Joe Biden awards medals to January 6 heroes on US Capitol attack anniversary
- Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, who diverted rioters from the Senate floor while lawmakers were evacuating, was among those honoured
- Others included state officials who resisted pressure to overturn the 2020 election results and Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman, who was targeted by Trump
President Joe Biden on Friday marked the second anniversary of the US Capitol attack with an award ceremony for those who battled to defend America’s democracy against attackers he said were “fuelled by lies” about the 2020 presidential election.
Biden, a Democrat, awarded the “Presidential Citizens Medal” to 14 people, some of them posthumously, and gave remarks in a White House ceremony while Republicans, many of them loyal to former president Donald Trump, struggled for a fourth straight day to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives.
“All of it was fuelled by lies about the 2020 election but on this day two years ago our democracy held because we the people … did not flinch,” Biden said.
The White House on Friday added two names to the list, both of whom took their own lives in the aftermath of January 6, US Capitol Police officer Howard Liebengood and Washington police officer Jeffrey Smith.
The honorees also included former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who resisted pressure to overturn the 2020 election results in their states, Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, who diverted rioters from the Senate floor while lawmakers were evacuating, and Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman, who was falsely accused by Trump of election fraud.