Former Barack Obama staffers poked fun at President Joe Biden for awarding a second-highest civilian medal to former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) over the weekend.
The former Obama aides at “Pod Save America” joked about Biden’s decision to honor Cheney with the Presidential Citizens Medal on Saturday. The trio of them also mocked the entire medal process—with co-host Tommy Vietor explaining that the award “doesn’t make any sense.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense. You can give it to living people. You can give it to dead people. You can give it to foreign nationals. Colin Powell got it twice for some reason,” Vietor said on Tuesday’s episode.
Co-host Jon Favreau explained that Cheney did not get the highest civilian honor, which is the Medal of Freedom. He then joked that Cheney would appreciate a pardon instead of a medal, alluding to President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to target her and other Jan. 6 committee members during his next administration.
“Liz Cheney didn’t get the Medal of Freedom. She got the one that was like, just below it, which also, by the way, pissed off some resistance,” Favreau said.
“I bet Liz Cheney could use a pardon more than the f—ing medal,” he added.
The trio of co-hosts laughed about the situation, with Jon Lovett questioning why there is a “silver” medal in this. Favreau then noted that former President Barack Obama awarded Biden with a Medal of Freedom, but that Biden did not return the honor.
“Obama gave one to Biden. Biden did not return the favor,” Favreau said as the others laughed.
“That’s interesting,” Lovett responded. “They’re not really on speaking terms, after all that’s happened.”
The hosts also poked fun at the other medal recipients, including Democratic megadonor George Soros, who they noted is an investor of Crooked Media.
“Well earned Medal of Freedom, if I do say so,” Lovett quipped, with Vietor adding that Biden “got one right.”
Biden also gave the Presidential Citizens Medal to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who led the effort alongside Cheney to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol. Trump has suggested that members of the congressional committee should be thrown in jail for their probe into the attack.
Biden faced some backlash for his decision to honor Cheney and Thompson with the medals, with Trump lashing out on Truth Social over Biden’s decision.
“Biden gave Liz Cheney a Medal yesterday, even though she has proven to be totally corrupt. She, ‘Bennie’ Thompson, and the rest of the Unselect Committee, destroyed and deleted all evidence from their crooked investigation of January 6th. Cheney has the distinction of losing her Congressional seat by the largest margin in History!” he wrote.
The committee’s final report asserted that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the election he lost to Biden and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. Thompson wrote that Trump “lit that fire.”
The audience erupted in loud cheers and stood when Cheney took the stage. Biden clasped her hand and gave her the medal. The announcer said she was being given it “for putting the American people over party.”
Cheney, who lost her seat in the GOP primary in August 2022, later said she would vote for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race and campaigned with the Democratic nominee, raising Trump’s ire. Biden has been considering whether to offer preemptive pardons to Cheney and others Trump has targeted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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