Liz Cheney urged American voters to reject Donald Trump's "depraved cruelty" and rallied alongside Democratic candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the November presidential election. Photo: AFP
Former Representative Liz Cheney, who bucked her Republican Party as a strong critic of President-elect Donald Trump and some of his allies, will be one of the 20 people awarded by President Joe Biden on Thursday (local time) with the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of the country's highest civilian honours.
The medal is awarded to U.S. citizens who have "performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens", the White House said in announcing the recipients.
The presidential medals, which go through a less rigorous approval process than other awards like Medals of Honor or acts of clemency, represent an opportunity for a president to showcase those who have fought for causes he championed.
Cheney, a one-time Republican member of Congress, served as vice chair of the House of Representatives select committee that investigated the 6 January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. In October, she urged Americans to reject Trump's "depraved cruelty" as she rallied alongside Democratic White House candidate Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the presidential election.
This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant. #Womenwillnotbesilenced #VoteKamala https://t.co/URH5s929Sa
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) November 1, 2024
Biden is reportedly considering a pre-emptive pardon to protect her from retribution by the next administration. Trump, who takes office on 20 January, said in December he backed a call for the FBI to investigate Cheney over her role leading the congressional probe.
Congressman Bennie G. Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi who served as the chairman of the 6 January House select committee, will also be awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal.
Other honourees include attorney Mary Bonauto, who fought to legalise same-sex marriage and argued before the Supreme Court in the landmark marriage-equality case Obergefell v. Hodges, and lawyer and activist Evan Wolfson, a leader of the marriage equality movement.
Veterans, health-care advocates and former lawmakers with close, decades-long ties to Biden are also on the list.
They include former senators Ted Kaufman, a Democrat from Delaware, and Chris Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, as well as two-time NBA champion and former senator Bill Bradley, a New York Democrat.
- Reuters
