Joe Biden has marked the second anniversary of the January 6 insurrection by awarding medals to heroes who “did not flinch” when the US Capitol came under attack and warning that democracy cannot be taken for granted.

The US president on Friday awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to 14 people, some posthumously, and spoke with passion – and flashes of humour – at a White House ceremony.

The event in the East Room, against a backdrop of seven flags and portraits of the founding US president and first lady, George and Martha Washington, struck a sharp contrast with the Capitol itself where Republicans were struggling for a fourth day to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives.

Biden had commemorated the first anniversary of the riot by visiting the Capitol itself and denouncing former president Donald Trump, whose supporters staged the January 6 attack after he urged them to fight like hell. This time, he devoted most of his remarks to praising the heroes of that day who held the line.

But his sense of rage at the attempted coup was undimmed.

“Two years ago on January 6, our democracy was attacked,” the president said. “There’s no other way of saying it. The US Capitol was breached, which had never happened before in the history of the United States of America, even during the civil war.”

He added: “All of it – all of it – was fueled by the lies” Trump told about being robbed of victory over Biden in the 2020 election.

“But on this day two years ago, our democracy held because we the people – as the constitution refers to us – we the people did not flinch,” Biden said. “We the people endured. We the people prevailed.”

Biden described the honourees, who entered the room to standing ovations and cheers, as “a remarkable group of Americans who embodied the best before, during and after January 6, 2021”.

They included the former Arizona house speaker Rusty Bowers and the Michigan secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, who resisted pressure to overturn the 2020 election results in their states. They also included Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman, who diverted rioters from the Senate floor while members were evacuating, and the Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman, falsely accused by Trump of election fraud and forced to flee her home after death threats.

There were also awards for Capitol police officers Harry Dunn, Caroline Edwards and Sgt Aquilino Gonell; DC police officer Daniel Hodges; and former DC police officer Michael Fanone.

Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick was awarded a posthumous medal. Washington’s chief medical examiner ruled that Sicknick died of natural causes following multiple strokes after the attack.

“He lost his life protecting the citadel of democracy,” Biden said before telling Sicknick’s family directly: “I know you’re proud of the honour being bestowed on Brian. But I also know this difficult moment brings back everything as if it happened this very day.”

There were two late additions to Friday’s list: Capitol police officer Howard Liebengood and Washington DC police officer Jeffrey Smith, both of whom took their own lives in the aftermath of the insurrection. Biden acknowledged that for family members of the fallen, the honour was “bittersweet”.

He also noted that many of those present had testified to the House panel investigating the Capitol attack about what they were seeing and feeling. “It’s not an exaggeration to say America owes you – owes you all, I really mean that – a debt of gratitude,” Biden said. “One that we can never fully repay unless we live up to what you did. What you did was truly consequential.”

Trump’s supporters attacked police, smashed through barricades and entered the Capitol on 6 January 2021 in a failed effort to prevent congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump, who has announced another bid for the presidency in 2024, continues to claim falsely that only widespread voting fraud cost him the 2020 election.

The House committee investigating the attack said last month that Trump should face criminal charges for his role in provoking the violence.

Biden did not mention Trump or Republicans who rally around the Make America Great Again (Maga) slogan by name but cautioned: “We face an inflection point in our nation’s history. On January 6, it’s a reminder there’s nothing guaranteed about our democracy.”

The Presidential Citizens Medal, created by President Richard Nixon in 1969, is the country’s second-highest civilian honour after the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is awarded to those who “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens”.