President Joe Biden awarded 20 people the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian honor, at a ceremony at the White House Thursday evening.
“For the last time as president, I have the privilege of awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of our nation’s highest honors, to an extraordinary group of — and I mean an extraordinary group of — Americans,” Biden said in his remarks at the ceremony.
“Together, you embody a fundamental truth — and I say this from the bottom of my heart — that we are a great nation. We are a great nation because we are good people,” Biden later added.
The honorees include Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Calif., and former Rep. Elizabeth Cheney, who led Congress’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2020, storming of the U.S. Capitol by a group of rioters seeking to disrupt the certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory over Donald Trump.
Trump, who won the 2024 election and will begin a new presidential term later this month, has said Thompson and Cheney should go to jail.
The applause for Cheney seemed particularly long and loud. She was honored for “putting the American people above party.”
In a statement Thursday, the White House said Cheney, a Republican, “has spoken out and reached across party lines to defend our country and the ideals we stand for: freedom, dignity, and decency.”
Thompson, the statement said, “has been at the forefront of defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a deep commitment to the truth.”
The Presidential Citizens Medal was established in 1969 to recognize “citizens who have rendered exemplary service to their country or their fellow citizens.”
The White House said: “President Biden believes these Americans are linked by a shared integrity and commitment to serving others. Their devotion and sacrifice have made this country a better place.”
“For more than 50 years, presidents of both parties have presented this medal to Americans who have fulfilled the noble mission,” Biden said at the ceremony.
Also receiving the medal on Thursday were Mary Bonauto and Evan Wolfson, who worked to legalize same-sex marriage in the United States.
Frank Butler was another recipient, with the White House highlighting his efforts to set standards for tourniquet use and saying he “changed battlefield trauma care in the U.S. military and saved countless lives.”
Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi was posthumously awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal for his successful challenge to laws that incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II.
Others honored posthumously include war correspondent Joseph Galloway, civil rights advocate Louis Redding and Judge Collins Seitz.
Biden presented the award to Eleanor Smeal for her work leading protests for women’s rights and fighting for equal pay for women.
Also receiving the medal were former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and a group of former senators: Bill Bradley, Chris Dodd, Nancy Kassebaum, and Ted Kaufman. Other honorees included Diane Carlson Evans, founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation, and photographer Bobby Sager.
Fulbright Vietnam founder Thomas Vallely, breast cancer research advocate Frances Visco, and Savannah College of Art and Design founder Paula Wallace also received medals.
In his remarks, Biden also paid tribute to former President Jimmy Carter, who died earlier this week at the age of 100.
“May all of us strive to live up to his highest standards as good citizens,” Biden said.
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