With just two weeks left in his presidency, Joe Biden today will honor a new group of recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Bono, Michael J. Fox, George Stevens Jr. and Denzel Washington are among 19 people honored as “great leaders who made America and the world a better place,” the White House said. The nation's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom is presented “to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant community, public, or private endeavors.”
The ceremony is scheduled to be held in the East Room of the White House later today.
Also honored were chef José Andrés, Hillary Clinton, businessman and gay rights advocate Tim Gill, ethicist and environmentalist Jane Goodall, Magic Johnson, fashion designer Ralph Lauren, soccer star Lionel Messi, and Bill Nye the Science Guy, co-founder. The Carlyle Group, co-chairman David Rubinstein, investor and philanthropist George Soros, and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
Posthumous honorees include former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer, and former Michigan Governor George Romney.
At the White House, Bono is recognized as “the front man of the legendary rock band U2 and a pioneering activist against AIDS and poverty”; Foxx as an Emmy Award-winning actor and “world-renowned advocate for Parkinson's disease research and development”; Stevens for a career “dedicated to preserving and celebrating the best of American films and the performing arts, including through the founding of the American Film Institute and the establishment of the Kennedy Center Honors”; and Washington as an Academy Award-winning actor who has served as “a national spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for more than 25 years.”
