President-elect Joe Biden didn’t hesitate to draw parallels between the response to President Trump’s supporters storming the country’s center of political power with the force used against civil rights activists over the summer.
“No one can tell me if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday, they would not have been treated very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” Biden said Thursday. “We all know that’s true. And it is unacceptable — totally unacceptable.”
Biden reacted to Trump’s backers swarming the U.S. Capitol Building during remarks Wednesday, but used his rollout of his picks to lead his Department of Justice to further criticize Trump and the response to the violence that left a woman dead.
He described Wednesday’s unrest, coinciding with Congress’ certification of the 2020 election, as “one of the darkest days in the history of our nation.”
“Don’t dare call them protesters. They were a riotous mob. Insurrectionists. Domestic terrorists,” he added.
Biden also hinted he would comment on calls for Vice President Mike Pence to trigger a 25th Amendment removal of Trump
“I’m not going to speak to that today,” he told reporters.
Biden’s tapping of Judge Merrick Garland as his nominee-designate for attorney general, as well as reports he’ll appoint Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as commerce secretary and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as labor secretary, rounds out his top-level Cabinet announcements.
Biden had promised Democrats pushing him to assemble a diverse Cabinet, he’d put together a team that represented the country. Yet no Asian Americans or Latinas will serve in a secretarial position when he forms his administration after Jan. 20. Biden’s Cabinet, however, will includes Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and Office of Management and Budget Director Neera Tanden and United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, if the latter two are confirmed.
