Written by Trevor Honeycutt and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A winner of seven Olympic gold medals, a leader in Mississippi's civil rights struggle and a pioneer of popular television talk shows are part of this year's class of recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
US President Joe Biden awarded America's highest civilian honor to 19 people, including Team USA swimmer Katie Ledecky, assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, and TV broadcaster Phil Donahue.
“Don't let age get in your way,” Biden, the oldest US president at 81, told Ledecky, 27, as he encouraged her to strive for more medals during an awards ceremony at the White House on Friday. “Katie, age is just a number, baby girl.”
The list of honorees specifically honors “firsts” in their fields, including “Everything Everywhere All at Once” actress Michelle Yeoh, who was the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Actress; Elaine Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman to travel in space; and Jim Thorpe, the versatile athlete who became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal in 1912.
Biden also celebrated some key political allies in the Democratic Party, from Rep. Jim Clyburn, who saved his 2020 presidential primary bid with an endorsement in South Carolina, to Nancy Pelosi, who shepherded his legislative agenda through Congress as speaker of the House until last year. .
The candidates also include several one-time presidential hopefuls, former Senator Elizabeth Dole, former Vice President Al Gore, former Secretary of State John Kerry, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
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“After winning the popular vote, he accepted the results of the disputed presidential election for the sake of unity and trust in our institutions,” Biden said of Gore's concession to George W. Bush in the 2000 election. Trump, who has never acknowledged his 2020 loss to Biden.
“To me, what you did was amazing, Al. I'm not going to get into that.” This comment sparked some laughter.
“In my view, the last two men should be standing here on this stage,” Biden said of Gore and Kerry.
Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman who has turned away from the Republican Party he once called home, could become an important financial backer of the president's 2024 reelection campaign.
Biden also honored Father Greg Boyle, a Catholic priest who founded the gang intervention program Homeboy Industries; Opal Lee, the activist who pushed to make Juneteenth a holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States; Senator Frank Lautenberg, a consumer safety advocate; astrophysicist Jane Rigby; United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero; LGBT advocate Judy Shepherd; and Clarence P. Jones, who helped draft Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech.