Bob Dole Congressional Gold Medal Award Ceremony

by | Jan 17, 2018

Audience members socialize before the start of the ceremony, which took place in the hall of the Capitol Rotunda. (Renzo Downey/MNS)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell greets his former Senate colleague, Sen. Bob Dole, before giving his remarks. "This soldier, statesman and American hero has never stopped fighting for those that have less power and less strength than he does," McConnell said. (Renzo Downey/MNS)Speaker of the House Paul Ryan awards Dole with the Congressional Gold Medal. The award is the highest civilian honor given by the legislature, which it has been doing since Congress was established. (Renzo Downey/MNS)Dole thanks his colleagues and staff for the support they gave him while he served in Congress. (Renzo Downey/MNS)Dole's wife, former North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, gave the majority of Dole's thank you speech. "It was Everett Dirksen who famously observed, 'I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, and one of my principles is flexibility,'" she said of her husband's bipartisan efforts while a Republican leader. (Renzo Downey/MNS)President Trump congratulates the senator after the Doles' acceptance speeches. Trump praised Dole's resilience and recovery after sustaining his injuries during World War II. (Renzo Downey/MNS)