A recent decision by the outgoing 46th President of the United States to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, to 19 Americans for what the White House describes as "good people who have made extraordinary contributions to their country and the world".
Unfortunately, what President Joe Biden has done in the final days of his single term is to turn a most prestigious national award into a gratuitous partisan medal of loyalty. Consider:
Biden presented the award to George Soros, a longtime Democratic Party donor and sponsor of district attorneys who appear to aid and abet criminal behavior by refusing to prosecute it rather than protecting law-abiding citizens. Soros also wrote, "The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States." (The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror, 2006, p.16)
Biden also presented this honor to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who allowed American heroes to die in Benghazi without sending help, then, when questioned, said, "What difference, at this point, does it make?" She was also singled out by former FBI Director James Comey in 2026 for possible multiple felonies including the disappearance of approximately 30,000 emails after they had been subpoenaed.
Former US Representative Liz Cheney was yet another recipient of the award. In 2023, Rep. Nancy Pelosi appointed Cheney vice-chair of a panel that purportedly was to investigate the events of January 6, 2021. All its panelists, in fact, were appointed by Pelosi. After rejecting the Republicans' choices, she then chose the Republicans herself. There was no cross-examination of witnesses. According to an October 15, 2024 press release from the Committee on House Administration:
"Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) obtained never-before-seen correspondence between January 6 Select Committee Vice-Chair Liz Cheney and Cassidy Hutchinson and in 2022, while Hutchinson was still a subject of the Select Committee's investigation."
Cheney had, "both directly and through an intermediary," communicated with Hutchinson, regarding testimony Hutchinson had admitted to having lied about. Vast amounts of evidence, presumably exculpatory, are reportedly "still missing."
Was Biden's intent to degrade a once-cherished medal of national recognition? One merely has to consider past recipients to appreciate what this honor once meant. Individuals included Helen Keller, who broke down the barriers facing the disabled; Pope John XXIII; the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong; war hero and aviation great Jimmy Doolittle, who brought retribution from the air on Imperial Japan during World War II; selfless athlete Roberto Clemente, who died delivering relief supplies to an earthquake-stricken Nicaragua, and relentless Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
There is a long and regrettable legacy created during the Biden Administration's four years. To be charitable, some events may be blamed on forces beyond his control, but there are countless examples of errors of judgment that historians may ponder in the decades to come. However, one would have thought that in his final weeks, Biden might recognize the need quietly to close the doors on the East Wing and leave without incurring further damage to the fabric of America. Sadly, it was not to be.
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
