US President Joe Biden is set to confer the country’s second highest civilian honor on 20 people at a ceremony at the White House on Thursday.
Presidential Citizens Medal recipients include Congressman Bennie Thompson and former Congresswoman Elizabeth Cheney, who led the congressional investigation into the attack by a mob on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, following Biden’s 2020 election victory over Donald Trump. Was trying to disrupt the certification. Trump.
Trump, who is seeking re-election in 2024 for a new term starting later this month, has said Thompson and Cheney should be jailed.
A White House statement about those honored Thursday said Cheney, a Republican, “raised her voice — and raised her voice — to defend our country and the ideals we stand for: access to freedom.” Gone are the dignity and decency.”
The statement said Thompson was “at the forefront of defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to the truth.”
Created in 1969, the Presidential Medal of Freedom honors citizens “who have performed exemplary acts of service to their country or their fellow citizens.”
“President Biden believes these Americans are bound by their common decency and commitment to serving others,” the White House said. “The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”
Also being honored Thursday are Mary Bonotto and Evan Wolfson, who worked to legalize gay marriage in the United States.
Frank Butler is another Medal of Honor recipient, with the White House highlighting his effort to set the standard for the use of tourniquets and saying he “transformed battlefield trauma care for the United States military and saved countless lives. “
Mitsuye Ando Tsutsumi is being honored for his successful legal challenge against the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Biden is honoring Eleanor Smeal for leading the women’s rights protests and her work in the fight for equal pay for women.
Medals are being presented to former Congresswoman Caroline McCarthy and a group of former U.S. senators: Bill Bradley, Chris Dodd, Nancy Kassebaum and Ted Kauffman.
Other honorees include Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation founder Dianne Carlson Evans, correspondent Joseph Galloway, civil rights advocate Lewis Redding and photographer Bobby Sager.
Judge Collins Seitz, Fulbright University Vietnam founder Thomas Vallely, breast cancer research advocate Francis Visco and Savannah College of Art and Design founder Paula Wallace are also receiving the Presidential Citizens Medal.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press
