在支持特朗普的暴徒袭击美国国会大厦的近7个月前的一天，美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)周四签署了一项法案，将国会的最高荣誉——国会金质奖章——授予他在1月6日表示捍卫民主的执法官员。
“我们不能允许历史被改写。我们不能让这些军官的英雄气概被遗忘。我们必须了解发生了什么——真实而不加掩饰的真相。我们必须面对它，”拜登在白宫玫瑰园对立法者、执法人员及其家人发表讲话时说。
拜登说，1月6日的袭击是对“我们的民主能否生存，能否战胜谎言，能否战胜少数试图阻挠多数人意愿的人的愤怒”的黑暗考验
吉姆·沃森/法新社通过盖蒂图像
副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯在白宫玫瑰园聆听乔·拜登总统的讲话...
拜登坚定地说:“虽然对我们价值观和选票的攻击震惊和悲伤了整个国家，但民主确实幸存了下来。“真理战胜了谎言。我们确实克服了。这是因为美国国会大厦警察局、华盛顿特区大都会警察局的男男女女以及我们今天尊敬的其他执法官员。”
警察向下午的仪式转达了一些他们保护的议员的问候，包括众议院议长南希·佩洛西、参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默、参议院规则委员会主席艾米·克洛布查尔参议员和其他共同发起该法案的参议员。
国会大厦警官布莱恩·西尼克的母亲也在场，她游说国会通过立法，成立一个两党特别委员会来调查这起袭击事件，但最终被参议院共和党人阻止。拜登在讲话中向希克尼克的家人和其他阵亡军官的家人表示哀悼，其中包括4月份在国会大厦的另一次袭击中丧生的国会大厦警官比利·埃文斯的孩子。
“我向你表示，不仅是我们的哀悼，也是对你勇气的认可。你孩子的勇气。我们非常感谢你，”拜登说。
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乔·拜登总统、议员、执法人员及其家人参加了会议...
两党立法授权设立四枚奖章——一枚给国会大厦警察，一枚给DC华盛顿大都会警察局，一枚由史密森尼学会颁发，以表彰其他帮助保卫大厦的机构，第四枚在国会大厦。
拜登说，这些奖牌将提醒人们袭击的真相。
“我的美国同胞们，我们都必须尽自己的一份力量来保护和维护我们的民主。它需要有善意和勇气的人来对抗导致这次恶性袭击的仇恨、谎言和极端主义。“这需要我们所有人共同努力——民主党、共和党、无党派人士，为了共同的利益，恢复体面、荣誉和对我们政府体系的尊重。”
副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯在拜登之前发表讲话，他回忆说，在暴乱后大约晚上8点回到参议院，目睹了美国民主的坚持。
“我们聚集在参议院会议厅，聚集在达成新政和构建伟大社会的同一个会议厅，聚集在启动州际公路系统并赢得投票权的同一个会议厅。就在凌晨1点之前，在那个会议厅里，当警察站岗时，最后的投票被记录了下来，”她说。
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美国总统乔·拜登送雷姆时，DC大都会警察局局长迈克尔·法农在一旁倾听...
“即使在深夜，当那些官员继续保卫我们的国会大厦时，他们也保卫了我们的民主。所以，让我们永远不要忘记这一点。让我们永远记住他们的勇气，”她补充道。
参议院周二一致投票通过了这项立法，没有进行记录表决，这在两极分化的华盛顿是罕见的。众议院早在6月份就通过了该法案，21名共和党人投了反对票。
舒默周二表示:“我仍然对众议院发生的事情感到震惊，21名共和党核心小组成员投票反对这项立法。“元老院不一样。”
这一事件笼罩在华盛顿大都会警察局的阴影下，该警察局本周宣布，两名对1月6日骚乱做出反应的警察于7月自杀身亡。
苏珊·沃尔什/美联社
众议院议长南希·佩洛西拥抱华盛顿警察局警官迈克尔...
此外，众议院特别委员会正在调查国会大厦袭击事件，并举行首次听证会，议员们在听证会上听取了保卫国会大厦的官员戏剧性的、情绪激动的陈述。正如一名官员所描述的那样，当国会大厦演变成“一场中世纪的战斗”的那一天，他们都详细描述了对自己生命的担忧。
大约140名警察在袭击中受伤，15人住院。
自那以后的几个月里，执法自杀专家说，那些对事件作出反应的人的家人说，他们的行为有所不同。凯伦·所罗门(Karen Solomon)经营着蓝色H.E.L.P，这是一家致力于减少执法中精神健康问题污名的非营利组织，她告诉美国广播公司新闻，“我们仍然忽视了这一事件的一些受害者——警察的需求。”
吉姆·沃森/法新社通过盖蒂图像
副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯在白宫玫瑰园聆听乔·拜登总统的讲话...
undefined更多:1月6日听证会的要点:有力的证词反驳修正主义历史
大都会警察局官员迈克尔·法诺内(Michael Fanone)周四也在场，有人看到他与佩洛西分享了一个拥抱，他和其他人一样，断然拒绝了任何改写历史的企图，并淡化了这次袭击是该国应该继续前进的事情。
“对我的同事表现出的漠不关心是可耻的，”他上个月在国会证人席上挥拳说道。“我觉得我去了地狱，又回来保护他们和这个房间里的人，但现在有太多的人告诉我，地狱并不存在，或者地狱实际上并没有那么糟糕。”
肯特西村/洛杉矶时报通过盖蒂图像，文件
2021年1月6日，在美国首都华盛顿，支持特朗普的支持者在国会山与警察发生冲突
Biden signs measure awarding Congressional Gold Medal to police who defended Capitol
Nearly seven months to the day a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol, President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a bill awarding Congress' highest honor -- the Congressional Gold Medal -- to law enforcement officers he said defended democracy on Jan. 6.
"We cannot allow history to be rewritten. We cannot allow the heroism of these officers to be forgotten. We have to understand what happened -- the honest and unvarnished truth. We have to face it," Biden said in remarks in the White House Rose Garden, speaking to lawmakers, law enforcement officers and their families.
Biden said the Jan. 6 assault presented a dark test of "whether our democracy could survive, whether it could overcome lies and overcome the fury of a few who were seeking to thwart the will of the many."
"While the attack on our values and our votes shocked and saddened the nation, democracy did survive," Biden said firmly. "Truth defeated lies. We did overcome. That's because of the women and men of the U.S. Capitol Police, Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and other law enforcement officials we honor today."
Police officers fielded greetings from some of the lawmakers they protected, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Rule Committee Chair Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and other senators who co-sponsored the bill, for the afternoon ceremony.
Also present was the mother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who lobbied Congress to pass legislation for a bipartisan select commission to investigate the attack, which Senate Republicans ultimately blocked. Biden offered his condolences to Sicknick's family and families of other fallen officers in his remarks, including the children of fallen Capitol Police officer Billy Evans who was killed in a separate attack on the Capitol in April.
"I offer you, not only our condolences but recognize your courage. The courage of your children. And you have our most profound gratitude," Biden said.
The bipartisan legislation authorizes the creation of four medals -- one for the Capitol Police, one for the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, one for display by the Smithsonian to acknowledge other agencies that helped defend the building and a fourth at the Capitol.
Biden said the medals would serve as a reminder of the truth of the attack.
"My fellow Americans, we must all do our part to protect and to preserve our democracy. It requires people of goodwill and courage to stand up to the hate, the lies, the extremism that led to this vicious attack," he said. "It requires all of us working together -- Democrats Republicans, Independents, on behalf of the common good to restore decency, honor and respect for our system of government."
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking ahead of Biden, recalled returning to the Senate chamber around 8 p.m. after the riot and witnessing American democracy persevere.
"We gathered in the Senate chamber, in the same chamber where the New Deal was struck and the Great Society was forged, in the same chamber where the Interstate Highway System was started and voting rights were won. And in that chamber, just before 1 a.m., as officers stood guard, the final vote was tallied," she said.
"As those officers continued, even at that late hour, to secure our Capitol, they secured our democracy. So, let us never forget that. And let us always remember their courage," she added.
The Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday to pass the legislation without a recorded vote, a rarity in a polarized Washington. The House passed the bill back in June with 21 Republicans voting against it.
"I am still stunned by what happened in the House, where 21 members of the Republican caucus voted against this legislation," Schumer said Tuesday. "The Senate is different."
The event falls in the grim shadow of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department announcing this week that two officers who responded to the Jan. 6 riot died by suicide in July.
It also comes as the House select committee investigates the Capitol attack, holding its first hearing in which lawmakers heard dramatic, emotional accounts from officers who defended the building. They all detailed fearing for their lives the day as the Capitol building devolved into "a medieval battle," as one officer described it.
Some 140 police officers suffered injuries during the attack and 15 were hospitalized.
In the months since, law enforcement suicide experts say the families of those who responded to the incident say they've behaved differently. Karen Solomon, who runs Blue H.E.L.P, a nonprofit that works on reducing the stigma of mental health issues in law enforcement, told ABC News, "We are still ignoring the needs of some of the victims of this event -- the police officers."
Metropolitan Police Department officers Michael Fanone, also present on Thursday and seen sharing a hug with Pelosi, is among the voices who have flatly rejected any attempts to rewrite history and downplay the attack as something the country should move on from.
"The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful," he said, slamming his fist on a congressional witness table last month. "I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room, but too many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist or that hell actually wasn't that bad."
