US President Biden awards Trump critic Liz Cheney a presidential medal | Donald Trump News

Outgoing President Joe Biden awarded the Citizens Medal, the second highest honor in the United States, to members of the congressional committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

A total of 20 honorees were honored at a ceremony at the White House on Thursday.

Among them were an activist who campaigned to legalize same-sex marriage in the US, an army doctor who improved care for war victims, and a civil rights leader who laid the groundwork for segregation.

“The most important title in America is not the president but the citizen. ‘We the people,’” Biden said, citing the preamble to the US Constitution. “These are the words of the rock upon which this whole nation is built.

But a number of respected former legislators were openly praised for their work on the House of Representatives committee charged with investigating the January 6 attack.

One of the recipients was the chairman of the committee, Democrat Bennie Thompson of Louisiana. The second was his running mate, former Republican Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

A standing ovation greeted Cheney on stage at the White House on Thursday, as an announcer praised him for “making the American people party”. Thompson, on the other hand, was praised for his “lifelong dedication to the defense of our Constitution”.

What is January 6?

Cheney has become a political lightning rod since his years on the committee. He is the target of criticism from President-elect Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican Party.

The January 6 attack was inspired by Trump’s false claims that he had won the 2020 presidential election.

That day, Trump held a “Stop the Steal” rally outside the White House, repeating unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud.

Thousands of his supporters then marched a few blocks west to the US Capitol, where they attacked law enforcement and ransacked the building while Congress certified the election results.

Lawmakers were escorted out, while protesters could be heard chanting threats such as, “Hang Mike Pence,” referring to the vice president who was overseeing the distribution of votes.

As of November 2024, the US Department of Justice reported that 1,561 people have been charged with violent crimes. A total of 645 were sentenced to imprisonment.

The agency noted that guns, tasers, knives, axes and pepper spray were some of the weapons the rioters brought to the Capitol during the January 6 attack.

Biden has previously awarded the Citizens Award to Capitol Police and election workers who received threats after the 2020 vote, including Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss.

“I am honored to introduce the law enforcement officers who protected our Capitol on January 6th and the state and local election officials, elected leaders, who protected the free and fair 2020 election,” Biden said at Thursday’s event.

“Today, we celebrate a new group of Americans who are dedicated to serving democracy in other important ways.”

Cheney vs. Trump

Thursday’s awards ceremony took place just days before the fourth anniversary of the riots — and less than three weeks before Trump himself is slated for a second term. He will be sworn in on January 20.

Trump served from 2017 to 2021, during which time Biden, who won the 2020 race, succeeded him.

In the months following the January 6 protest, the House of Representatives voted to convene an independent investigative committee to look into the circumstances surrounding the attack.

The commission was finally disbanded in 2023 when the House changed from Democratic to Republican leadership. But in its final weeks, the commission released a scathing, 850-page report recommending criminal charges against Trump.

He accused him of a “multi-faceted conspiracy” to overturn the results of the 2020 elections.

“The main cause of January 6 was one man, former President Donald Trump, followed by many others,” the report said. “None of the events of January 6 would have happened without him.”

Cheney was one of only two Republicans on the committee. Both have left office. Cheney lost his primary when fellow Republican Adam Kinzinger did not seek re-election.

He and his father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, have since become outspoken critics of Trump, even supporting his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the 2024 presidential race.

In an interview with NPR in December 2023, Cheney accused Trump of turning the Republican party into a “cult of personality” and called him a threat to American democracy.

“He’s talking about arming our government against his political opponents,” Cheney told NPR’s Fresh Air. “I don’t look at that so much to see what it might mean to me. But I think what the republic would say is that we will no longer be a republic.”

Meanwhile, Trump has suggested that members of the January 6 committee should be arrested, raising fears of political retribution.

“Frankly, they should go to jail,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press program in December.

He has repeatedly accused the committee, without evidence, of removing or suppressing evidence. “Cheney did something inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the unelected committee of political criminals and you know, they’re crazy.”