After dolling out his list of pardons for Hunter Biden and other criminals, amid a flood of last-minute executive orders and other actions, Joe Biden started the new year with an awards lollapalooza. These were primarily participation trophies for his most loyal political hacks mixed in with some awards to worthy recipients to give legitimacy to the rest.

Most notable among those worthy of recognition would be the Medal of Valor and Medal of Honor recipients he squeezed in between the “Citizen” and “Freedom” medals.

First up Thursday, there were 20 recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal, our nation’s second-highest civilian award (under the Presidential Medal of Freedom).

Predictably, leading that list of mostly leftist political cronies were the two protagonists of his J6 political charade, the recently defeated former Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS).

Incoming Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) protested: “Biden was either going to pardon Liz Cheney or give her an award. She doesn’t deserve either. She represents partisanship and divisiveness, not Wyoming.”

Biden has so far forgotten to preemptively pardon Cheney, who is likely to find herself the subject of a criminal corruption investigation by the next Congress for witness tampering, among other charges. Of course, a preemptive pardon could still be forthcoming.

According to a White House statement: “The Presidential Citizens Medal is awarded to citizens of the United States of America who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens. President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Some on the list generally met that qualification, though tens of thousands of other Americans also do. Most received the award because they met the Demos’ political agenda qualification.

A day later, to distract from the howls of protests about dispensing presidential political trophies to Cheney and Thompson, Biden announced more deserving award recipients — albeit last minute, as if an afterthought.

Eight recipients of the Medal of Valor were among them, and he also included seven recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Five of the Valor Medal recipients, as recommended by Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland, were the first responding officers to the March 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville, during which six were murdered by a sociopathic “transgender” woman who targeted Christians. Notably, that incident was never declared a “hate crime.”

These officers are all worthy recipients, but they were elevated because this incident was used by Biden et al. as fodder for his gun control agenda, and it was used to launch a red state gun control Trojan Horse template for that agenda.

I am certain that all of these officers would acknowledge that there have been countless other first responders over Biden’s last four years who have put their lives at immediate risk when saving others. That would include responding officers who killed the Islamist terrorist responsible for the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans last week.

Notably, the Nashville police response stands in stark contrast to the failure of police to adequately respond to the May 2022 assault on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in which another deranged sociopath murdered 21 people. Notably, the Uvalde PD chief and a former officer were subsequently indicted on criminal negligence charges for not following protocols, which, according to the charges, resulted in many more deaths at the school. (Just a reminder, despite the unprecedented surge of violence unleashed by Biden and his Democrat agitators, children are still much safer on school campuses than anywhere else outside their homes.)

The other Medals of Valor went to an officer who risked his life to save a woman from drowning, a firefighter who saved a mother and child from a burning apartment, and another firefighter who saved two people from a burning building.

Friday afternoon, Biden awarded seven Medals of Honor (six posthumously), almost doubling the number of recipients over the last four years. All of these recipients met every standard for receiving our nation’s highest award for Valor, but it was highly unusual that there was no advance announcement of these recipients — indicative of the general state of chaos in the Biden White House in recent months.

Announcements about Medal of Honor recipients are generally released a week in advance of the ceremony. It is disgraceful that Biden did not appropriately schedule individual ceremonies over the last four years in order to give these recipients and their families due honor and respect. Surely, if honoring these recipients and, by extension, all active-duty military personnel and Veterans was a priority, he could have set aside two hours out of seven of his 532 days off (almost 40% of his presidency) to honor these men.

We will provide upcoming Profiles of Valor on these most recent recipients: Private Bruno R. Orig, February 15, 1951, Korea; Private First Class Wataru Nakamura, May 18, 1951, Korea; Corporal Fred B. McGee, June 16, 1952, Korea; Private First Class Charles R. Johnson, June 11-12, 1953, Korea; First Lieutenant Richard E. Cavazos, June 14-15, 1953, Korea; Captain Hugh R. Nelson, Jr., June 5, 1966, Vietnam; and Private First Class Kenneth J. David, May 7, 1970, Vietnam.

Notably, there is still a backlog of worthy Medal of Honor recipients who have yet to be recognized. Hopefully, Donald Trump will ensure they are duly awarded once he returns to office.

Finally, bookending the Medals of Valor and Medals of Honor, on Saturday, Biden handed out 19 Presidential Medals of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor. Some went to worthy candidates who have actually “made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.” But others went to those who have been major funders or advocates of his leftist agenda.

Among the worthy recipients, I would include historical philanthropist David Rubenstein and actor/cultural advocate Denzel Washington.

But as with the inclusion of Citizens Medal politicos Cheney and Thompson, Biden disgracefully included Hillary Clinton and billionaire leftist George Soros on his list of most prominent Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.

Of Soros, Biden said: “Born into a Jewish family in Hungary, George Soros escaped Nazi occupation to build a life of freedom for himself and countless others around the world. … His inspiring generosity reminds us all of our capacity and our obligation to stand up to the abuse of power and to be guardians of democracy and all people yearning to be free.”

Soros leads the socialist pack of “America Last” haters of all that is good and right about America. He relentlessly advocates for centralized government power and the systemic suppression of freedom. He is among the largest Demo megadonors and, as such, a paragon of those who stand in abject opposition to American Liberty. Soros and his so-called Open Society Foundations have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into Democrat initiatives and elections.

As for giving this award to Hillary Clinton for her “decades in public service,” there is not enough bandwidth to fully object to this political trophy for her long track record of domestic and foreign policy malfeasance. She and Barack Obama gave rise to the Islamic State, and I doubt Biden checked in with the families of those slain at Benghazi before dolling out this award.