U.S. President Joe Biden awarded the nation’s second-highest civilian honor to 20 people at a White House ceremony Thursday evening. “For the final time as president, I have the privilege of bestowing the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of our nation’s highest honors, on an extraordinary — and I mean an extraordinary — group of Americans,” Biden said in his remarks at the ceremony. “Together, you embody — and I mean this from the bottom of my heart — an essential truth: We’re a great nation. We’re a great nation because we’re good people,” Biden later added. The medal recipients include Representative Bennie Thompson and former Representative Elizabeth Cheney, who led a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob seeking to disrupt the certification of Biden’s 2020 election win over Donald Trump. Trump, who won the 2024 election for a new term starting later this month, has said Thompson and Cheney should be jailed. Applause appeared to be particularly lengthy and loud for Cheney, who was recognized “for putting the American people over party.” A White House statement about Thursday’s honorees said Cheney, a Republican, “raised her voice — and reached across the aisle — to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency.” The statement said Thompson was “at the forefront of defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth.” Created in 1969, the Presidential Citizens Medal honors citizens “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.” “President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others,” the White House said. “The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.” “Over 50 years, presidents of both parties have awarded this medal to Americans who’ve met that high calling,” Biden said at the ceremony. Also honored Thursday were Mary Bonauto and Evan Wolfson, who worked to legalize same-sex marriage in the United States. Frank Butler is another medal recipient, with the White House highlighting his effort to set standards for the use of tourniquets and saying he “transformed battlefield trauma care for the United States military and saved countless lives.” Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi was posthumously honored for her successful legal challenge against the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Others who were honored posthumously include war correspondent Joseph Galloway, civil rights advocate Louis Redding and judge Collins Seitz. Biden honored Eleanor Smeal for her work in leading women’s rights protests and fighting for equal pay for women. Medals were also awarded to a former Representative Carolyn McCarthy and a group of former U.S. senators: Bill Bradley, Chris Dodd, Nancy Kassebaum and Ted Kaufman. Other honorees include Diane Carlson Evans, founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation, and photographer Bobby Sager. Fulbright University Vietnam founder Thomas Vallely, breast cancer research advocate Frances Visco and Savannah College of Art and Design founder Paula Wallace also received the medal. In his remarks, Biden also paid respect to former President Jimmy Carter, who died earlier this week at the age of 100. “May we all strive to measure up to his highest standard of active citizenship,” Biden said. VOA reporter Liam Scott contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
