President Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, to law enforcement, election workers and local officials who stood firm in the face of chaos on Jan. 6, 2021, marking the second anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Biden said the riot serves as a reminder that “there’s nothing guaranteed about our democracy” and declared “America is a land of laws, not chaos.”
“Our democracy held,” Mr. Biden said in his remarks during the East Room ceremony Friday. “We the people did not flinch.”
The list of awardees includes U.S. Capitol and the District’s Metropolitan Police, election workers, and state and local officials.
Three officers received the medal posthumously including U.S. Capitol Police Officers Brian Sicknick who died of natural causes one day after responding to the riot, and Howard Liebengood, who died by suicide days after responding to the attacks. Jeffrey Smith, a Washington Metropolitan police officer who also died by suicide days after the attack was also honored.
The list of U.S. Capitol Police officers also included Eugene Goodman, who is credited with diverting rioters away from lawmakers as they evacuated; Harry Dunn, who faced racial slurs and harassment while defending the Capitol; Caroline Edwards, who was the first officer to be injured during the attack; and Aquilino Gonell, also injured during the protest.
Washington Metropolitan Police Officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges, both injured while defending the tunnel entrance to the Capitol from a flood of rioters, also received the award.
Congress has awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, its highest award, to the hundreds of officers who responded to the Capitol attack.
Awardees also include several state election officials who resisted pressure to overturn the 2020 presidential election: Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Philadelphia County Board of Elections Commissioner Al Schmidt.
Shay Moss and Ruby Freeman, the mother-daughter pair of election workers from Fulton County, Georgia, who have faced threats and intimidation following the election, were also awarded the medal.
Friday’s ceremony was the first time Mr. Biden awarded the Citizens Medal.
In his remarks, Mr. Biden recalled the riot as a day “our democracy was attacked.”
“There’s no other way of saying it,” he said. “The U.S. Capitol was breached. All for the purpose of attempting to overthrow the will of the people and to usurp the peaceful transfer of power.”
Still, the president struck a less divisive tone in his remarks than last year, reflecting a similar tone he has employed in recent weeks as he enters the back half of his first term under a Republican-controlled House.
Mr. Biden marked the first anniversary of the attack last year in a dramatic speech from Statuary Hall in the Capitol where he offered a searing criticism of his predecessor and a rallying cry for Democrats.
Alluding to former President Donald Trump, Mr. Biden said the rioters went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to “rage” in the “service of a man.”
“Those who stormed this Capitol, and those who instigated and incited, and those who called on them to do so, held a dagger at the throat of America — at American democracy,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden used that theme to campaign for Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections, warning that the “soul of America” hung in the balance under threat by an extreme group of “MAGA Republicans.”
But, in marking the second anniversary on Friday, Mr. Biden focused instead on the country’s ability to overcome.
“We the people endured,” he said. “We the people endured.”
“It’s not an exaggeration to say America owes you all … a debt of gratitude,” Mr. Biden said. “One we can never fully repay unless we live up to what you did.”
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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