U.S. President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton watch a speech by former President Bill Clinton (not pictured) at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York on September 23, 2024.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington will be awarded the nation’s highest civilian honors in a ceremony at the White House on Saturday.
President Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most prominent individuals in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science.
The White House said recipients “have made exemplary contributions to American prosperity, values or security, world peace, or other significant social, public or private endeavors.”
Four medals will be awarded posthumously. Their targets were Fannie Lou Hamer, who founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and laid the groundwork for the Voting Rights Act of 1965; former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; and George W. . Romney, who served as Michigan governor and secretary of Housing and Urban Development; and former Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
Kennedy is the father of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Romney is the father of former Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, one of Trump’s strongest conservative critics.
Major philanthropists receiving the award include Spanish-American chef José Andrés, whose charity World Central Kitchen has become one of the world’s most recognized food relief organizations, and Bono , the latter is the lead singer of the rock band U2 and a social justice activist.
Sports and entertainment stars recognized include professional soccer player Lionel Messi; retired Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend and businessman Alvin “Magic” Johnson; actor Michael J. Fox J. Fox, an outspoken advocate for Parkinson’s disease research and development; and William Sanford Nye, known to generations of students as “Bill Nye the Scientist.”
Other honorees include conservationist Jane Goodall; longtime Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour; American fashion designer Ralph Lauren; American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr. ; Tim Gill, entrepreneur and LGBTQ+ activist; and David Rubenstein, co-founder of Carlyle Group Global Investments.
Last year, Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 people, including the late Medgar Evers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn and actress Michelle Yeoh.
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