On Sunday at the JFK Library in Boston, Jack Schlossberg, the son of Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and grandson of the late President John F. Kennedy, presented the 2025 John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award to former Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence earned the honor after he refused to honor President Trump’s request in 2021 to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election, and instead oversaw the congressional certification of Joe Biden‘s Electoral College victory.
In introducing Pence (below), Schlossberg said: “The Profiles in Courage Award does not celebrate victory or success. Instead, the winner often has to lose something first.”
He added, “It’s an honor reserved for elected officials who put the nation’s interest before their own, risking their lives and their own political careers.”
(Past recipients include Presidents Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford.)
2025 profiles in courage award — VP Mike Pence for upholding his oath and saving America on January 6 2021 pic.twitter.com/MSYcIQVT1P
— Jack Schlossberg (@JBKSchlossberg) May 5, 2025
Schlossberg referred to January 6, 2021 as “an attempted coup” and said Pence “saved America that day.”
Pence received a stand ovation and said during his acceptance speech: “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 United States of America.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence honored by Kennedy family in receiving the JFK 'Profile in Courage Award' | Fox News https://t.co/feHPLA1XTy pic.twitter.com/4rDqqUJajC
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) May 5, 2025
After the event, Pence told Fox News that while he approves of some of Trump’s actions in his second administration, he also said: “I truly do believe that some of the other steps the president is taking away from that conservative agenda should be a concern that would work against his legacy and ultimately the success of our party or our country.”
Pence added: “So we’re going to continue to be a voice against them.”
MAGA supporters are, predictably, slamming Pence for going against Trump that day and for accepting the award.
Many are responding with comments related to the biblical story of Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’s disciples who in the Bible’s telling received 30 pieces of silver in exchange for betraying Jesus to the religious authorities. “Thirty pieces of silver” — commonly used to describe an act of treason — appears as a frequent condemnation of Pence in MAGA commentary.
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