A Politico columnist criticized President Biden for his final choice of Medal of Freedom recipients, which included liberal figures like Hillary Clinton and billionaire George Soros.
Politico senior editor Michael Schaffer wrote that Biden’s award choices send a strong signal that Democrats “are out of touch” and argued that the honor, once above politics, has now become another political battleground.
“The Presidential Medal of Freedom award is the nation’s highest civilian honor and is given to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values or security of the United States, world peace or other significant societal, public or private endeavors,” the White House said in a statement.
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Schaffer wrote that Biden’s choices, announced on Jan. 4, actually displayed a cadre of awardees who failed to defeat President-elect Trump during the campaign.
“For all their cultural and humanitarian accomplishments, Wintour and Andrés aren’t exactly selling products that ordinary Americans can afford,” Schaffer wrote. “The Republicanism of the Romney and Cheney families lost elections because it was unpopular. (This year, the Cheney endorsement didn’t help the Democratic candidate, either.)”
Former Sen. Mitt Romney posthumously accepted a medal on behalf of his late father, George Romney, a three-term Republican governor of Michigan.
“To some Republicans — who particularly reacted against the inclusion of George Soros, the bankroller of liberal causes and longtime conservative smear-campaign target — it felt like trolling,” Schaffer wrote.
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“Worse still, the politics are unlikely to help Biden’s party or his legacy,” the columnist added.
He said that without Biden rising above the political fray in Washington, D.C., the “laureates also feel like a last-minute political diss of the incoming administration.”
“It feels a little churlish to flay a departing president for celebrating his own favorites as the curtain drops — especially since, in this case, the winners clear the hurdle of having spent years atop their fields,” Schaffer wrote. “Yet the overtly political vibe marks a cheapening of the nation’s highest civilian honor, which is meant to celebrate great contributions to America.”
Political commentators and Biden opponents used the event to attack the president, with billionaire Elon Musk emerging as one of the most prominent voices to bash megadonor George Soros in particular.
“A travesty that Biden is giving Soros the Medal of Freedom,” Musk posted on X last week in response to news that the nation’s highest civilian honor would be presented to Soros, whose massive financial empire has funded campaigns of progressive politicians, legislation, ballot measures and initiatives.
Fox News’ Michael Dorgon and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
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