On Thursday morning, as the nation marked the one-year anniversary of the violent assault on the Capitol by thousands of Donald Trump supporters determined to overthrow democracy, President Joe Biden gave a speech that was refreshingly blunt in its assessment. 

As Kerry Eleveld wrote shortly after the speech, Trump’s loss in the 2020 election and his refusal to accept that loss were the running themes of Biden’s speech. Because only in recognizing that Trump’s lies about the election were responsible for the events of Jan. 6, and for continuing erosion of national stability, is it possible to address the damage.

On this Jan. 6, President Biden and his advisers determined that this was the point at which to stop trying to talk about the assault on the Capitol without talking about the man behind that assault. The 725 people who have been arrested so far and the over 300 still being sought took part in the invasion of the Capitol. But Trump was the person who sent them there. 

Supporting Trump means not just supporting the Big Lie, but supporting the violence that it caused. And that needs to be called out—more than once.

Speaking to The Washington Post, members of the Biden White House team indicated that the Jan. 6 speech was a clear break with previous strategy, which had been to avoid elevating Trump by addressing his actions directly. But for Biden to talk to the nation on Jan. 6 about the men and women who tried to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, that simply wasn’t possible.

“You can’t talk about what happened on January 6 without talking about the former president’s role in it,” said White House senior adviser Mike Donilon. “There’s no way to be truthful about what happened there without doing that.”

Some of Trump’s role in that violence—the frequent, unfounded claims of election fraud, the ridiculous lawsuits filed in state after state, and the rhetoric that encouraged his supporters to violence—was already visible when Trump’s supporters erected a gallows on the Capitol lawn and invaded the building with the clear intent of capturing and killing lawmakers. More of Trump’s plot to install himself as dictator has become clear over the following year, as the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol has released documents showing the widespread scheme to discard votes from states that Joe Biden won and declare Trump the “winner” through a variety of skullduggery.

Even as Fox News spent the day beating their chest over Biden’s “partisan” speech, still more information was reaching the public for the first time. That includes a CNN interview, as reported in Vanity Fair, where former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham let it be known that Trump “gleefully” watched the events unfolding on television, rewinding to his favorite scenes of violence and declaring, “Look at all those people fighting for me.”

Grisham’s statements confirm reports by Rep. Liz Cheney, who noted that the select committee has “firsthand testimony now that [Trump] was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television as the assault on the Capitol occurred.”

This account was also confirmed by Sen. Ben Sasse, who said in an interview that Trump was “delighted” by what he saw on Jan. 6. 

“As this was unfolding on television,” said Sasse, “Donald Trump was walking around the White House confused about why other people on his team weren’t as excited as he was as you had rioters pushing against Capitol Police trying to get into the building.”

According to some of those interviewed by The Washington Post, Biden’s statements about Trump on Thursday “do not mark a permanent shift in strategy.” But they should.

Republicans—from Kevin McCarthy and other members of Congress to Sean Hannity and the whole panoply of Fox News pundits—understood on Jan. 6, 2021 that Trump was the source of the violence. They demonstrated that understanding by they calling and texting Trump, begging him to call off his goons. Then, despite Trump spending hours being “delighted” by the destruction and “gleefully” watching the violence, those same Republicans dutifully got back into line and supported Trump.

Supporting Donald Trump and supporting the violent assault on the Capitol aren’t just inseparable, they’re indistinguishable. Trump was the author of the Jan. 6 insurgency. By failing to condemn him for the violence, destruction, injuries, and death that his lies created, Republicans are signaling their support for both his attempted coup inside the halls of Congress, and the violent insurgency that smashed its way into the building. 

The number of times that Biden made it clear that Trump lost the 2020 election may be satisfying just for the understanding that each of these statements makes an impact on Trump’s hyperinflated ego. But there’s a far more important reason why the statements made on Thursday should be repeated: The Big Lie isn’t over. Republicans aren’t just failing to call Trump out on that lie, they are running on it. Across the nation, Republicans running for office and Republican media are feeding their supporters the same lies that drove the crowd up the stairs on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Endorsing Trump is endorsing the Big Lie. Endorsing the Big Lie is endorsing the Jan. 6 assault. They are all the same thing.

With the midterm election just 10 months away, that connection should be made every day. 

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