Biden Awards 18 Medals of Freedom, and Delivers One Unmistakable Message

With 16 days left in a political career that spanned a half-century, President Biden on Saturday conferred one of the nation’s highest honors on core members of the political, financial and celebrity establishment of which he has long been a part.

President-elect Donald J. Trump will replace Mr. Biden on Jan. 20, determined to continue his assault on what he has long called “the swamp.” In 2016, Mr. Trump vowed to wage war against establishment members in both parties who he said had “reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.”

But on Saturday, Mr. Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 18 people, including some of the brightest lights of the old guard that Mr. Trump wants to tear down. In doing so, the 82-year-old president is sending an unmistakable message of support for a democratic order he has said is threatened by Mr. Trump’s re-election.

“Let’s remember, our sacred effort continues, and to keep going, as my mother would say, we have to keep the faith,” he told the crowd in the East Room of the White House at the end of the ceremony.

Among those receiving the award were Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state whom Mr. Trump threatened to jail and who received a standing ovation on Saturday; Robert F. Kennedy, the assassinated senator whose son has embraced Mr. Trump; and George Romney, the late father of former Senator Mitt Romney, the Republican from Utah who repeatedly rejected Mr. Trump’s actions and philosophy. The younger Mr. Romney accepted the award on Saturday. Mr. Kennedy’s medal was accepted by his daughter, Kerry Kennedy.

As many presidents have done with the Medal of Freedom, Mr. Biden also honored 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.