President Biden spoke Thursday regarding the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, delivering a potent and powerful address in the Capitol's Statuary Hall.
His speech, held in a venue in which U.S. presidents rarely appear, also served as a forceful rebuke of former President Donald Trump, who Biden never mentioned by name.
"You can't love your country only when you win," Biden proclaimed Thursday. "You can't obey the law only when it is convenient. You can't be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies."
In discussing the events of the riot, the current president blamed his predecessor for spreading a virtriolic "web of lies about the 2020 election," and assailed him for refusing to accept he lost.
"He's not just a former president," Biden said, directly alluding to Trump. "He's a defeated former president."
Biden ended his remarks by reaffirming his commitment to the country, and to ensuring democracy prevails.
"I did not seek this fight, brought to this Capitol one year from today. But I will not shrink from it either," the president exclaimed. "I will stand in this breach, I will defend this nation. I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of this democracy."