President Joe Biden on Friday marked the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot by awarding one in every of the nation’s highest civilian honors to 14 individuals who showed courage and selflessness in the course of the events surrounding the deadly riot.
The award ceremony on the White House was Biden’s first time bestowing the Presidential Residents Medal, which is given to Americans “who’ve performed exemplary deeds of service for his or her country or their fellow residents.”
The group included law enforcement officers, current and former politicians and election staff who were targeted with threats following the 2020 presidential contest. Three of the medals were awarded posthumously to officers who had defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and died afterward by injuries or by suicide.
“America owes you all, I actually mean this, a debt of gratitude,” Biden said during impassioned remarks on the Friday afternoon ceremony.
The recipients were honored for his or her actions before, during and after the riot, when a violent mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, fighting with officers, destroying and stealing property and threatening lawmakers. The attack got here shortly after a joint session of Congress convened to verify Biden’s presidential victory over Trump, who had falsely asserted he won the 2020 election.
The mob forced lawmakers to flee their chambers for several hours, impeding the transfer of power. Greater than 100 officers were injured in the course of the attack, and federal officials estimate the riot cost thousands and thousands of dollars in damages.
“All of it was fueled by lies in regards to the 2020 election,” Biden said Friday, without mentioning Trump by name. The previous president, who stays a serious force within the Republican Party, has already launched a campaign for the White House in 2024.
Democracy held after Jan. 6 only because “we the people didn’t flinch, we the people endured, we the people prevailed,” Biden said.
Among the many honorees was Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who diverted a gaggle of rioters hurtling toward the Senate chamber, which had not yet been fully evacuated. Multiple officers who were injured in the course of the riot — Aquilino Gonell, Michael Fanone, Caroline Edwards and Daniel Hodges — were also given awards, as was Officer Harry Dunn, who testified about facing racial slurs and harassment from the mob.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers were honored for resisting pressure from Trump’s allies to overturn their states’ election results. Bowers, a Republican, lost a State Senate bid in 2022 to an opponent backed by Trump.
Biden also awarded Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, two election staff in Fulton County, Georgia, who faced waves of harassment and threats related to unfounded voter-fraud conspiracy theories within the state.
Officers Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood and Jeffrey Smith got posthumous awards. Sicknick died a day after grappling with rioters on the Capitol. His manner of death was determined to be natural causes, but Washington Chief Medical Examiner Francisco Diaz said on the time, “all that transpired played a task in his condition.” Liebengood and Smith each died by suicide after defending the Capitol.
Biden’s speech marking the anniversary of the riot followed other ceremonies and remembrances on Capitol Hill, mostly from Democratic lawmakers.
“Today marks 2 years since a violent mob of insurrectionists — sanctioned by the previous President —descended on the Capitol in an armed and deadly effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power and reverse the final result of a free and fair election,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in an announcement Friday morning. “To at the present time, Donald Trump continues his try and poison American democracy together with his Big Lie.”
In a temporary ceremony on the House steps, lawmakers gathered for a moment of silence with the families of officers who died in relation to the riot. Many more were injured or traumatized by the mob, noted Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of Recent York, the brand new House Democratic leader. “We stand here today with our democracy intact due to those officers,” Jeffries said.
Just one Republican representative, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, attended that event, in accordance with one report.
The anniversary got here as House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California continued his fight to turn out to be speaker of the House after three straight days of failing to win enough votes from his party. In the times after the Jan. 6 riot, McCarthy initially blamed Trump for the attack, saying the president “bears responsibility” whilst he opposed Democrats’ efforts to question Trump for a second time. But McCarthy soon walked back that criticism.
The somber event on the White House was punctuated by a number of moments of levity. After Biden fumbled the pronunciation of Gonell’s name, the previous USCP Sergeant corrected him, prompting the president to shake the officer’s hand and quip, “He can call me President Bidden any more.”
In one other instance, Biden drew laughter when he acknowledged a technical difficulty causing an echo in his audio.
