While outgoing U.S. president Donald Trump was being impeached for the second time, he was honouring singers Toby Keith and Ricky Skaggs with the National Medal of the Arts.
Bloomberg News correspondent Jennifer Jacobs tweeted the news, citing several sources, at 2 pm Wednesday. A couple of hours later, NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander also tweeted about the ceremony, which reportedly took place in the East Room of the White House.
Media was not invited to the ceremony. Reps for Keith and Skaggs have not commented.
According to an official description, the National Medal of the Arts is given to artists “deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States.”
Keith, 59, performed at Trump’s 2017 inauguration and Skaggs, 66, endorsed Trump during the 2016 election.