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Look, kids, with Grampa Joe in the White House we really can have nice things!
As CNN was first to report, the president will award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 12 heroes who defended our democracy when it was under attack by the previous occupant of the Oval Office. The prizes, which are the second-highest civilian honor after the Medal of Freedom, recognize individuals “who ha[ve] performed exemplary deeds or services for his or her country or fellow citizens.” And tomorrow, in commemoration of the two-year anniversary of the attack on our nation’s Capital fomented by a man who lost the election by 7 million votes, President Biden will pay tribute to the civil servants who held the line against the assault:
To mark two years since the insurrection on the Capitol, the President will host a ceremony at the White House on Friday, January 6th where he will deliver remarks and award the Presidential Citizens Medal to individuals who made exemplary contributions to our democracy surrounding January 6, 2021. These 12 heroes demonstrated courage and selflessness during a moment of peril for our nation. They include Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police, election workers, and officials at the state and local level.
The recipients include Capitol Police Officers Harry Dunn, Caroline Edwards, Michael Fanone, Aquilino Gonell, Eugene Goodman, and Brian Sicknick, who were assaulted by the mob on that day. Officer Sicknick later died of his injuries, while his fellow CPD honorees went on to advocate for their colleagues, as did Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges. These law enforcement officials constitute a living rebuke to the pro-insurrectionist wing of the GOP which purports to “back the blue.”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, both of whom received the 2022 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award, will also share in the honor tomorrow. Bowers testified in one of the House January 6 Select Committee’s public hearings about the pressure campaign by Trump and his minions, particularly Rudy Giuliani, to reconvene Arizona’s state Legislature and steal electoral votes for Donald Trump. Bowers received thousands of harassing phone calls and emails, with protestors picketing his home and shouting through a bullhorn that he was a pedophile. Benson faced similar harassment from Trump’s supporters, with dozens of armed individuals showing up at her home before Christmas as she was putting her 4-year-old son to bed to shout threats and obscenities through a bullhorn.
Likewise, honoree Al Schmidt, a former member of the Philadelphia County Board of Elections, testified publicly that he and his family faced threats of violence after Trump directed his followers’ rage toward the official for his refusal to “Stop the count.” Schmidt, a former executive director of the Philadelphia GOP and senior adviser to the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, was recently named the state’s chief elections official by incoming Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro.
Rounding out the list are Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the Georgia election workers who faced an unrelenting wave of threats when they were falsely accused by Trump and Giuliani of tabulating “suitcases” of fraudulent ballots in Georgia. Trump was told over and over that this was false, and yet he continues to lie about the pair, even up to this week. Along with Officer Caroline Edwards’s account of being struck by a barricade as the Capitol was breached, Moss provided some of the most wrenching public testimony of the hearings, recounting the her teenage son dealing with racist callers threatening violence and being forced to move out of her home for her own safety. In a videotaped hearing, her mother lamented the loss of her name and being fearful when she goes out in public. It is beyond disgraceful that Trump continues to slander these people, who did nothing more than dutifully count votes.
But today we will not dwell on our rage at that fuckin’ guy, who actually gave the Medal of Honor to Rush Limbaugh. Instead we will celebrate these actual heroes, who stood up for democracy.
Well deserved and God bless.
OPEN THREAD.
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