The former vice president got the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for certifying the 2020 election. Previous recipients include John McCain, Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence has received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for “putting his life and career on the line” for certifying the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence defied President Donald Trump and dozens of Republican lawmakers by refusing to halt the congressional certification process of the 2020 election results on Jan. 6. A mob of Trump supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the transfer of power to then President-elect Joe Biden, with some explicitly calling for violence against Pence.
“I will always believe, by God’s grace, I did my duty that day, to support the peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution of the Untied States of America,” Pence said upon accepting the award on Sunday, May 4.
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the former President John F. Kennedy, and her son Jack Schlossberg, presented the award to Pence at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
They said in a statement that Pence’s decision “is an example of President Kennedy’s belief that an act of political courage can change the course of history.”
The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award has been given out annually since 1989 by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, to “public servants for making a courageous decision of conscience without regard for the personal or professional consequences.” Past winners include former U.S. Sen. John McCain, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former President Barack Obama.
“January 6 was a tragic day,” Pence said “But it became a triumph of freedom, and history will record that our institutions held when, after law enforcement secured the Capitol, leaders in both chambers in both political parties reconvened the very same day and finished democracy’s work under the Constitution.”
Pence, a former governor of Indiana, unsuccessfully ran against Trump in 2023 for the Republican party presidential nomination and has publicly split from his former running mate over Jan. 6.
Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY, and Brittany Carloni, IndyStar
Kathryn Palmer is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at [email protected] and on X @KathrynPlmr.