President Joe Biden will mark the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by awarding medals to 12 people at the White House on Friday who defended democracy leading up to and during the violent attack on Congress.
The recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal include a mix of police officers and state election officials who resisted President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on false claims of fraud and who “demonstrated courage and selflessness during a moment of peril for our nation,” according to a White House official. The award is one of the nation’s highest civilian honors and it will be Biden’s first time awarding one.
The recipients include some of the most prominent law enforcement officials who defended the Capitol from a mob of hundreds of Trump supporters, including Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, retired Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, and retired Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone. Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died after sustaining injuries in the attack, will be awarded posthumously.
The list also includes Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Arizona GOP House Speaker Rusty Bowers, both key figures who stood firm amid pressure from Trump allies seeking to overturn the election results in the two key battleground states. Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, two state election workers who faced threats and harassment in the wake of the 2020 election, will be given awards as well.
Last month, the House Jan. 6 select committee released its long-awaited 848-page report detailing Trump’s attempt to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election — and recommendations to prevent such a thing from happening again.
“From the beginning, Donald Trump’s fraud allegations were concocted nonsense, designed to prey upon the patriotism of millions of men and women who love our country,” committee vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, wrote in her foreword to the report. “Most Americans also did not know exactly how Donald Trump, along with a handful of others, planned to defeat the transfer of presidential power on January 6th. This was not a simple plan, but it was a corrupt one.”
The committee earlier voted to refer criminal charges against Trump and others to the Department of Justice, including for obstructing an official proceeding, conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to make false statements and inciting an insurrection against the United States. The DOJ is conducting its own investigation into the attack and has not signaled whether it will comply.
