WASHINGTON ― President Joe Biden on Saturday named former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire political activist and philanthropist George Soros recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, part of a group of 19 people selected for the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Others to be presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the outgoing president at a White House ceremony Saturday include U2 frontman Bono, actor Michael J. Fox, actor Denzel Washington, chef José Andrés and William Sanford Nye, better known as television’s “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”
From the sports world, decorated professional soccer player Lionel Messi of Argentina and retired NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson will also receive the medal.
President Biden believes great leaders keep the faith, give everyone a fair shot, and put decency above all else,” the White House said in a statement. “These 19 Americans are great leaders who have made America a better place.”
Four recipients are being recognized posthumously: former Defense Secretary Ash Carter; civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer; Robert F. Kennedy, the former U.S. Attorney General and U.S. senator from New York, who was assassinated while running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968; and George Romney, a former Republican Michigan governor and chairman of American Motors Corporation.
Kennedy, one of Biden’s heroes and brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, is the father of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Health and Human Services department. Romney is the father of outgoing U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.
In choosing the 94-year-old Soros for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Biden is honoring a major contributor to liberal and Democratic causes as well as Biden’s past presidential campaigns. Soros, a Hungarian-American of Jewish descent who made billions as a hedge fund manager, is a frequent target of criticism and conspiracy theories from the political right.
Clinton, the former first lady fiercely opposed by Republicans, served as a U.S. senator from New York in addition to leading the State Department during the Obama administration. Clinton ran unsuccessfully for president against Trump in 2016.
Earlier this week, Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal ‒ the country’s second highest civilian award ‒ to former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., for their role leading the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. They were among 20 to receive the award.
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