WASHINGTON (AP) — House and Senate leaders on Tuesday will present Congressional Gold Medals to law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, giving them Congress’ highest honor nearly two years later, s – they fought with supporters of former President Donald Trump. in a brutal and bloody attack.
To recognize the hundreds of officers who were at the Capitol on January 6, the medals will be placed at four locations: the United States Capitol Police Headquarters, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Capitol and the Smithsonian Institution. President Joe Biden said when he signed the legislation last year that a medal would be deposited at the Smithsonian museum “so that all visitors can understand what happened that day.”
The ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda comes as Democrats, weeks after losing their majority in the House, race to wrap up a nearly 18-month investigation into the insurgency. Democrats and two Republicans leading the investigation have vowed to release details of the attack, which came as Trump sought to reverse his election defeat and encouraged supporters to “fight like hell” at a rally shortly before its certifying Congress.
The awarding of the medals will be among House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s last ceremonial acts as she prepares to step down. When the bill passed the House more than a year ago, he said the city’s law enforcement agencies defended the Capitol because they were “the kind of Americans who felt the call to serve and respond, putting the country above itself”.
“They allowed us to go back to the Capitol” and certify Biden’s presidency, he said at the time, “at that podium that night to show the world that our democracy won and it won because of them.”
Dozens of officers who fought the rioters suffered serious injuries. As the crowd of Trump supporters pushed past them and into the Capitol, police were beaten with American flags and their own guns, dragged up stairs, doused with chemicals, and trampled and stomped on by the crowd. The officers suffered physical injuries, including brain damage and other permanent effects, and many struggled to work afterward because they were so traumatized.
Four officers who gave evidence at a Parliament hearing last year spoke candidly about the lasting mental and physical scars and some detailed near-death experiences.
via the Associated Press
Metropolitan police officer Daniel Hodges described foaming at the mouth, bleeding and screaming as rioters tried to gouge out his eye and pin him between two heavy doors. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who rushed to the scene, said he was “caught, beaten, beaten, all while being called a traitor to my country”. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn said a large group of people yelled the N-word at him as he tried to block them from entering the House chamber.
At least nine people inside the Capitol that day died during and after the riots, including a woman who was shot and killed by police as she tried to enter the chamber, and three other Trump supporters who suffered medical emergency. Two police officers killed themselves in the days immediately following, and a third officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and later died after one of the rioters doused him with a chemical substance. A medical examiner ruled that she died of natural causes.
A few months after the attack, in August 2021, the Metropolitan Police announced that two more of their officers who responded to the insurgency had committed suicide. The circumstances leading to their deaths were unknown.
The June 2021 House vote to award the medals won widespread bipartisan support. But 21 House Republicans voted against it, lawmakers who played down the violence and remained loyal to Trump. The Senate passed the legislation on a voice vote with no Republican objections.
Pelosi, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell will attend the ceremony and present the medals. Also expected are Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee.
The Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can bestow, has been awarded by the legislative branch since 1776. Previous recipients include George Washington, Sir Winston Churchill, Bob Hope, and Robert Frost. In recent years, Congress has awarded the medals to former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason, who has become a leading advocate for people battling Lou Gehrig’s disease, and motorcyclist Greg LeMond.
In signing the bill at the White House last year, Biden said the officers’ heroism cannot be forgotten.
The riot was a “violent attempt to undermine the will of the American people,” and Americans need to understand what happened, he said. “The honest, hard truth. We have to face it.”
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