President Joe Biden will award the top US civilian honor Friday to a host of Democratic allies some six months before elections, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, secretary of state John Kerry and vice president Al Gore.
The 19 winners of the Presidential Medal of Freedom also include Oscar-winning Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, Olympic swimming champion Katie Ledecky and, posthumously, a Black civil rights leader who was murdered in 1963.
The 81-year-old Biden, who faces a tough battle for reelection against Republican former president Donald Trump in November, will personally hand out the medals at a ceremony in the White House.
He has chosen a politics-heavy list that not only rewards members of his own Democratic Party but also in some cases makes veiled references to his Republican predecessor and rival.
Pelosi, the 84-year-old former House of Representatives speaker who led efforts to impeach Trump over the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, was described in the citation as a "staunch defender of democracy."
"It is with reverence for freedom and respect for all who have received it that I am deeply honored and forever grateful. Thank you, President Biden," Pelosi said in a statement.
Gore, who served as vice president to Bill Clinton and narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush, "accepted the outcome of a disputed presidential election for the sake of our unity," the White House noted.
Trump still disputes his 2020 election loss to Biden, which led to the 2021 assault on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
Former New York mayor and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, 82, is also honored.
He ran unsuccessfully against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic presidential nomination, before throwing his support and considerable wealth behind the now-president.
The list also honors powerful Black Democratic congressman Jim Clyburn, whose endorsement in 2020 saved Biden's flailing campaign by securing him the support of Black voters in the South Carolina primary.
But Biden's list also honors several prominent figures in the arts, sports and civil rights.
Yeoh, 61, who in 2023 became the first Asian woman to win the best actress Oscar for her performance in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," "continues to shatter stereotypes and enrich American culture," the White House said.
The medal will be awarded posthumously to civil rights activist Medgar Evers, whose notorious murder six decades ago shaped the US struggle for racial equality.
Evers, 37, was gunned down in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1963. A member of the Ku Klux Klan, Byron De La Beckwith, was convicted of his murder in 1994.
Evers's widow Myrlie "continued the fight to seek justice and equality in his name" long after his death, the White House said.
Also honored posthumously is US athlete Jim Thorpe, the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal, in 1912. He died in 1953.
"The country's original multi-sport superstar, he went on to play professional football, baseball and basketball while breaking down barriers on and off the field," said the White House.
Ledecky is already a seven-time Olympic gold medalist and is expected to contend at the Paris Games this summer.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom honors people 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," it added.
Biden himself received the medal of freedom days before Trump entered the White House in January 2017 -- with then-president Barack Obama famously surprising his tearful vice president with the award.
© Agence France-Presse
