WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden High honors will be given Friday to 14 officers of the police and other local officials for their efforts in blocking Donald Trump’s attempted coup two years earlier in his last-gasp effort to undo the election he had lost in 2020.
“History will remember your names,” Biden Identified the family members and honorees of deceased recipients. “What you did was truly consequential.”
In the White House East Room, current and former officers Eugene Goodman, Caroline Edwards and Michael Fanone will be presented the Presidential Citizens Medal. Ruby Freeman, Shaye Moss and Shaye Edwards were also present. This is the mother-daughter group of election workers in Atlanta that faced death threats following the elections. Trump They were repeatedly mentioned in his comments.
Republican Rusty Bowers was the Arizona House Speaker who was under pressure by Trump The election will be overturned in the state. Democrat Jocelyn Benson will be honored as well. Benson was the Michigan secretary-of-state who faced threats. Trump They were supported by them, as well as Al Schmidt, who received similar criticisms when he was elected Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner.
Aquilino Gnell, Harry Dunn, and Daniel Hodges were also awarded medals. Daniel Hodges was injured in the Capitol riot.
Brian Sicknick was the Capitol Police Officer who succumbed to multiple strokes just hours after being attacked by Trump’s mob, will receive the medal posthumously. Jeffrey Smith and Officer Howard Liebengood, both of whom died in suicide after receiving severe injuries from the Capitol assault, will also be posthumously honored.
Patrick Semansky/Associated Press
Unprecedented attempts to reverse the election have been the focus. Biden’s presidency to date. On Jan. 2, he was inaugurated as president-elect. 6Demand that it be done by 2021 Trump He should be expelled from the scene. “It’s not protest. It’s insurrection,” He spoke from Wilmington, Delaware’s transition headquarters.
TrumpAfter trying unsuccessfully to lead his supporters to the Capitol to stop the certificate of his electoral loss, he stayed at the White House and watched the violence for three hours, before finally giving them a message to get out.
Three weeks after taking the office, Biden They told Americans Jan. 6 It was an attack on democracy and the nation was reminded of this fact quite often Trump He and his friends continued spreading the same lies over a “stolen” Election that was responsible for the violence.
“For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election; he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, as a violent mob breached the Capitol,” He said this in his speech of 25 minutes delivered to the Capitol for the occasion. (*6*)
Biden The midterms approached and the themes were reinforced. Five days before the elections, I delivered a speech to remind voters of the imminent threat posed by Hurricane Sandy. “MAGA Republican” Candidate who continued to embrace Trump.
“American democracy is under attack because the defeated former president of the United States refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election. He refuses to accept the will of the people. He refuses to accept the fact that he lost,” Biden said.
To the surprise of many political observers, concern about democracy played a significant role in Democrats’ unexpectedly good performance in the midterms, as many voters — including a significant number of Republicans — turned against candidates who had been endorsed by Trump He continued spreading his lies about election results.
Despite the fact that the 2020 election was lost by 7 million votes nationwide and 306-232 within the Electoral College Trump The first President in the more than 200 years of American elections to refuse peacefully to surrender power. Inciting the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol ― a last-ditch attempt to remain in office ― led to the deaths of five people, including a police officer, as well as the injury of 140 other officers and four police suicides.
Nevertheless, Trump He remains the leader of the Republican Party. In fact, he has already announced his candidacy to run for president again in 2024.
According to statements made on his social media platforms, Trump lied about Jan.’s election and House January. 6 committee’s work, which he has called a “hoax” similar to previous investigations into his 2016 campaign’s acceptance of Russian assistance and his attempt to extort Ukraine into helping his 2020 run.
