Joe Biden to address divided US on January 6 anniversary. Donald Trump also has plans

January 6, 2022, marks the first anniversary of the deadly attack on the US Capitol in Washington

President Joe Biden will speak from inside Capitol; Donald Trump plans press conference in Florida

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The US Capitol building was attacked on January 6, 2021, after a pro-Trump mob gathered at the White House to protest the certification of the 2020 presidential election. File photo: AFP

Published: 1:50pm, 4 Jan 2022Updated: 5:08pm, 4 Jan 2022

A divided nation will experience an ominous split-screen moment on Thursday when President Joe Biden uses the anniversary of the January 6 attack on Congress to warn of threats to US democracy and Donald Trump goes live with his conspiracy theories.

One year after a mob of Trump supporters marched on Congress to try and prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory in the presidential election, political wounds remain far from healed.

Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris will reportedly speak from inside the Capitol, the setting during the unrest of almost unbelievable scenes as Trump supporters fought past police to invade the heart of US democracy.

As a veteran politician who came out of retirement to take on what he saw as Trump’s authoritarian presidency, Biden has often warned during his first year in the White House of an “existential” threat to political freedoms that until now most Americans took for granted.

His speech - part of a series of events on what Biden’s key ally, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, says will be a “difficult day” - is set to take that warning to a new level.

But while Congress is holding a prayer vigil for what Biden has called “a dark moment,” Trump will be giving a press conference from his luxury property in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

After praise from former president Donald Trump to ‘show force’, a mob ransacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. File photo: AP

His message is likewise easy to predict. Despite losing by more than seven million votes to Biden, and despite losing multiple court challenges around the country, Trump continues to tout wild claims that the 2020 election was stolen.