President Joe Biden on Thursday savaged Donald Trump's "lies" and attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, vowing on the first anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot he would let no one put a "dagger at the throat of democracy."
In a dark, powerful address, Biden called out Trump's effort to cheat and blasted the mob of the Republican's supporters who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent certification of the election result.
"This was an armed insurrection," Biden said in his speech from Statuary Hall inside the Capitol.
"For the first time in our history, a president not just lost an election. He tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power," Biden said.
"They came here in rage," Biden said, and "held a dagger at the throat of America."
"I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy."
Laying out the dangers facing a country that has long styled itself as leader of the free world, Biden asked: "Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm?"
"Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people?" the veteran Democrat continued.
Although Biden did not mention Trump's name, he made clear whom he was talking about in a blistering portrait of a man he said tried to cheat his way out of defeat in the election.
"The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election," Biden said. "He values power over principle."
During the assault on Congress, Trump was "sitting in the private dining room off the Oval Office in the White House, watching it all on television and doing nothing for hours," Biden said, his anger clear. "He's a defeated former president."
Republicans keep clear
In a statement issued immediately after Biden's speech, Trump accused the Democrat of seeking to "further divide America."
"This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed," Trump said.
The day's commemorative events were also to feature a speech by the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and a prayer vigil on the steps of the Capitol.
However, such are the depths of division 12 months later that many senior Republicans didn't even show up.
The party's top lawmaker, Senator Mitch McConnell, was leading a delegation to a funeral of a recently deceased senator some 965km away in Atlanta, Georgia.
In a statement, McConnell said January 6 had been a "dark day" but called it "stunning to see some Washington Democrats try to exploit this anniversary."