US VP Kamala Harris says Capitol riot reflected both 'fragility & strength' of democracy

On the first anniversary of the US Capitol insurrection, US Vice President Kamala Harris addressed her country. Harris underscored that some of the dates not only find a place in the calendar but also remain in the collective memory and compared the Capitol riot with Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Harris recalled in her remarks that she was not only a vice-president-elect on that day, but she was also a senator. 

"Certain dates echo throughout history, including dates that instantly remind all who have lived through them where they were, and what they were doing, when our democracy came under assault. Dates that occupy not only a place on our calendars, but a place in our collective memory: December 7th, 1941, September 11th, 2001, and January 6th, 2021," Kamala Harris said. 

Vice President Harris recounted that even though she had left the building at the time the mob breached the gates, she was worried for her colleagues and her staff. The US Vice President said that her staff was forced to convert filing cabinets into barricades as the angry mob stormed the Capitol. Harris asserted that the extremists not only roamed in the halls, but they also targeted the lives of elected leaders. She highlighted that they tried to destroy not only a building but also the values and ideals of generations of Americans.

January 6 reflects 'fragility and strength' of democracy: Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris said that the 6 January 2021 riot showed Americans what the country would look like if democracy was dismantled. She highlighted that the mob tried to destroy not only a building but also the values and ideals of generations of Americans. She highlighted that January 6 reflects the dual nature of democracy, its "fragility and its strength." She explained that American democracy's strength is the "rule of law, the principle that everyone should be treated equally and free and fair elections." She added that they cannot let the future of Americans be decided by those "bent on silencing our voices, overturning our votes, and pedalling lies and misinformation."

"What the extremists who roamed these halls targeted was not just the lives of elected leaders. What they sought to degrade and destroy was not only a building, hallowed as it is. What they were assaulting were the institutions, the values, the ideals that generations of Americans have marched, picketed and shed blood to establish and defend." Harris said. 

"The strength of democracy is that it empowers people 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 it will fail," Harris said. 

(Image: AP)