a pro-Trump mob flooding the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, videos have emerged showing some Capitol police officers going out of their way or taking selfies. Other police officers tried to hold back protesters. One protester was shot dead by police.
“We saw two legal systems when we saw one that caused extremists to storm the U.S. Capitol and another that released tear gas to peaceful protesters last summer,” said Kamala Harris, vice president. “We know it’s unacceptable. We know we have to be better than that.”
Biden’s comments on Thursday came when he introduced the group he had chosen to steering the Department of Justice. He admonished Trump’s actions on Wednesday, when a mob stormed the Capitol at Trump’s request. He said Trump was directly responsible for “one of the darkest days in our country’s history”, a day after Trump-backed rioters stormed the US capital.
“They were a riotous mob – insurgents. Domestic terrorists. It’s so basic. It’s that simple,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware, when he began a speech in which he planned to hear Judge Merrick Garland, the federal appeals court, as his nominee. Attorney General.
“And I wish we could say we could not see it coming, but it’s not true. We can see it coming,” Biden said. “For the past four years we have had a president who has made clear his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law in everything he has done. He has from the outset launched a total attack on the institutions of unleashed our democracy, and yesterday was just a highlight … of that attack. ‘
“To try to use a mob to silence the voices of the nearly 160 million Americans who called for courage in the face of a pandemic that threatened their health and their lives to bring out that holy voice,” Biden said. about Trump’s actions, citing the number of Americans who voted in the 2020 presidential election.
Biden on Thursday tried to make it clear that – unlike Trump, who relied on his attorney general to end investigations into his actions and launch investigations into his political rivals – he is seeking a justice department that is independent of the president. will act.
“You will not work for me. You are not the president or the vice president’s lawyer. Your loyalty is not to me. It is against the law. The Constitution,” Biden said.
Garland also referred to the attempted coup by Trump supporters on Wednesday to interpret his decision to leave a lifelong appointment as federal judge.
“To serve as Attorney General at this critical time … is a calling I would very much like to answer,” Garland said. “As everyone who watched yesterday’s events in Washington now understands – if they have not understood it before – the rule of law is not just some jurist. It is the foundation of our democracy. . ”
‘The essence of the rule of law is that similar cases be treated equally; that there is no one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans; one rule for friends and another for enemies … or different rules depending on race or ethnicity. And the core of its great consequences, equal justice under the law, is that all citizens are protected in their exercise of their civil rights, ‘he said.
Garland pointed to Biden’s comments that the attorney general has the “independent ability” to determine who is prosecuted.
“I would not have agreed under any other conditions to be considered attorney general,” Garland said.
To serve under Garland at the Department of Justice, Biden selected Lisa Monaco, who served as Assistant Attorney General for National Security in the Obama administration, as her nominee for Deputy Attorney General.
The president-elect also elected Vanita Gupta, a former acting assistant attorney general in the Obama administration, as his co-attorney general, and Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Civil Rights Attorneys Committee under the law, as his nominee as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.
“Our top candidates for leadership in the Department of Justice are eminently qualified, embodied character and judgment that is indestructible, and have dedicated their careers to serving the American people with honor and integrity,” Biden said in a statement. .
The elected president continued: ‘They will restore the independence of the Department so that it serves the interests of the people, not a presidency, rebuild the public’s confidence in the rule of law and work tirelessly for a more to ensure a just and just legal system. ‘
Garland, whose nomination by President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court in 2016 was ignored by Republicans from the Senate, is considered a leading candidate for the position, but concerns about the vacancy his choice for the U.S. District Court of Appeals for Columbia District would create. under Biden alarm and many advisers who believed that the Republicans of the Senate would block any nomination to the seat. Democrats who won the Senate allayed concerns.
Biden was scheduled to deliver a speech on the economy on Wednesday afternoon, but deleted his speech and instead addressed the chaos and violence in Washington. He said the uproar by Trump supporters at the US Capitol amounted to an “unprecedented onslaught” on US democracy.
“It’s not different, it’s disorder. It’s chaos,” Biden said. “It borders on sedition, and it should end now.”