President Joe Biden paid tribute to law enforcement officers who responded to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection on Thursday by signing legislation to award them Congressional Gold Medals for their service. It’s the highest honor Congress can bestow.

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden on Thursday signed legislation to award law enforcement officers who responded to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection Congressional Gold Medals for their service

  • Many officers were beaten and injured that day as the violent mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters pushed past them to break into the building and interrupt the certification of Biden’s victory

  • Several officers who testified at a House hearing last week about the lasting mental and physical scars from that day were present at Thursday's ceremony

  • The law will send the medals to four locations — Capitol Police headquarters, the Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Capitol and the Smithsonian Institution

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden to sign the legislation, which was passed unanimously by the Senate earlier this week.

Harris, who was at the Capitol complex in a classified meeting with other lawmakers hours before the violent insurrection broke out, said Thursday there was no one more deserving of the honor than those who responded that day. 

"Like Americans everywhere, my husband Doug and I watched with absolute shock as our Capitol was under siege, and the people within it afraid for their lives," she said from the Rose Garden. "What we know now is in the midst of that violent attack, there were countless acts of courage." 

Many officers were beaten and injured that day as the violent mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters pushed past them to break into the building and interrupt the certification of Biden’s victory. Some of them, including four who testified at a House hearing last week, have spoken about the lasting mental and physical scars.

"It wasn't dissent," President Biden said of the Jan. 6 attack. "It wasn't debate. It wasn't democracy. It was an insurrection. It was a riot and mayhem. It was radical and chaotic. It was unconstitutional, and maybe most importantly, it was fundamentally un-American."

"While the attack on our values and our votes shocked and saddened the nation, our democracy did survive," he continued. "It did. Truth defeated lies. We did overcome."

At least nine people who were at the Capitol that day died during and after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber and three other Trump supporters who suffered medical emergencies. Two police officers died by suicide in the days that immediately followed, and a third officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and died after engaging with the protesters. A medical examiner determined he died of natural causes.

Last week, the Metropolitan Police announced that two more of their officers who had responded to the insurrection had died by suicide. Officer Kyle DeFreytag was found dead on July 10 and Officer Gunther Hashida was found dead in his home Thursday. The circumstances that lead to their deaths are unknown.

Speaking directly to the families of Officer Sicknick and William "Billy" Evans, a Capitol Police officer who died following a separate attack on the Capitol complex in April, Biden invoked memories of his own personal loss to offer comfort. 

“Both gave the full measure of their devotion to their country and the United States Capitol," Biden said of the fallen officers, later adding: "I know like others may know from personal experience getting that phone call. It’s nice to be honord, to have those that you lost remembered. But it’s tough to be here."

The law will place the medals in four locations — Capitol Police headquarters, the Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Capitol and the Smithsonian Institution.

"Every morning, the officers who walk by seeing those medals remember the heroism of their colleagues and the importance of their work," Biden said of the medals at the Capitol Police headquarters and the Metropolitan Police Department.

Biden invited a number of assembled lawmakers and officers to join him for the bill signing, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone and Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges.  

In recent testimony before Congress, Hodges described foaming at the mouth, bleeding and screaming as the rioters tried to gouge out his eye and crush him between two heavy doors. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn said a large group of people shouted a racist slur at him as he was trying to keep them from breaching the House chamber. Both were at the White House ceremony.