Trump’s former VP Mike Pence to receive JFK Courage Award

Donald Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence will receive a John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award on Sunday for refusing to endorse false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Pence defied Trump by declining to throw out electoral votes cast for Joe Biden during a Congressional session on 6 January 2021 that was targeted by rioters.

The former vice-president stayed inside the US Capitol as it was stormed by hundreds of Trump supporters and presided over the certification of the election after the building was cleared.

The award, named after a book written by President Kennedy, is given out by the JFK Library Foundation.

Past recipients include former presidents Barack Obama and George H W Bush, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

After Trump lost the 2020 vote, he made broad claims that fraud and cheating cost him the vote, alleging a vast conspiracy that included even Republican-run states such as Georgia.

The US vice-president presides over the Senate, and it was in this role that Pence resisted calls from Trump and his supporters to try to overturn the election results.

Although there was no hard evidence to back up Trump’s allegations, his supporters targeted the Congressional certification of the election, usually a routine procedure, on 6 January 2021.

Trump publicly criticised Pence and called on him to stop the certification process. Some of the Capitol rioters chanted “hang Mike Pence” as they breached security.

Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 vote later led to several criminal cases which have largely subsided since he won last year’s presidential election.

After he was inaugurated for a second time, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of everyone charged or convicted in connection with the Capitol riot – more than 1,500 people in total.

President Kennedy published his book Profiles in Courage in 1957. It included short profiles of eight US Senators who took principled stands and suffered criticism and falling popularity as a result.

The Kennedy family established the award named after the book in 1989.

In announcing the award last month, the JFK Library Foundation praised Pence “for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021″.

Pence will receive the award from Kennedy’s daughter Caroline Kennedy and his grandson Jack Schlossberg at the JFK Library in Boston.

In a statement, the former vice president said he was “deeply humbled and honoured”.

Since leaving office, Pence has been largely shunned by Trump and the Republican Party. His own run for president in 2024 drew tepid support and ended months before Republican primaries began.

He has set up a conservative political action group, Advancing American Freedom, which criticises what it calls the “radical Left and liberal media” and has also campaigned against the nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr as US Health Secretary.