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President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday blasted Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters, with his remarks coming at an event at which he introduced his nominees for the Justice Department.
“Yesterday, in my view, was one of the darkest days in the history of our nation,” Biden said at the event in Wilmington, Del.
“We could see it coming,” he added. “The past four years we’ve had a president who’s made his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law clear in everything he has done.”
Read more: Hundreds of Trump supporters storm Capitol Hill, break fences and fight with police
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Plus: Why the stock market rallied even as a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol
Merrick Garland, Biden’s nominee for U.S. attorney general, also referred to Wednesday’s siege when he spoke at the event.
“I have loved being a judge, but to serve as attorney general at this critical time — to lead the more than 113,000 dedicated men and women working in the department to ensure the rule of law — is a calling I am honored and eager to answer,” Garland said.
“As everyone who watched yesterday’s events in Washington now understands, if they did not understand before, the rule of law is not just some lawyer’s turn of phrase. It is the very foundation of our democracy.”
Garland, a federal appeals court judge, is known for being selected by former President Barack Obama to serve on the Supreme Court, but having his nomination blocked by a Republican-run Senate.
