Biden to Dole Out 19 Medals of Freedom, and One Unmistakable Message
4th January 2025
New York Times, a Voice of the Crust.
But on Saturday, Mr. Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 Americans, including some of the brightest lights of the old guard that Mr. Trump wants to tear down. In doing so, the 82-year-old outgoing president is sending an unmistakable message of support for a democratic order he has said is threatened by Mr. Trump’s re-election.
Among those receiving the award are Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state whom Mr. Trump threatened to jail; Robert F. Kennedy, the assassinated senator whose son has embraced Mr. Trump; and George Romney, the late father of Senator Mitt Romney, the Republican from Utah who repeatedly rejected Mr. Trump’s actions and philosophy.
As many presidents have done with the Medal of Freedom, Mr. Biden also will honor some of his party’s most prolific fund-raisers, including the man who looms largest of all among Democratic donors — George Soros, the liberal activist billionaire whom Republicans have cast as the party’s evil puppet master.
They also include the magazine editor and cultural figure Anna Wintour, who put the first lady, Jill Biden, on the cover of Vogue twice in the last four years while spurning Melania Trump during her husband’s presidency. Ms. Wintour is one of the leading fund-raisers in the fashion industry, having hosted events for Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign in London and Paris last year.