Jan. 6 updates: Biden tears into Trump for inciting Capitol attack

A somber Vice President Kamala Harris, in remarks ahead of Biden, said what the "extremists who roamed these halls targeted" last year when was not only an attack on the lives of elected leaders and the 2020 election. 

"What they sought to degrade and destroy was not only a building, hallowed as it is. What they were assaulting. were the institution's the values, the ideals that generations of Americans have marched, picketed, and shed blood to establish and defend," she said.

The vice president, who was at the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6 last year, reflected on what she called "the dual nature of democracy: its fragility and its strength."

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"The strength of democracy is the rule of law," she said. "And the fragility of democracy is this. That if we are not vigilant, if we do not defend it, democracy simply will not stand. It will falter and fail."

She ended her remarks with a call to pass Democrats voting rights bills in the Senate as restrictive voting laws are enacted across the country. 

"But we, the American people, must also do something more. We cannot sit on the sidelines. We must unite in defense of our democracy," she said.

Arriving on Capitol Hill, reporters asked the president ahead of his remarks how he was feeling heading into the day.

The president, flanked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, appeared to respond, "Praying that we will never have a day like we had a year ago today." 

Notably, he did not respond when asked if he held Trump personally responsible for the attack.

The three walked towards Statuary Hall, which rioters stormed through one year ago.

To mark one year since a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed through the Capitol -- including Statuary Hall where Biden will soon speak -- and attempted to breach the House chamber in an attempt to undo the 2020 election, in his remarks this morning, Biden will say that Americans are facing a moment when “we must decide what kind of nation we are going to be.”

“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? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies?” Biden will say according to speech excerpts released by the White House. 

“We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. The way forward is to recognize the truth and to live by it,” the excerpt read. 

While Biden is not expected to mention the former president by name, the White House said he will lay out the “singular responsibility President Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw.” 

Upon Biden’s arrival to the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer greeted him. The pair flanked the president as they walked towards Statuary Hall.

Armored military vehicles, concertina wire atop non-scalable fencing and the massive show of force that fortified Capitol Hill in the aftermath of the violent attack on democracy last Jan. 6 are not defining Thursday's anniversary.

The security posture in Washington, by comparison, appears fairly ordinary. The temporary fencing that ringed the Capitol for more than six months, and again briefly for a September demonstration has not returned, though that could change quickly if conditions warrant, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas in a recent interview. 

In a briefing Tuesday, Manger said his office was aware of several events planned for the day but that “most of them aren't of much concern to us.”

“There's no intelligence that indicates that there would be any problems,” he said.