Nancy Pelosi received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden on Friday, and there could hardly be a visual more indicative of the threat to freedom than that posed by these two statist clowns.

Pelosi was just one of 19 primarily leftists whom Biden’s handlers thought he should honor with the Medal, degrading it to little more value than a Pulitzer or Nobel Prize. There was Congressman James Clyburn, who almost single-handedly revived Biden’s moribund campaign in the South Carolina Democrat primary in 2020. “I would not be standing here as president making these awards were it not for Jim,” Biden said. There was former veep Al Gore, whose primary contribution to “freedom” (other than inventing the Internet, of course) has been to inspire tyrannical climate initiatives like the Green New Deal. There was former senator and presidential candidate John Kerry, who traitorously negotiated with the enemy North Vietnamese, lied about his record in Vietnam, got clobbered in the 2004 election, and reinvented himself as an Al Gore clone.

And there was Pelosi. The White House said simply that she “served as the 52nd Speaker of the House and has represented San Francisco in Congress for more than 36 years.” It called her “a staunch defender of democracy” who “shaped legislative agendas and Democratic priorities for decades.”

It is those Democratic priorities that did the most to undermine democracy, if by that word you mean the supposed synonym “freedom.” As a side note, we in our humble shop often argue this is a Republic, not a democracy, precisely because democracy and freedom are not synonymous.

Ask Joe Biden, who has asked more than once recently if we’re ready to “choose freedom over democracy.”

Of Pelosi, Biden said:

Nancy Pelosi grew up knowing the power and purpose of politics. A historic figure as the first woman speaker of the House of Representatives, she used her superpowers to pass some of the most significant laws in our nation’s history. On January 6, Nancy stood in the breach and defended democracy. … Nancy is a brilliant, practical, principled, and determined leader. Her accomplishments are overwhelming. … History will remember you, Nancy, as the greatest speaker of the House of Representatives ever.

Upon presenting the Medal, Biden’s script-reader added:

As the first woman speaker of the House, she has shepherded some of our nation’s most consequential laws by keeping coalitions together and standing with and up to presidents of both parties. Her resolve on January 6, 2021, helped guide America through one of our darkest days. For her efforts to protect freedom and democracy, Nancy Pelosi will be known forever as the greatest speaker of the House in American history.

Is that so? I guess it depends on the historian, but I thought I’d just list a few highlights of things we’ve covered over the years — and we’ve covered a lot. I’ll start with two significant things Biden praised.

Pelosi orchestrated the histrionic J6 Insurrection™ Inquisition, which greatly undermined the trust millions of Americans had in our institutions. As bad as the riot on January 6 was, the Democrats’ cynical exploitation of it has been far more consequential. Her “resolve,” as the award reader put it, was to impeach Donald Trump a second time, regardless of the evidence or rationale. While calling a riot an “insurrection,” she lied by hiding exculpatory evidence, and she lied by desecrating Officer Brian Sicknick’s death.

Her disgraceful performance through that charade alone is disqualifying for any talk about “freedom.”

As for one of “the most significant laws in our nation’s history,” that would include ObamaCare, which is significant in its trampling of the Constitution. Pelosi famously said before passage, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” Chief Justice John Roberts may have bent over backward to save the law by using rationale Democrats explicitly and repeatedly rejected, but the law is a constitutional abomination. As we predicted before it was passed, it remains the law a decade and a half later, still wreaking havoc on the health insurance market, even as we’re treated to Leftmedia hagiographic accounts of Pelosi’s supposedly heroic efforts.

I could go on at length about Pelosi’s horrific record, but I’ll name just one more regarding that bit about “standing with and up to presidents.” After Trump’s 2020 State of the Union Address, Pelosi stood up and literally shredded her copy of it. Mark Alexander argued that she “brazenly and feloniously violate[d] federal law — specifically 18 U.S.C. 2071 and the Presidential Records Act of 1978” — and referred her for criminal prosecution by the Justice Department. Predictably, that didn’t happen.

Her Trump Derangement Syndrome is so bad that she barely keeps herself together when Trump is named.

Speaking of keeping yourself together, Biden sure had himself a day, seeming to confuse the ceremony with one for a Medal of Honor, losing track of why Jane Rigby was even receiving the Medal, calling Michelle Yeoh “Michael” while praising her for “breaking glass ceilings,” and congratulating the “Presidential Freedom of Medal recipients.” Memo to Jill Biden: Stop the elder abuse already.

Follow Nate Jackson on X/Twitter.