#Presidential Citizens Medal

[contemplatingoutlander]

"Donald, this is not the Soviet Union. You can’t change the truth and you cannot silence us."

--Liz Cheney (Jan. 3, 2025)

Unfortunately, trump does want to "change the truth"--and he has succeeded for millions of his gullible MAGA followers.

The Soviet Union might no longer exist, but Trump wants to turn us into the next worst thing--Putin's Russia.

Looking on X at the MAGA hate to Cheney's response, there is still all sorts of disinformation about the January 6th committee, including information taken out of context by the GOP and Trump, and outright lies. Here's an AP fact check to refute all of that.

Below the cut are the full transcripts of Cheney's response to Trump, and Trump's original post railing against Cheney's receiving the Presidential Citizens Medal.

[edited]

LIZ CHENEY: Donald, this is not the Soviet Union. You can’t change the truth and you cannot silence us. Remember all your lies about the voting machines, the election workers, your countless allegations of fraud that never happened? Many of your lawyers have been sanctioned, disciplined or disbarred, the courts ruled against you, and dozens of your own White House, administration, and campaign aides testified against you. Remember how you sent a mob to our Capitol and then watched the violence on television and refused for hours to instruct the mob to leave? Remember how your former Vice President prevented you from overturning our Republic? We remember. And now, as you take office again, the American people need to reject your latest malicious falsehoods and stand as the guardrails of our Constitutional Republic — to protect the America we love from you.

DONALD TRUMP: Biden gave Liz Cheney a Medal yesterday, even though she has proven to be totally corrupt. She, “Bennie” Thompson, and the rest of the Unselect Committee, destroyed and deleted all evidence from their crooked investigation of January 6th. Cheney has the distinction of losing her Congressional seat by the largest margin in History! The people of Wyoming understood how bad for our Country she was, but Biden rewarded her only because she hated “TRUMP.” She’s a Warmonger of low intelligence. All she wants to do is kill people in “Endless Wars,” with no gain other than to defense companies. Liz Cheney, Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger, Bennie Thompson, and the rest of these dishonest Thugs have gotten away with horrible things under the pretense of January 6th. Nancy Pelosi refused to accept the help which was offered for security. She is responsible, and admitted as much, for all to see, on her daughter’s tape. They have destroyed the lives of many people, and are rewarded by getting Biden Fake Medals. This is not America. January 20th cannot come fast enough. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Donald Trump Truth Social 01:25 PM EST 01/03/25

[alwaysbewoke]

McCarty was born on March 7, 1908, in Shubuta, Mississippi. She was raised in nearby Hattiesburg by her aunt and grandmother. McCarty, who never married and had no children, lived frugally in a house without air conditioning. She never had a car or learned to drive, so she walked everywhere, including the grocery store that was one mile from her home. When she was 8 years old, McCarty opened a savings account at a bank in Hattiesburg and began depositing the coins she earned from her laundry work. She would eventually open accounts in several local banks. By the time McCarty retired at age 86, her hands crippled by arthritis, she had saved $280,000. She set aside a pension for herself to live on, a donation to her church, and small inheritances for three of her relatives. The remainder—$150,000—she donated to the University of Southern Mississippi, a school that had remained all-white until the 1960s. McCarty stipulated that her gift be used for scholarships for Black students from southern Mississippi who otherwise would not be able to enroll in college due to financial hardship. Business leaders in Hattiesburg matched her bequest and hundreds of additional donations poured in from around the country, bringing the total endowment to nearly half a million dollars. The first beneficiary of McCarty’s largesse was Stephanie Bullock, an 18-year-old honors student from Hattiesburg, who received a $1,000 scholarship. Bullock subsequently visited McCarty regularly and drove her around town on errands. In 1998 the University awarded McCarty an honorary degree. She received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University, and President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal. McCarty died of liver cancer on September 26, 1999, at the age of 91. In 2019 McCarty’s home was moved to Hattiesburg’s Sixth Street Museum District and turned into a museum.

x

[saywhat-politics]

Jason Chaffetz of Fox News is “offended” that President Joe Biden gave former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) an award on Thursday.

Chaffetz, a Fox News contributor and former member of Congress, guest-hosted Thursday’s Hannity, where he interviewed Reps. James Comer (R-KY), Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Ronny Jackson (R-TX). Hours earlier, President Joe Biden bestowed upon Cheney the Presidential Citizens Medal, which is the second-highest award the president can give to a civilian. Biden also gave the award to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who chaired the Jan. 6 committee on which Cheney also served. Republicans have long maligned that panel, which investigated Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Nina Golgowski at HuffPost:

President Joe Biden will award the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of the nation’s highest civilian medals, to 20 people on Thursday, including former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). Both helped lead the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection. The medal, which will be presented to the honorees at the White House, 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 a statement. Cheney was recognized for having “raised her voice — and reached across the aisle — to defend our nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency.” Thompson was lauded for his work registering southern Black voters following the Civil Rights Movement and chairing the House committee, where he was “at the forefront of defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth,” the White House said.

[...] Others set to be recognized with the award Thursday include same-sex marriage advocates, civil rights advocates, a war reporter, a breast cancer research advocate and various lawmakers, including Biden’s close friends former Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), who were both lauded for their decades of public service. “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,” the White House said.

Good move by President Biden hand out Presidential Citizens Medals to Liz Cheney, Bennie Thompson, and Evan Wolfson for their service to the country. The Presidential Citizens Medal is the 2nd highest civilian honor.

See Also:

The Guardian: Biden to honor Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson with civilian medal

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 2, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 03, 2025

This evening, President Joe Biden awarded twenty Americans the Presidential Citizens Medal, which is given to those “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.” Biden chose these particular individuals because he “believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others” and that “[t]he country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Those twenty included civil rights leaders who fought to end racial segregation, promote Black voting, restore rights for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II, legalize same-sex marriage, and defend women’s rights to equality, and reformers who advanced tax reform and the reform of financial markets, moved forward childcare policies, advanced commonsense gun safety regulations, and promoted women’s health.

They included military personnel who perfected trauma care, ensured that female service members received the recognition they deserve, and worked to repair the relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam; a war correspondent who recorded the experience of battle; a photographer and philanthropist who has advanced teacher training and microenterprise in developing countries’ an educator who has guided students toward the arts.

The recipients included both Democrats and Republicans, with Biden honoring Senator Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) for example, for supporting abortion rights. “[S]he stood up for what she believed in even if it meant standing alone,” he said, “and she reached across the aisle to do what she believed was right.”

And the recipients included the chair and vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, informally known as the January 6th Committee, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY). Biden praised Thompson for “defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth.” He praised Cheney for raising her voice and reaching across the aisle “to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency.” He added: “Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together.”

Biden also offered a public message today in response to the horrific New Year’s Eve attack in New Orleans in which Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American citizen and Army veteran from Texas, drove a truck into a crowd in the French Quarter, killing 14 people and wounding 30 others.

Before today’s Sugar Bowl playoff between Georgia and Notre Dame in New Orleans, Biden addressed the nation: “Today all America stands with the people of New Orleans. We pray for those killed and injured in yesterday's attack. We are grateful… for the brave first responders who raced to save lives. We’re glad the game is back on for today, but I’m not surprised, because the spirit of New Orleans can never be kept down. That’s also true of the spirit of America. We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. There’s nothing, nothing, beyond our capacity if we do it together. God bless New Orleans, and God protect our troops.”

While Biden focuses on protecting civil rights and making progress together in a unified America, Trump and Elon Musk are doubling down on dividing Americans. Over the holiday, the fight between the original MAGA and the new tech billionaires taking over the Trump White House continued, and Trump and Musk appear to be trying to heal that rift by returning to culture war themes.

The fight began over immigration, which MAGA opposes and Musk champions for skilled workers, but spread as the Musk faction attacked the American culture MAGA celebrates. After rising to prominence by attacking immigrants, Trump sided with the Musk faction.

On New Year’s Eve, as President-elect Trump set out for a party at Mar-a-Lago, a reporter asked him why he had changed his mind on the H-1B visas that enable employers to bring skilled workers to the U.S. “I didn’t change my mind,” Trump answered. “I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming in.”

This is a dramatic change from Trump’s previous positions. On March 4, 2016, for example, Trump’s social media account posted: “The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay…. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first…. No exceptions.” It is this stand on immigration that Trump’s MAGA base supports.

For his part, last Friday Musk told those opposed to H-1B visas to “[t]ake a big step back and F*CK YOURSELF in the face.” He said: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” But MAGA news sites Breitbart and Newsmax didn’t back down, reporting a story by Fred Lambert of Electrek, a site that follows the changeover from fossil-fuel to green vehicles, pointing out that Musk’s Tesla is a major user of H-1B visa workers and that it requested more than 2,400 such workers at the same time it was laying off U.S. workers early in 2024.

On New Year’s Eve, Musk changed his name on X to the name of a meme coin, a cryptocurrency based on an online meme, and changed his avatar to one using symbols favored by the far right. Some of his supporters saw the changes as a signal of his true beliefs, especially as he is strongly supporting the right-wing AfD party in Germany.

Trump also seemed to swing back to his MAGA base when he returned to his attacks on immigrants by echoing a mistaken report by the Fox News Channel. Trump falsely linked the New Orleans attack to “criminals coming in” from other countries and claimed that the U.S. has “open borders,” although in fact, encounters at the border have fallen to a four-year low, lower now than when Trump left office.

The abrupt elevation of culture wars echoes the formula Republicans have used for the past forty years to distract from the reality that between 1981 and 2021 their embrace of so-called supply-side economics moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. Distracting voters with outrage over “welfare queens,” “Libtards,” and so on, kept the country focused on cultural issues rather than economic ones.

As Musk and Trump appear to be making up for their defense of immigration by courting the far right again, Anthony Adragna of Politico reported today that incoming House Republicans are also relying on culture wars to hold their coalition together. Adragna reports they are planning to make trans rights their “marquee fight” of 2025.

That focus is likely intended to distract Republican voters from the reality that Trump has promised to swing the country away from Biden’s investment in rebuilding the middle class. Biden’s focus on employment meant that unemployment dropped dramatically during his term, more people got access to affordable health care, labor unions showed historic growth, and real wages went up so much that according to economist David Doney, workers now have the highest real hourly wages since the 1960s.

Good news for workers was good news for everyone: the country’s economic growth was more than double that of any other country in the Group of 7 (G7) economically advanced democracies.

But Trump has been very clear that he rejects this system and intends to take the country back to supply-side economics, in which the government encourages the concentration of wealth at the top of the economy. Those who embrace this theory argue that wealthy investors will use their money more efficiently than they could under government regulation.

Trump has promised to fill his cabinet with billionaires, and top donors have been donating as much as $2 million to his inauguration fund (those at that level can get up to six tickets to events of the inaugural weekend). According to Jeanna Smialek and Ana Swanson of the New York Times, Trump’s promise to back Wall Street investors and corporate boardrooms has given them high hopes for the Trump administration.

And, of course, Musk, the world’s richest man, has eclipsed Vice President–elect J.D. Vance and sometimes even Trump himself as the face of the incoming administration.

Trump’s very public embrace of billionaires comes just weeks after the December 4, 2024, shooting of United Healthcare chief executive officer Brian Thompson revealed a large American population that is desperately angry at wealthy and powerful executives. Across social media, posts have been defending and even praising Thompson’s alleged murderer since the shooting. Even those who avoided championing the shooter took exception to the fact that those defending Thompson’s industry and deploring his murder had little to say about those people who died after insurance companies denied their claims.

For decades now, Republicans have been able to keep class tensions at bay by hammering constantly on culture wars, and they appear to be trying that again to smooth over the fight between MAGA and the billionaires. But it is possible that the rumbling anger that flashed to the surface over the killing of an insurance CEO will reinforce the MAGA wing and keep class, rather than culture, uppermost.

If Trump does not bring down prices, as he promised and now has downplayed, if he imposes tariffs that will force poorer and middle-class Americans to pay for the tax cuts he has promised to the wealthy and corporations, if Republicans cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to balance the budget; all while Musk continues to pull down billions of dollars in taxpayer money, the rhetorical formula that worked for so long might finally break.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[euginemicah]

Biden honoring 20 Americans with Presidential Citizens Medal

U.S. President Joe Biden is set to award the nation’s second highest civilian honor to 20 people at a White House ceremony Thursday. The recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal include Congressman Bennie Thompson and former Congresswoman Elizabeth Cheney, who led a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob seeking to disrupt the certification…

[nyancrimew]

Are you aware that hamas kidnapped a baby? Google the name kfir bibas. You deranged maniac.

wow you just stopped yet another non US citizen from voting for hamas in the US presidential election 🙏🙏 google "palestinian children death toll" to find out more and claim your joe biden gold medal

[trumpamerica]

Presidential Citizens Medal:

Prelude to A Preemptive Pardon.

Liz Cheney —the silver spoon warhawk heiress who deleted J6 evidence that would’ve cleared Donald Trump… was just rewarded for a job well done, betraying her own party. And championing Pelosi’s cause in a calculated and one sides witch hunt. Joe Biden just bestowed the second highest civilian honor on Cheney for “exemplary deeds” for country. Sickening display. What’s next? Joe Biden is burning down the house on the way out.

[oldcorps8541]

Biden awards Liz Cheney, Jan 6 committee chairman a medal: US 'is better because of their dedication'

Biden awards Liz Cheney, Jan 6 committee chairman a medal: US 'is better because of their dedication'

Not even trying to hide shit

They're mocking us all.

[tonightillbeonthathill]

Bruce Springsteen endorses Kamala Harris for president

films7 on X/Twitter

Bruce Springsteen: “Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz are committed to a vision of this country that respects and includes everyone regardless of class, religion, race, your political point of view or sexual identity, and they want to grow our economy in a way that benefits all, not just the few like me on top. That's the vision of America I’ve been consistently writing about for 55 years now.”

“Hi, I'm Bruce Springsteen. Friends, fans, and the press have asked me who I'm supporting in this most important of elections.

And with full knowledge that my opinions are no more or less important than those of any of my fellow citizens, here's my answer: I'm supporting Kamala Harris for President and Tim Waltz for Vice President and opposing Donald Trump and JD Vance.

Here's why.

We are shortly coming upon one of the most consequential elections in our nation's history. Perhaps not since the Civil War has this great country felt as politically, spiritually, and emotionally divided as it does then at this moment.

It doesn't have to be this way.

The common values, the shared stories that make us a great and united nation are waiting to be rediscovered and retold once again.

Now that will take time, hard work, intelligence, faith and women and men with the national good, guiding their hearts.

America's the most powerful nation on earth. Not just because of her overwhelming military strength or economic power, but because of what she stands for, what she means, what she believes in: freedom, social justice, equal opportunity, the right to be and love who you want.

These are the things that make America great.

Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for President in my lifetime. His disdain for the sanctity of our constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law, and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of President ever again.

He doesn't understand the meaning of this country, its history or what it means to be deeply American.

On the other hand, Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz are committed to a vision of this country that respects and includes everyone regardless of class, religion, race, your political point of view or sexual identity, and they want to grow our economy in a way that benefits all, not just the few like me on top. That's the vision of America I’ve been consistently writing about for 55 years now.

Everybody sees things different, and I respect your choice as a fellow citizen, but like you, I've only got one vote, and it's one of the most precious possessions that I have.

That's why come November 5th, I'll be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”

[saywhat-politics]

Johnson says House Republicans will investigate Jan. 6 committee

BY TARA SUTER - 01/02/25 9:54 PM ET

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Thursday that House Republicans will investigate the disbanded House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Johnson hit President Biden in a post on the social platform X for awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal to former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), both of whom were Jan. 6 committee members.

Responding to another post from the New York Post about Cheney and Thompson, the Louisiana Republican said the president “is foolishly giving an award to members of Congress who intentionally and repeatedly lied to the American people.”

“The Jan 6 Select Committee manipulated AND destroyed evidence – created a fake, phony narrative all to try and hurt Trump,” Johnson added. “They even hired a TV producer from the legacy media in a desperate attempt to legitimize what Americans knew was a total hoax and complete waste of time.”

“Be assured of this: House Republicans WILL continue our investigation into this corrupt committee and it will be FULLY FUNDED so it can continue next Congress,” he continued.

In mid-December, Republicans released a report evaluating the “failures and politicization” of the Jan. 6 committee, rounding off their investigation by recommending a criminal investigation into Cheney.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5064773-johnson-says-house-republicans-will-investigate-jan-6-committee/

[delicatehologramballoon]