Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who died after being beaten by rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, will receive the award posthumously along with several others who've helped defend democracy
Two years after the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the White House is honoring a group of civilians — including Capitol and Metro police officers, election workers, and state and local officials — “who made exemplary contributions” to American democracy amid the rioting.
President Joe Biden will host a ceremony at the White House Friday to award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 12 people who have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” the administration said in a release.
Among those to be awarded Friday are Capitol police officers Harry Dunn and Caroline Edwards, who responded to the breach of the building on Jan. 6. The rioting occurred after thousands of Donald Trump supporters gathered to hear the then-president give a disgruntled speech outside the White House, amid his baseless claims that election fraud resulted in his 2020 loss to Biden.
As Congress met to certify the votes of the Electoral College inside the Capitol, Trump instructed his supporters to “march” and “fight like hell” in support of his failed efforts to overturn the election results.
“We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said just moments before the group stormed the Capitol, forcing the evacuations of lawmakers — including Trump’s own vice president — as shots were reported inside.
Five people, including U.S. Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick (who will be honored posthumously on Friday), died as a result of the violent clash between pro-Trump rioters and law enforcement.
Edwards sustained a brain injury during the attack, later testifying before an investigative House committee that she was “slipping” in fellow officers’ blood during the chaos.
“It was something like I had seen out of the movies,” she said. “I could not believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. They were throwing up. I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage. It was chaos.”
Dunn, meanwhile, faced racial slurs and harassment from rioters as he worked to defend the building.
Other current and former officers to be honored Friday include Michael Fanone, Eugene Goodman, Aquilino Gonell and Daniel Hodges.
Friday’s ceremony marks the first time President Biden has awarded the Citizens Medal.
A House committee’s investigation of the deadly rioting recently ended with the release of dozens of documents and testimonies that outline the events leading up to that day.
The committee officially recommended that the Department of Justice Lay four criminal charges against Trump, including conspiracy to defraud the government and inciting an insurrection.
Dunn and Edwards, who are being honored Friday, were among those to testify before the committee. In his testimony, Dunn argued that both the rioters and those who sent them should be punished, saying, “If a hitman is hired and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to jail. But not only does the hitman go to jail, but the person who hired them does.”
Dunn continued: “There was an attack carried out on Jan. 6th and a hitman sent them. I want you to get to the bottom of that.”
Meanwhile, Trump and many of his allies have continued promoting the lie that helped spur the chaos: that the 2020 election he lost was actually stolen from him and his voters.
The impact of those continued false claims has been felt especially by election workers — both at the federal. state and local levels.
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, former Georgia poll workers who were targeted by Trump by name, have been on the receiving end of death threats and harassment since the former president falsely accused them of bringing “suitcases” full of fake ballots into a polling place.
Speaking to the Jan. 6 committee, Freeman said: “I’ve lost my name, I’ve lost my reputation, I’ve lost my sense of security, all because a group of people, starting with 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani, deciding to scapegoat me and my daughter, to push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen.”
Freeman and Moss, who are mother and daughter, will be honored by Biden on Friday as well, along with others who worked to safeguard election results.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who continued to defend her state’s election results even as armed protestors showed up outside her home, will received the award, as will former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican who resisted pressure to overturn his state’s election results. Both Benson and Bowers also received the 2022 JFK Profile in Courage award.
Al Schmidt, a Republican city commissioner on the Philadelphia Board of Elections, will also be honored after receiving several threats in the wake of the 2020 election. Schmidt testified that one of those threats said: “Tell the truth or your three kids will be fatally shot,” along with the names of his children, his address, and a photo of his home.
Source: people.com/
