Nearly seven months to the day a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol, President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a bill awarding Congress’ highest honor — the Congressional Gold Medal — to law enforcement officers he said defended democracy on Jan. 6.
“We cannot allow history to be rewritten. We cannot allow the heroism of these officers to be forgotten. We have to understand what happened — the honest and unvarnished truth. We have to face it,” Biden said in remarks in the White House Rose Garden, speaking to lawmakers, law enforcement officers and their families.
Biden said the Jan. 6 assault presented a dark test of “whether our democracy could survive, whether it could overcome lies and overcome the fury of a few who were seeking to thwart the will of the many.”
“While the attack on our values and our votes shocked and saddened the nation, democracy did survive,” Biden said firmly. “Truth defeated lies. We did overcome. That’s because of the women and men of the U.S. Capitol Police, Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and other law enforcement officials we honor today.”
