Jan. 6 remembrance led by Democrats

President Biden leaves after a ceremony to mark the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol and to award Presidential Citizens Medals at the White House on Friday. President Biden conferred high honors Friday on those who stood against the Jan. 6 Capitol mob two years ago and the menacing effort in state after state to upend the election, declaring “America is a land of laws, not chaos,” even as disarray rendered Congress dysfunctional for a fourth straight day. “Our democracy held,” Biden said in awarding Presidential Citizens Medals to about a dozen recipients from across the country in the White House East Room. The chaos of the speaker’s election “is about destruction of an institution in a different way,” said Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, one of the lawmakers who fled the rioters two years ago. “It’s not about governing, it’s about pontificating and advocating an extremist point of view.” Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire said, “It is a very small minority who want to throw this institution into chaos.” At least nine people who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, died during or after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber and three other Trump supporters whom authorities said suffered medical emergencies.