Biden to award Medal of Freedom to 19, including Hillary Clinton, Bono and Jose Andres
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The nation’s highest civilian award honors individuals who ‘made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors’. President Biden is awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — to 19 individuals, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
He’ll bestow the awards in a ceremony Saturday, marking the final time Biden will present the prestigious honor during his time in office. In addition to Clinton, the group also includes chef and World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres, U2 frontman and activist Bono (whose real name is Paul Hewson), the late Obama administration defense secretary Ashton Carter, actor and activist Michael J. Fox, and Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
Other arts and cultural luminaries set to be honored include actor Denzel Washington, longtime Vogue editor Anna Wintour, American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr, and former Kennedy Center chair David Rubinstein. In addition, the president will give the award to designer Ralph Lauren, soccer star Lionel Messi, LGBTQ+ activist and entrepreneur Tim Gill, conservationist Jane Goodall and Democratic Party megadonor and philanthropist George Soros.
Biden will also posthumously honor voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, the late Michigan governor George Romney (father of former Utah senator Mitt Romney) and the late New York senator and U.S. attorney general Robert F Kennedy Sr., whose son, lawyer and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is set to be nominated as Donald Trump’s next Secretary of Health and Human Services.
