President Joe Biden awarded former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian honor.
Biden presented the medal to Cheney in a ceremony held in the East Room of the White House on Thursday evening. She was among 20 recipients honored by the president.
“Elizabeth L. Cheney, for putting the American people over party,” an announcer said during the presentation of the medal.
The Presidential Citizens Medal recognizes those who have performed “exemplary deeds of service” for their country or their fellow citizens, according to the White House.
“Throughout two decades in public service, including as a congresswoman for Wyoming and vice chair of the committee on the Jan. 6 attack, Liz Cheney has raised her voice—and reached across the aisle—to defend our nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency,” the White House said in a statement. “Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together.”
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, represented Wyoming’s congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 to 2023. She also served as chair of the House Republican Conference from 2019 to 2021, which is the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership.
Cheney endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and campaigned with her in the 2024 election. She had endorsed Biden before he dropped out of the presidential race.
Biden also honored Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chair of the Jan. 6 panel, with the Presidential Citizens Medal.
“Born and raised in a segregated Mississippi, as a college student inspired by the Civil Rights movement, Bennie Thompson volunteered on campaigns and registered southern black voters,” according to the White House statement. “That call to serve eventually led him to Congress, where he chaired the House Jan. 6 Committee—at the forefront of defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth.”
Other recipients include former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.).
Mary Bonauto, an attorney who worked to legalize same-sex marriage, and Evan Wolfson, a leader of the same-sex marriage legalization movement, were also honored.
Additionally, Biden also posthumously honored four others with the award. This includes Joseph Galloway, a journalist who embedded with American troops in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf and who the White House said was “one of the most respected war correspondents of his era,” and Louis Lorenzo Redding, an attorney who argued against segregation and was “a groundbreaking civil rights advocate.”