Biden to award Presidential Citizens Medal to several Jan. 6 heroes

President Joe Biden is set to award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 12 individuals who “demonstrated courage and selflessness” in the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Biden will present the awards on Friday, according to a White House official, to mark the two-year anniversary of the deadly riots — where a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to halt certification of Biden’s win in the 2020 election. Friday’s event will mark the first time Biden awards a Presidential Citizens Medal — the nation’s second-highest civilian honor — which is given to individuals who have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” said the White House.

Among the 12 recipients Biden will award the medal to are several state officials who resisted pressure from Trump to overturn the election results, law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, and election workers who continued doing their jobs despite receiving harassment and threats during the 2020 election.

The Arizona House speaker during the 2020 election, Rusty Bowers, and the Michigan secretary of state during the election, Jocelyn Benson, will both receive the medal for resisting pressure to overturn the election results. Both officials were also recipients of the 2022 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award, a recognition given to public servants whose actions demonstrate qualities of politically courageous leadership.

Seven law enforcement officials will be presented with the medal, including members of the U.S. Capitol Police force and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, all of whom defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and some of whom sustained injuries from the attack. One of the seven officers receiving the medal is the late Brian Sicknick, who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and died a day later of natural causes, according to the District of Columbia's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The other recipients of the medal include Fulton County, Ga., election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, who have repeatedly been the target of harassment as Trump and his allies accused the pair of including fake ballots in Georgia’s election tally. Al Schmidt, a former civil servant, will also receive the award for keeping the vote tally going while serving as a city commissioner on the Philadelphia County Board of Elections despite pressure and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.