Biden addresses U.S. Capitol assault, calling it "one of the darkest days in the history of our nation"

President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday addressed the aftermath of the U.S. Capitol riots on Twitter, condemning the violence and calling it "one of the darkest days in the history of our nation, an unprecedented assault on our nation."

"What we witnessed yesterday was not dissent. It was not a disorder. It was not a protest. It was chaos. They weren't protesters. Don't dare call them protesters. They were a riotous mob. Insurrectionists. Domestic terrorists. It's that basic. It's that simple," so Biden, adding that Trump "unleashed an all-out assault on our institutions of our democracy from the outset. And yesterday was the culmination of that unrelenting attack" and was "trying to use a mob to silence the voices of nearly 160 million Americans."

"No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they would have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that's true. And it's unacceptable. Totally unacceptable," Biden continued.

Addressing his Justice Department nominees, Biden says: "You won't work for me. You are not the president or the vice president's lawyer. Your loyalty is not to me. It's to the law. The Constitution. The people of this nation."