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WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol connected Jan. 6, 2021 were honored Tuesday with Congressional Gold Medals astir 2 years aft they fought supporters of then-President Donald Trump successful a brutal and bloody attack.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the “heroes” arsenic she opened the ceremonial successful the the stately Capitol Rotunda, which was overrun that time erstwhile Trump supporters roamed the halls trying to halt Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election.
In bestowing Congress’ highest honor, Pelosi praised the heroes for “courageously answering the telephone to support our ideology successful 1 of the nation’s darkest hours.”
To admit the hundreds of officers who were astatine the Capitol connected Jan. 6, the medals volition beryllium placed successful 4 locations — astatine U.S. Capitol Police headquarters, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Capitol and the Smithsonian Institution. President Joe Biden said erstwhile he signed the authorities past twelvemonth that a medal volition beryllium placed astatine the Smithsonian depository “so each visitors tin recognize what happened that day.”
The ceremonial successful the Capitol Rotunda comes arsenic Democrats, conscionable weeks distant from losing their House majority, race to finish a astir 18-month probe of the insurrection. Democrats and 2 Republicans conducting the probe person vowed to uncover the details of the attack, which came arsenic Trump tried to overturn his predetermination decision and encouraged his supporters to “fight similar hell” successful a rally conscionable earlier the legislature certification.
Awarding the medals is among Pelosi’s past ceremonial acts arsenic she prepares to step down from leadership. When the measure passed the House much than a twelvemonth ago, she said the instrumentality enforcement officers from crossed the metropolis defended the Capitol due to the fact that they were “the benignant of Americans who heard the telephone to service and answered it, putting state supra self.”
“They enabled america to instrumentality to the Capitol,” and certify Biden’s presidency, she said then, “to that podium that nighttime to amusement the satellite that our ideology had prevailed and that it had succeeded due to the fact that of them.”
Dozens of the officers who fought disconnected the rioters sustained superior injuries. As the mob of Trump’s supporters pushed past them and into the Capitol, constabulary were beaten with American flags and their ain guns, dragged down stairs, sprayed with chemicals and trampled and crushed by the crowd. Officers suffered carnal wounds, including encephalon injuries and different lifelong effects, and galore struggled to enactment afterward due to the fact that they were truthful traumatized.
Four officers who testified astatine a House proceeding past twelvemonth spoke openly astir the lasting intelligence and carnal scars, and immoderate elaborate near-death experiences.
Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges described foaming astatine the mouth, bleeding and screaming arsenic the rioters tried to gouge retired his oculus and crush him betwixt 2 dense doors. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who rushed to the scene, said helium was “grabbed, beaten, tased, each portion being called a traitor to my country.” Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn said a ample radical of radical shouted the N-word astatine him arsenic helium was trying to support them from breaching the House chamber.
At slightest 9 radical who were astatine the Capitol that time died during and aft the rioting, including a pistillate who was changeable and killed by constabulary arsenic she tried to interruption into the House enclosure and 3 different Trump supporters who suffered aesculapian emergencies. Two constabulary officers died by termination successful the days that instantly followed, and a 3rd officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and aboriginal died aft 1 of the rioters sprayed him with a chemical. A aesculapian examiner determined helium died of earthy causes.
Several months aft the attack, successful August 2021, the Metropolitan Police announced that 2 much of their officers who had responded to the insurrection had died by suicide. The circumstances that led to their deaths were unknown.
The June 2021 House ballot to grant the medals won wide enactment from some parties. But 21 House Republicans voted against it — lawmakers who had downplayed the unit and stayed loyal to Trump. The Senate passed the authorities by dependable vote, with nary Republican objections.
Pelosi, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell attended the ceremonial and awarded medals. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee besides attended.
The Congressional Gold Medal, the highest grant Congress tin bestow, has been handed retired by the legislative subdivision since 1776. Previous recipients see George Washington, Sir Winston Churchill, Bob Hope and Robert Frost. In caller years, Congress has awarded the medals to erstwhile New Orleans Saints subordinate Steve Gleason, who became a starring advocator for radical struggling with Lou Gehrig’s disease, and biker Greg LeMond.
Signing the measure astatine the White House past year, Biden said the officers’ heroism cannot beryllium forgotten.
The insurrection was a “violent effort to overturn the volition of the American people,” and Americans person to recognize what happened, helium said. “The honorable and unvarnished truth. We person to look it.”
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