CBS reporter presses Biden on whether Jan. 6 speech hitting Trump 'divides more than it heals'

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Media top headlines January 6

In media news today, an MSNBC reporter warns that Republicans in state legislature are passing voting laws that make 'January 6 every day,’ a CNN medical guest says that companies should not treat the unvaccinated and vaccinated as equal, and a White House reporter asks Jen Psaki why Biden hasn’t ‘focused more on scolding the unvaccinated.’

President Biden defended his Jan. 6 anniversary speech Thursday after a CBS reporter pressed him on whether calling out his predecessor multiple times would only serve to further "divide" the country in an already polarizing moment.

The president delivered his address from Statuary Hall in the Capitol Building one year after the Capitol riots. Biden mentioned former President Trump, whom he only referred to as the "former president," 16 times, according to reporters' tallies. In his most strident language yet against Trump since taking office, Biden said he "created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election," put "power over principle" and added "his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution."

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris depart after delivering speeches to mark the first year after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., Jan. 6, 2022.  (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool)

"For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election. He tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob reached the Capitol," Biden said. "But they failed."

BIDEN IN JAN. 6 SPEECH SHARPLY CRITICIZES TRUMP AS SPREADING ‘WEB OF LIES,’ STOKING RIOT 

CBS reporter Nikole Killion asked Biden after the speech if his arrows at his predecessor would backfire and "divide" the country, particularly after he talked so much about "healing." The president defended his words at the podium.

"No, no, look," Biden responded. "The way you have to heal, you have to recognize the extent of the wound. You can't pretend. This is serious stuff. And a lot of people, understandably, want to go, 'Look…I'd just as soon not face it.'"

"That's what great nations do," Biden added. "They face the truth."

President Biden talks to reporters as he departs through the Hall of Columns following his speech to mark the first year after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 6, 2022.  (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool)

JAN. 6: TRUMP HITS BACK, SAYING BIDEN TRYING TO 'FURTHER DIVIDE AMERICA' TO DISTRACT FROM FAILURES

Trump fired back at the president's assertion that he was the one to puncture the fabric of the nation.

Biden "used my name today to try to further divide America," Trump said in a statement. "This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed."

President Trump walks across the tarmac to board Air Force One at in Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020, to travel to Michie Stadium at the United States Military Academy to attend the 121st Army-Navy Football Game at West Point, New York.  (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

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Vice President Kamala Harris sparked a bit of controversy in her speech as well after she equated the Jan. 6 riots with September 11 and Pearl Harbor. Several media pundits and lawmakers have made the 9/11 comparison in the weeks leading up to the anniversary. 

"I wonder, how will Jan. 6 be remembered in the years ahead?" Harris asked. "Will it be remembered as a moment that accelerated the unraveling of the oldest, greatest democracy in the world, or a moment when we decided to secure and strengthen our democracy for generations to come?"