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President Joe Biden on Friday marked the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots by presenting one of the country’s highest civilian honors to 14 people who have shown courage and selflessness during events surrounding the deadly riot.

At the White House ceremony, Biden presented the first Presidential Citizens Medal, awarded to Americans “who have rendered exemplary service to their country or their fellow citizens.”

The group included law enforcement officials, current and former politicians and campaign workers who were threatened after the 2020 presidential campaign. Three of the medals were posthumously awarded to officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and died of injuries or suicide afterwards.

“America owes you everything, I mean it, a debt of gratitude,” Biden said during the impassioned remarks at Friday afternoon’s ceremony.

Recipients were honored for their actions before, during and after the riots, when a violent mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol, fighting with officers, vandalizing and stealing property and threatening lawmakers. The attack came shortly after a joint session of Congress called to confirm Biden’s presidential victory over Trump, who had falsely claimed he won the 2020 election.

The mob forced lawmakers to flee their chambers for several hours, hampering the transfer of power. More than 100 officers were injured in the attack, and federal officials estimate the riot caused millions of dollars in damage.

“All of this was fueled by lies about the 2020 election,” Biden said Friday, without naming Trump. The former president, who remains a key force in the Republican Party, has already launched a campaign for the 2024 White House.

Democracy held up after Jan. 6 only because “we the people didn’t flinch, we the people persevered, we the people prevailed,” Biden said.

Among the honorees was Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who distracted a group of rioters who were racing toward the Senate chamber, which had not yet been fully evacuated. Several officers injured during the riot – Aquilino Gonell, Michael Fanone, Caroline Edwards and Daniel Hodges – also received awards, as did Officer Harry Dunn, who testified that he faced racial slurs and mob harassment.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers were honored for resisting pressure from Trump’s allies to overturn their state election results. Bowers, a Republican, lost a state Senate bid to a Trump-backed opponent in 2022.

Biden also honored Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, two poll workers in Fulton County, Georgia, who have faced waves of harassment and threats related to unsubstantiated conspiracy theories of voter fraud in the state.

Officers Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood, and Jeffrey Smith received awards posthumously. Sicknick died a day after confronting rioters in the Capitol. His manner of death was determined to be of natural causes, but Washington Chief Medical Officer Francisco Diaz said at the time, “Everything that transpired played a role in his condition.” Liebengood and Smith both committed suicide after defending the Capitol.

Biden’s speech marking the anniversary of the uprising followed other ceremonies and commemorations on Capitol Hill, mostly by Democratic lawmakers.

“Today marks two years since a violent mob of insurgents — sanctioned by the former President — descended on the Capitol in an armed and deadly attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power and reverse the outcome of a free and fair election,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said in a statement Friday morning. “To this day, Donald Trump continues his attempt to poison American democracy with his Big Lie.”

In a brief ceremony on the steps of the house, lawmakers gathered for a moment of silence with the families of officers who died in connection with the riots. Many others were injured or traumatized by the mob, noted Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the incoming Democratic House Speaker. “Because of these officials, we are here today with our democracy intact,” Jeffries said.

According to one report, only one Republican representative, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, attended the event.

The anniversary came as Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy of California continued his fight to become Speaker of the House after failing to get enough votes from his party for three straight days. In the days following the Jan. 6 riots, McCarthy initially blamed Trump for the attack, saying the president “takes responsibility,” though he resisted Democrat efforts to impeach Trump a second time. But McCarthy soon backed down on this criticism.

The somber event at the White House was punctuated by a few moments of hilarity. After Biden fumbled with the pronunciation of Gonell’s name, the former USCP sergeant corrected him, prompting the president to shake the officer’s hand and joke, “He can call me President Bidden from now on.”

In another instance, Biden caused laughter when he acknowledged a technical difficulty that caused an echo in his audio.

The order numbers released on Friday were exceptional. Once again. Under President Joe Biden, the unemployment rate has hit a new 50-year low, strengthening working-class communities normally left behind.

Justin Wolfers, a professor in the University of Michigan’s Economics Department, wrote of the new jobs numbers: “Wait a minute, I just calculated the unemployment rate to extra decimal places, and the December rate of 3.468% is a new 50-YEAR LOW, the lowest rate since 1969.”

The household survey shows a crazy rate of job growth (+717k), bringing it closer to the remarkable recent growth in the payroll survey.

Over the course of 2022, the household survey shows overall job growth of 3.2 million, while the wages and salaries survey says 4.5 million jobs have been created. Either is 🔥🔥🔥

…

Let me take back my earlier tweet… Wage growth of 0.27% this month translates to an annualized rate of 3.4% and if that continues our inflation woes would resolve. The Fed should be *very* glad that this month’s wage numbers are unlikely to be inflationary.

…

Let me draw a line under today’s jobs report: fast job growth, record low unemployment and wage growth at levels likely to cool inflation is a stunning combination of good news.

Oh, you’re saying that ain’t interesting when the Republicans over there in the House of Representatives put on their lowest clown show yet? That could be a problem.

It would be a great disservice to the working class to ignore this good news and not tell the story about the Biden economy on the basis of Biden/Democratic values ​​and policies.

The White House sent a statement to PoliticusUSA drawing attention to the fact that many of these wins impacted people who were usually left behind:

Unemployment is near record lows for blacks and Hispanics.
Unemployment among people with disabilities is at a record low.
Hourly wages rose 0.3% in December after five months of real wage increases.
Manufacturing employment continued to grow, with the addition of 8,000 manufacturing jobs last month, representing 750,000 manufacturing jobs added since Biden took office.
The labor force grew as labor force participation in this recovery continues to grow faster than in previous periods, particularly for prime-aged workers.

750,000 jobs in manufacturing – that’s a lot. Trump promised that and didn’t keep it.

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On Thursday, President Biden was in Kentucky to celebrate and advocate for his bipartisan infrastructure bill. Biden pointed out that the law reads, “…we do all this with American workers and American products that are made in America. It’s a simple concept. I can sum it up in two words: Buy American.”

“I don’t sign anything that Congress passes unless it buys something American.”

Biden said, “We’re making sure the iron, steel and structural materials that they’re building for this bridge are made here in America, in the United States — made in Ohio, made in Kentucky — and employing thousands of people throughout.” by itself.”

And here we come in part via unions. In many ways, unions can be seen as an antidote to the encroachment of authoritarianism, because they empower workers against the oligarchs and help inoculate people from the desperation that leaves them vulnerable to conspiracies and charlatans.

“And most of that work we will do, and most of it will be done by the unions. Not worker, union. I can say the word “Union”. (Applause.) Laborers, electricians, carpenters, cement workers, iron workers, steel workers, communications workers, auto workers, and so much more. These are good jobs to raise a family and most don’t require a college degree.”

“All of this is about investing in America’s heartland, in America’s people, in America’s future.”

The Heartland. “Transfer country.” Forget the country. The country where Trumpism unexpectedly took root.

America’s greatest generation has understood the importance of buying American. It means well-paying jobs, it means a working class who can buy a house and feel financially secure in their old age. It means dignity for the working class.

If we don’t discuss how this happened, if we don’t acknowledge it and celebrate a great victory for working people in this country by allowing dysfunctional Republicans to once again suck all the oxygen in the newsroom, we are setting the stage for one another Trump.

What we focus on the most is what is being increased. We need to train ourselves to focus on what’s working and what’s broken, or we’re ripe for another fake artificial-turf populist puppet.

Chris Hayes pointed out that this is an opportunity for the left to tell a story about this economy, as the right said about Reagan: “Obviously inflation remains high and it’s not like all the problems of American capitalism have been solved were – far from it! — but it really feels like this should be an opportunity for leftists/liberals to tell a story about this economy like the one the right told about Reagan.”

As a matter of fact.

President Biden said in a statement to PoliticusUSA, “Today’s jobs report shows the economy added 223,000 jobs over the past month – capping the two strongest years of job growth in history. This is just the latest sign that President Biden’s economic plan is working as we continue the transition to steadier, more resilient growth without giving up all of the historic gains made for American workers.”

Joe Biden is the Reagan of the left.

Biden has shifted the perspective of economics to focus on the working class instead of Reagan’s “trickle down” theory.

Republicans still cling to the debunked “trickle-down” theory because it justifies the gift of tremendous economic welfare to the wealthy and corporate. It does this by deregulating corporations and giving even more tax cuts to the rich and corporations under the guise that one fine day they would magically trickle down.

As we saw when Trump and the Republicans did this in 2017, it didn’t work. Yet this is still a country that’s been brainwashed into believing it licks the top 1% to such an extent that we’re okay with bad actors getting huge government contracts and tax subsidies while hard-working Americans don’t be able to afford a day-care center one day.

This is a fundamental change with long-term implications. Joe Biden somehow managed to get about 19 Republicans to join all 50 Democrats and Independents to pass his infrastructure bill in the Senate. Only 13 House Republicans managed to muster the diligence to invest in our nation’s infrastructure and jobs, but even that was an achievement given the state of the modern Republican Party.

The majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives have pledged to obstruct everything this President does and even impeach him with conspiracies. They will do so with an attitude against good-paying jobs in America, against investment in our own country, and against economic security for the working class.

Joe Biden has always been a champion of working people. He redeemed the broken Trump promise to the economically dependent. This will transform people’s lives for years to come and deserves recognition and must be championed if we are to continue.

Joe Biden: The President who actually leaked it by doing the opposite of Reaganomics.

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily’s newsletter podcast here.

Sarah was accredited to report on President Barack Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and she exclusively interviewed spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively reported on her first appearance at home after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is a two-time Telly Award-winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host and Twitter.

WASHINGTON — Republican leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., lost an eighth vote for speaker of the House on Thursday, even after making several concessions to win over far-right opponents who have so far barred him from the election hammer blocked.

Earlier in the day, McCarthy had sounded an upbeat note over talks between his top lieutenants and a block of GOP holdouts.

“I think everyone in the conversation wants to find a solution,” McCarthy said as he made his way into the House of Representatives chamber for the day’s first vote.

But less than two hours after voting began, an influential McCarthy holdout, Rep. Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania, released an angry tweet accusing McCarthy of revealing details of internal negotiations.

Though voting is still ongoing, McCarthy has already lost more than 10 votes, making it impossible for him to reach the 218 needed to win the speakership.

It was unclear what would happen after the eighth vote, whether Republicans would attempt to adjourn the chamber or be forced to hold a ninth vote, although there were no apparent signs that anyone in the GOP faction changed their minds had.

The continued absence of a Speaker has thrown the House into disarray, largely due to the fact that ordinary members cannot be sworn into office until a Speaker is elected and cannot set up their local or Washington offices. This means that all 434 members of the House still technically remain elected members, not official proxies.

Ahead of Thursday’s votes, Democratic Party leaders berated Republicans for the party’s dysfunction and stressed the damage days without a House Speaker would do to the legislature and the nation.

“We cannot organize our district offices, get our new members to do the political work of our constituent services, and minister to the people who sent us here on their behalf,” said new Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass. , reporters at the Capitol Thursday morning. “Kevin McCarthy’s ego in his quest for speaking at any cost drowns out the voices and needs of the American people.”

Democrats also stressed that the lack of a speaker threatens U.S. national security by preventing members of Congress from accessing classified information that is only available to lawmakers after taking the oath of office, which none of them have can do without a speaker.

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“Ultimately, all we’re asking is Republicans to find a way for themselves to organize so Congress can get together and do business with the American people,” said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y. , said at a press conference with Clark.

She accused McCarthy of being “held hostage to his own ambitions”.

“This is about your responsibility to organize the government. It’s fundamental to us as members of Congress,” Clark said.

McCarthy, meanwhile, negotiated late on Wednesday with both allies and his opponents to try and reach an agreement that would land him the hammer after six failed votes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Republican leader of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reacts on the floor of the House chamber with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as Democrats force the House of Representatives to vote on whether to hold a late night session to continue against McCarthy’s wishes The contest for Speaker of the House continues on the second day of the 118th Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, United States, on January 4, 2023

Jonathan Ernest | Reuters

The first major concession McCarthy agreed to Wednesday was a rule change that would allow any member of the party to vote at any time on whether to replace the Speaker of the House, a far lower threshold than the current bar, according to NBC News .

“Anyone, anywhere, anytime,” Gaetz, one of McCarthy’s staunchest opponents, described the new rule to NBC late Wednesday night.

Gaetz also said McCarthy has agreed to appoint members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus to positions on key committees, including the powerful House Rules Committee, which controls which bills get the floor for voting and which bills languish in committees indefinitely.

This change satisfied another demand from the extreme right that its constituent bloc be given more power to get their favorite bills on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) passionately addresses fellow conservative Republican House members at the center of the House Chamber after a fourth round of voting still failed, US House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), to be elected the new Speaker of the House on the second day of the 118th Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, United States, January 4, 2023.

Evelyn Hockstein Reuters

McCarthy’s allies didn’t deny he had agreed to new concessions, NBC reported, but they declined to confirm details.

“The question is movement and positive movement,” Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-NC, told NBC News and other reporters camped outside the meeting rooms late Wednesday night. “We had an afternoon of very positive discussions and there seems to be goodwill among Republicans and McCarthy that’s developing in a very nice way.”

The limited progress came after McCarthy failed to meet the minimum required to become speaker, in this case 218 votes if all 434 incoming members of the House of Representatives were to cast ballots, in seven votes in two days.

Not only had McCarthy failed to reach 218, but over the course of 48 hours, McCarthy’s support had actually shrunk from 203 to 201 after two members of his faction, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz , had ceased their support.

Democrats stayed in step throughout all of the voting, casting all 212 of their ballots unanimously for Jeffries each time.

New Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), new Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) and new Democratic Faction Chair Pete Aguilar (D-CA) hold a press conference on Capitol Hill on December 13, 2022 in Washington, USA, from.

Elisabeth Franz | Reuters

This is an evolving story and will be updated throughout the day.