Simone Biles and John McCain Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

WASHINGTON — After conferring the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 17 folks, together with the gymnast Simone Biles and former Senator John McCain, who was honored posthumously, President Biden stated, “That is America.”

However the celebratory occasion within the East Room of the White Home on Thursday stated as a lot concerning the president because it did concerning the nation represented by the group of women and men he was honoring.

The occasion underscored Mr. Biden’s longstanding Catholic religion, his unwavering help for unions, his desire for centrist lawmakers and his perception in range. Any president’s selection of whom to honor presents a window into his values and priorities. The occasion hosted by Mr. Biden was no totally different.

“Sister Simone Campbell is a present from God,” Mr. Biden stated as he instructed the viewers of his resolution to provide the nation’s highest civilian award to a nun who has spent many years combating for social justice and serving to the poor. The selection of a longtime ally by Mr. Biden, a training Catholic, was a testomony to his many years juggling politics and faith.

Earlier than shifting on to the opposite recipients, the president stopped to inform the story of Pope Benedict XVI asking him for recommendation. After protesting that giving recommendation to the pope can be presumptuous, Mr. Biden, then the vp, gave in.

“I’d go simple on the nuns,” he recalled saying. “They’re extra widespread than you might be.”

Mr. Biden gave one of many medals to Richard Trumka, who led the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and was a robust Democratic activist for years earlier than his dying final 12 months. The choice to honor Mr. Trumka was a mirrored image not solely of their private bonds, however of the function that unions have performed in Mr. Biden’s profession.

Since he started operating for workplace, Mr. Biden has usual himself as a “working Joe,” somebody who understands the wants of working folks. Unions have been a few of his most fervent supporters; simply the day earlier than, on Wednesday, he flew to Ohio for an occasion about pension reforms that profit union staff.

“His work was fierce, at all times making an attempt to do the suitable factor for working folks,” Mr. Biden stated of Mr. Trumka as he delivered the medal to Mr. Trumka’s son, including, “In additional than 30 years of friendship, he was at all times sincere, honest and difficult and reliable.”

Campaigning for president in 2020, Mr. Biden bought himself to the nation as essentially the most centrist Democratic choice and as somebody who might work throughout the aisle in Congress to achieve compromise. He has struggled to try this since taking workplace, however Mr. Biden’s selection of honorees on Thursday demonstrated how he nonetheless noticed himself.

Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, was one of many medal recipients. Mr. Biden known as him “one of the crucial first rate, stand-up, real guys I ever served with — and I served with loads of senators.”

He additionally gave a medal to Mr. McCain, the previous Republican senator from Arizona who had lengthy been considered one of Mr. Biden’s closest associates. Mr. McCain’s spouse, Cindy, accepted the award on behalf of Mr. McCain, who handed away in 2018.

“We used to argue like hell on the Senate ground,” Mr. Biden recalled. “However then we’d go down and have lunch collectively.”

The president recalled being on a visit with Mr. McCain many years in the past and stopping off in Hawaii, the place Mr. Biden launched his fellow senator to Cindy, including, “He nonetheless owes me!”

Because the viewers laughed, Ms. McCain appeared to wipe tears from her eyes.

Mr. Biden additionally picked Ms. Biles, essentially the most adorned American gymnast in historical past and a Black girl who — at 25 years outdated — is the youngest individual ever to obtain the award, Mr. Biden stated.

He honored Megan Rapinoe, an Olympian and a Ladies’s World Cup champion, who has advocated gender pay equality, racial justice and homosexual rights.

He additionally singled out a number of folks for the work they did to advertise civil rights, together with Diane Nash, a founding father of the Scholar Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a detailed ally of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Fred Grey, a lawyer for Dr. King and Rosa Parks; and Raúl Yzaguirre, who led the Nationwide Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group.

Taken collectively, the picks underscored Mr. Biden’s perception in ensuring various teams are represented and highlighted the methods by which the civil rights struggles of the previous a number of many years have molded his political profession.

“Diane Nash formed a number of the most vital civil rights efforts in American historical past,” Mr. Biden stated. “And but,” he added, “she is the primary to say the medal is shared with tons of of hundreds of patriotic People who sacrificed a lot for the reason for liberty and justice for all.”

“And by the best way,” Mr. Biden stated, “she requested me to verify so as to add that as a result of she didn’t need to take all of the credit score.”

The others who obtained medals on Thursday have been former Consultant Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat who was injured throughout a mass capturing; Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple who died in 2011; the actor Denzel Washington, who the White Home stated missed the occasion due to a constructive coronavirus take a look at; Sandra Lindsay, a New York nurse who was the primary American to obtain a Covid-19 vaccine; Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught, one of the crucial adorned girls within the historical past of the U.S. army; Khizr Khan, a Gold Star father; the Rev. Alexander Karloutsos, the previous vicar common of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; and Julieta García, the previous president of the College of Texas at Brownsville.