President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most well-known figures in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and science in the White House’s East Room on a very cold Saturday afternoon.
The audience gave former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a standing ovation when she accepted her honor. Clinton’s daughter Chelsea, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and their grandchildren accompanied her to the occasion. In a White House event, actor-director Denzel Washington and Democratic philanthropist George Soros both received the country’s highest civilian accolade.
“For the final time as president I have the honor bestowing the Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor, on a group of extraordinary, truly extraordinary people, who gave their sacred effort, their sacred effort, to shape the culture and the cause of America,” Biden stated in his opening address.
“Let me just say to each of you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all you’ve done to help this country,” Biden said on Saturday.
Posthumously, four medals were given out. They went to former Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Ash Carter, a former secretary of defense, George W. Romney, a former governor of Michigan and secretary of housing and urban development, and Fannie Lou Hamer, who established the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and helped draft the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Kennedy is the father of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary choice of President-elect Donald Trump. “Bobby is one of my real political heroes,” Biden declared. I adore him and sincerely miss him.
Romney is the father of Mitt Romney, a former Republican senator from Utah and one of Trump’s most vocal conservative opponents.
In his final days as president, Biden has been presenting medals and accolades to brave law enforcement officers, outstanding Americans, and brave members of the armed forces.
The Medal of Freedom honorees, according to the White House, have made “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.”
The award goes to prominent benefactors like Bono, the frontman of rock band U2, and social justice crusader, and Spanish American chef Jos Andrs, whose World Central Kitchen charity has grown to become one of the most well-known food assistance organizations in the world.
On his father’s behalf, Alex Soros, Soros’ son, accepted the award. The statement Soros sent via email read: “As an immigrant who found freedom and prosperity in America, I am deeply moved by this honor.”
Recognized sports and entertainment figures include actor Michael J. Fox, a vocal supporter of Parkinson’s disease research and development; retired Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend and businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson; professional soccer player Lionel Messi, who did not attend the event; and William Sanford Nye, who has been known to students for generations as “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”
Conservationist Jane Goodall, longtime editor-in-chief of Vogue Magazine Anna Wintour, American fashion designer Ralph Lauren, American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr., businessman and LGBTQ+ activist Tim Gill, and David Rubenstein, co-founder of the global investment firm The Carlyle Group, are among the other honorees.
The first fashion designer to be honored is Lauren.
The late Medgar Evers, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, South Carolina Representative James Clyburn, and actress Michelle Yeoh were among the 19 individuals who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Biden last year.
The Congressional Research Service reports that 654 people received the Presidential Medal of Freedom between 1963 and 2024. Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are notable former Medal of Freedom recipients.
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