Outgoing President Joe Biden will award the second-highest civilian medal to two of Donald Trump’s political foes, in a final affront to the president-elect before he takes office.
Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson will be honored with the Presidential Citizens Medal for their work in leading the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters tried to block the certification of Biden’s presidential victory.
This will rattle Trump, who previously claimed the pair “deleted and destroyed” testimony they collected for the Jan. 6 committee and even called for them to be jailed.
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However, Biden sees it differently. The White House released a statement ahead of a ceremony Thursday where Cheney and Thompson will be honored alongside 18 others.
“President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice,” it said.
A marriage equality and gun safety campaigner, a pioneer in treating wounded soldiers, and a women’s rights activist are among the other people due to receive the medal, which is second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom as a civilian honor.
Biden last year honored 12 people involved in defending the Capitol during the insurrection, and safeguarding the will of voters in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump will be particularly jarred by this year’s award for Cheney, who was a Republican representative from Wyoming before she declared she would vote for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race—and even campaigned with her.
This, of course, didn’t sit well with Trump. In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump said: “Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” claiming without evidence that they “deleted and destroyed” testimony they collected.
“Honestly, they should go to jail,” he added.
Biden has reportedly considered bestowing pre-emptive pardons to Cheney, and others that Trump has threatened.
