President Joe Biden on Thursday awarded the second highest civilian decoration to Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson, the leaders of the Congressional investigation into the Capitol riot. Donald Trump has argued that he should be jailed for his role in the investigation.
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President Joe Biden awarded the second highest civilian decoration to Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson, the leaders of the Congressional investigation into the Capitol riot. Donald Trump said he should be jailed for his role in the investigation.
The crowd cheered when Mr. Cheney took the stage on Thursday.
Other honorees include Americans who fought for marriage equality, pioneers in treating wounded soldiers, and several former senators and congressmen. The award was established in 1969 by President Richard Nixon. , which recognizes people who have “performed exemplary acts of service to their country and fellow citizens.” People’
Biden awarded Presidential National Medals to 20 people during a ceremony in the East Room. Among them are two former U.S. Sen. Ted Kaufman (D), an American who fought for marriage equality, a pioneer in treating wounded soldiers, and a longtime friend of the president. , Chris Dodd, D-Conn.
“Together, you embody a central truth: We are a great nation because we are good people,” he said. “Our democracy begins and ends with the obligations of citizenship. That is what we have been doing for years, and that is what all of you embody.”
Mr. Biden last year was involved in defending the Capitol from an angry mob of Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, and in the United States during the 2020 presidential election, when President Trump unsuccessfully tried to overturn the results. He praised those who helped protect the will of voters. .
Cheney, a Republican and former Wyoming congresswoman, and Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, led the House committee investigating the riot. The commission’s final report found that Trump was criminally involved in “multiple conspiracies” to overturn the legitimate election results he lost to Biden and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. insisted. Trump “started that fire,” Thompson wrote.
When Mr. Cheney took the stage, the crowd cheered and rose to its feet. Biden shook her hand and presented her with a medal. The announcer said she received the award “for inviting the American people to the party.”
Cheney, who lost her seat in the Republican primary in August, later angered Trump by saying she would vote for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election and campaign with the Democratic candidate. . Mr. Biden has been considering whether to grant preemptive pardons to Mr. Cheney and others targeted by Mr. Trump.
Thompson also received a standing ovation.
President Trump, who won the 2024 election and will be inaugurated on January 20, still refuses to recant his lies about the 2020 presidential election and says he will pardon the rioters when he returns to the White House.
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the president-elect said, “Cheney, along with Thompson and the rest of the unelected committee of political thugs, did an unforgivable thing. You know, a creepy act. ” he claimed without any evidence. They “deleted and destroyed” the testimonies they had collected.
“Honestly, they should go to jail,” he said.
President Trump’s communications director, Stephen Chan, said Cheney and Thompson were “an embarrassment to this country” for their conduct on the committee.
Biden also awarded medals to Mary Bonauto, a lawyer who fought to legalize same-sex marriage, and Evan Wolfson, a leader in the marriage equality movement.
Other recipients include Frank Butler, who set new standards for the use of tourniquets for war injuries. Diane Carlson Evans served as a military nurse during the Vietnam War and founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation. and Eleanor Smeal, an activist who led women’s rights protests and fought for equal pay in the 1970s.
He presented the honor to photographer Bobby Sager, academics Thomas Vallely and Paula Wallace, and National Breast Cancer Federation President Frances Visco.
Other former members of Congress honored include former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-Jordan; Former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, the first woman to serve in the Kansas House of Representatives. Former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D.N.Y.) defended gun safety measures after her son and husband were shot and killed.
After presenting the award, he returned to the podium and asked not only John Kerry but also the members of Congress in the room to stand.
“Remember, our work continues,” he told the audience after thanking the families in attendance for the support they gave the candidates. There is still much work to do to continue this. ”
Biden paid tribute to the four men after their deaths. Joseph Galloway is a former war correspondent who wrote about the first major battle in Vietnam in his book “Once I Was a Soldier…And When I Was Young.” civil rights activist and lawyer Louis Lorenzo Redding; Former Delaware County Judge Collins Seitz. and Mitsue Endo Tsutsumi, who was detained along with other Japanese Americans during World War II and protested her detention.
The Presidential Civilian Medal was created by President Richard Nixon in 1969 and is the nation’s second highest civilian honor after the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It recognizes people who have “performed exemplary acts of service to their country and fellow citizens.”
