BIDEN AWARDS PRESIDENTIAL CITIZENS MEDALS

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The E-Sylum: Volume 26, Number 2, January 8, 2023, Article 27

BIDEN AWARDS PRESIDENTIAL CITIZENS MEDALS

The Presidential Citizens Medal doesn't get as much press as its' higher profile cousins - we last mentioned these in The E-Sylum twelve years ago in 2010. This week President Biden awarded fourteen of them. Here's an excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article. -Editor

President Biden commemorated the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot by giving medals to law-enforcement officers who protected lawmakers that day and election officials who resisted efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential contest.

What you did was truly consequential, Mr. Biden said during an afternoon ceremony in the White House's East Room.

Recipients included former Arizona House Speaker Russell Rusty Bowers, a Republican who lost his seat in an August primary after resisting pressure from President Donald Trump to hold a hearing in the state that could have led to changing election results. Mr. Biden also posthumously recognized Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died the day after the attack.

Mr. Biden recognized 14 people. Nine awards went to law-enforcement officials, including two whose inclusion in the ceremony was announced about an hour before it began. Three of the awards to officers were posthumous.

More than 100 Capitol Police officers were injured in the attack and several lost their lives in the following days, including Mr. Sicknick, who suffered a stroke on Jan. 7.

To read the complete article (subscription required), see:
Biden Marks Second Anniversary of Jan. 6 Capitol Attack (https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-to-mark-second-anniversary-of-jan-6-capitol-attack-11672973184)

None of the articles I saw pictured the medals themselves. I added an image from an earlier E-Sylum article. Here's an except from the New York Times account. -Editor

He praised Daniel Hodges, a Washington police officer who was injured during his first visit to the Capitol, for his bravery amid the chaos.

Sprayed with poison, pinned and crushed, eye almost gouged out — he didn't break, Mr. Biden said of Mr. Hodges.

Mr. Biden honored Michael Fanone, a Capitol Police officer who he said was beaten, beaten, not pushed around, beaten and yet defended our democracy with absolute courage. And Mr. Biden also paid tribute to Caroline Edwards, the first law enforcement officer injured by the rioters, saying she was knocked unconscious by rioters but got back up to help hold the line.

Mr. Biden also awarded the medal to Harry Dunn, a Capitol Police officer who faced racial slurs and harassment on Jan. 6; Aquilino Gonell, a sergeant with the Capitol Police who was injured in the attack; and Eugene Goodman, a Capitol Police officer who led a pro-Trump mob away from the entrance to the Senate chamber.

To read the complete article, see:
Biden Honors ‘Extraordinary Americans' Who Defended Democracy on Jan. 6 (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/us/politics/biden-jan-6-presidential-citizens-medal.html)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
PRESIDENT BUSH SURPRISES FOUR WITH PRESIDENTIAL CITIZENS MEDALS (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n47a24.html)
THE PRESIDENTIAL CITIZEN'S MEDAL (https://coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n32a21.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

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