Biden awards Medal of Freedom to 17 recipients

Our live coverage of the Medal of Freedom ceremony has ended. Catch up with the latest from the event here.

American gymnast Simone Biles receives the presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden on July 7 in Washington, DC.

The presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony has just ended at the White House.

President Joe Biden awarded the highest civilian honor to 17 people, including Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and, posthumously, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and former Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Soccer star and Olympic gold medalist Megan Rapinoe arrives to attend a ceremony to award the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on July 7, 2022.

Megan Rapinoe’s blazer lapel has an embroidered flower and the initials “BG” — a nod to Brittney Griner who is currently being detained in Russia.

“The most important part of today,” Rapinoe, a member of the US women’s national soccer team who is an Olympic gold medalist and two-time Women’s World Cup champion, wrote on her Instagram story with a flower emoji, showing her support for Griner.

Griner has pleaded guilty to drug charges in a Russian court near Moscow, her lawyers confirmed to CNN on Thursday.

Griner, whom the US State Department has classified as wrongfully detained, faces up to 10 years in prison under the charge. Supporters of the Phoenix Mercury player have called for her release over fears she is being used as a political pawn amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Actor Denzel Washington was slated to be honored with the Medal of Freedom, but he did not appear at Thursday’s White House ceremony because of a positive Covid-19 result, according to a White House official.

President Biden said during the ceremony that the actor wanted to be there and will receive the award at a later date.

“There’s a man who couldn’t be here today but wanted to be: Denzel Washington, one of our greatest actors in American history. Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Tony Awards, (and) wide acclaim from audiences and peers around the world,” the President said. “He couldn’t be here with us today, but I’ll be giving him this award at a later date when he’s able to get here.”

President Joe Biden speaks before presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in the East Room of the White House on July 7.

President Biden is awarding the Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest civilian honor – to 17 recipients at the White House. He opened up the ceremony by talking about the “extraordinary group of Americans up here on the stage.”

Sandra Lindsay receives the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine from Dr. Michelle Chester in December 2020.

President Biden will award Sandra Lindsay, a New York nurse who the White House says was the first American to receive a Covid-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials, with the Medal of Freedom Thursday.

Lindsay, an intensive care unit nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, received the vaccine on Dec. 14, 2020.

In an interview with CNN on Thursday before the ceremony, Lindsay said she is “so excited” to be given the honor.

She missed the phone call from the White House telling her about the award, she said.

“At first I thought it was a prank call. Why would the President of the United States be calling me, Sandra Lindsay? But then I checked my email and saw that, you know, the White House had followed up with an email, and so I knew it was real,” she said.

She said she is “still very hopeful” about the United States’ response to the pandemic and larger mental health issues.

Lindsay said back in 2020 that she had “no fear” and she wanted to inspire other people to trust science and get vaccinated.

“I want to be a part of the solution to put an end to this pandemic once and for all,” she told CNN. “I think also as a leader in the organization that I lead by example. I don’t ask people to do anything that I would not do myself.”

One year after getting her vaccine, as the Omicron variant was leading to skyrocketing levels of Covid-19 infections, Lindsay said she had “tremendous gratitude that I was able to get vaccinated and pride in the work that I’ve done so far to be an activist for vaccinations.”

Lindsay also spoke out in 2021 about encountering people who she said were too “far down” the tunnel of conspiracy theories. 

“I can speak on behalf of health care workers at my organization when I say that we are tired, and we’re concerned, especially because we know that the public now has options,” she said. 

CNN’s Eric Levenson contributed reporting to this post.

Khizr Khan speaks at an event in Collingswood, New Jersey, in 2017.

Gold Star father Khizr Khan is set to get the Medal of Freedom during a ceremony at the White House.

At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Khan said that Trump “sacrificed nothing and no one,” before raising a copy of the US Constitution, asking if Trump had ever read it. Khan’s son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, died in Baghdad in 2004.

Biden appointed Khan to serve on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom last year.

Khan endorsed Biden in 2020.

CNN’s DJ Judd contributed reporting to this post.

Longtime US Sen. John McCain will be one of the posthumous honorees.

President Biden will award the Medal of Freedom to several posthumous honorees, including Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

McCain died at the age of 81 in 2018. His Washington career spanned 40 years, with him serving as a member of the Senate from 1987 until his death. He ran for president in 2000 and 2008.

The “maverick,” a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, was a critic of former President Donald Trump and crossed partisan lines on occasion.

“We are not the President’s subordinates,” he said in a speech in 2017. “We are his equals.”

McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, was appointed by Biden to serve as the US Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.

Jobs died in 2011 at age 56 after battling cancer for years. The visionary cofounder of Apple staged a comeback for the company, wowing audiences and consumers while donning his signature black turtleneck during keynote events to introduce iTunes, the iPhone, the App Store and the iPad.

In the summer of 2011, Apple listed more cash reserves than the US Treasury and even briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil as the world’s most valuable company.

Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder of Emerson Collective and Steve Jobs’ widow, donated more than $700,000 to the Biden Victory Fund in 2020.

Trumka served as the head of the most powerful labor organization in the country and was a close ally of the Biden White House. He led the AFL-CIO from 2009-2021, known for his fiery rhetoric and his harsh attacks on corporate America.

Former US Rep. Gabby Giffords is among those receiving a Medal of Freedom today.

President Biden is expected to award former lawmakers, including former Wyoming Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, with the Medal of Freedom on Thursday afternoon.

Giffords, who became an advocate for gun violence prevention after she was shot in an assassination attempt in 2011, said in a statement that she’s “humbled and honored” to receive the medal.

Giffords and the Giffords PAC endorsed Biden in 2020.

Simpson was a peer of Biden’s on the Senate Judiciary Committee, supporting the then-senator as he attempted to salvage his 1988 presidential campaign following a plagiarism scandal.

Simpson has warned of the growing partisanship in the Senate, citing “the bitterness that goes on.” In an interview in June, Simpson called Trump, among other things, a “spoiled brat” and said that “this guy is so full of himself that he would overturn every kind of rule of law or Constitutional process because of his own ego, which is twisted.”

Simone Biles, left, and Megan Rapinoe

Olympic athletes Simone Biles and Megan Rapinoe are set to become the fifth and sixth female athletes to be honored for the Medal of Freedom.

Rapinoe will be the first female soccer player to receive the medal.

According to a statement from US Soccer, Rapinoe, the US Women’s National Team forward and an advocate for equal pay, found out last week when Biden called her between practice sessions in Denver. When she saw “The White House” pop up on her phone screen, she thought she was either getting a robocall or being pranked by her teammates.

“I am humbled and truly honored to be chosen for this award by President Biden and feel as inspired and motivated as ever to continue this long history of fighting for the freedoms of all people. To quote Emma Lazarus, ‘Until we are all free, we are none of us free,’” she added.

Biles, a seven-time Olympic medalist, has been outspoken about mental health after disclosing her struggles during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

At the Olympics, Biles withdrew during the team final and then withdrew ahead of the all-around final and individual events of vault, uneven bars and floor exercise. She did compete in the balance beam final, winning bronze.

She was also one of the gymnasts who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2021 regarding the FBI’s handling of sexual abuse claims against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.

CNN’s Mallika Kallingal contributed reporting to this post.