President Biden will award the nation’s highest civilian honor to failed Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and left-wing donor George Soros, among others.
Nineteen people will be awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year, the White House announced on Saturday. They are “great leaders who have made America a better place. They are great leaders because they are good people who have made extraordinary contributions to their country and the world,” the White House said in a statement.
Clinton’s failed presidential run in 2016, along with her debunked insistence that her opponent Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the election, cliched a victory for her political rival, Trump.
Soros, who founded the Open Society Foundations, has funneled more than $32 billion to left-wing causes and organizations. Soros-backed groups have recently been under fire for promulgating antisemitism after the October 7 terrorist attacks. The Democratic donor has supported groups that lead school walkouts “for Gaza,” organize “All out for Palestine” protests in cities, and profess support for Hamas. One Soros-backed group, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, tried to blockade a U.S. military ship headed for Israel last year.
“There are lawful ways and locations to exercise free speech at a public port — like getting a protest permit and holding your event,” nonprofit attorney Jason Torchinsky told the Washington Free Beacon at the time. “But [nonprofit] dollars cannot be used to support criminal activities, which here may include a restricted area in violation of U.S. Coast Guard rules and interference with military operations.”
The Presidential Medal of Freedom “may be awarded by the President . . . to any person who has made an especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” former President John F. Kennedy declared via executive order in 1963.
Other recipients of this year’s medal include celebrity chef José Andrés, whose aid group, World Central Kitchen, has delivered food to Gaza during the war in Israel. The World Central Kitchen fired dozens of its workers in Gaza after Israel reported that 62 World Central Kitchen employees had ties to terrorist groups. Biden also awarded the medal to U2 Irish singer-songwriter Bono, actor and Parkinson’s-disease activist Michael J. Fox, fashion designer Ralph Lauren, soccer star Lionel Messi, host of “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” Bill Nye, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, David M. Rubenstein, actor Denzel Washington, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, and more.
The president posthumously awarded the medal to George W. Romney, father of Mitt and former governor of Michigan, and Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. senator and attorney general who, in 1968, was tragically assassinated.