President Biden is greeted by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. on January 27, 2024, while campaigning ahead of the South Carolina Democratic primary.
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President Biden is greeted by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. on January 27, 2024, while campaigning ahead of the South Carolina Democratic primary.
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President Biden will present the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — on Friday to a group of 19 that includes an unusually large contingent of high-profile Democrats.
There’s Rep. Jim Clyburn, D.-SC, whose support was key to helping Biden win the party’s nomination in 2020, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
There are a trio of Democrats who also ran for president:
- former Vice President Al Gore, candidate in 2000 and known for his work on climate issues
- former Secretary of State John Kerry, until recently Biden’s climate envoy, who ran in 2004, and
- former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire and philanthropist who supports many Democratic causes and who ran against Biden in 2020.
President Biden and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are on stage at an Emily’s List gala on May 16, 2023.
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President Biden and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are on stage at an Emily’s List gala on May 16, 2023.
Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images
Biden will posthumously award the medal to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.
And in a nod to bipartisanship, Biden will also present the award to former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, cabinet secretary in the Reagan and George HW Bush administrations. She also ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. Her late husband, Senator Bob Dole, was a Republican presidential candidate in 1996.
Civil rights leaders also receive medals
Presidents typically award the medal to people who reflect their priorities, as well as their allies. Former President Donald Trump presented the award to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Biden — who himself received the award from former President Barack Obama — last presented medals in July 2022 to a group including civil rights and labor leaders.
Opal Lee and Vice President Harris during a Juneteenth concert at the White House on June 13, 2023.
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Opal Lee and Vice President Harris during a Juneteenth concert at the White House on June 13, 2023.
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This year’s list includes the late Medgar Evers, a pioneer of the civil rights movement in Mississippi who was assassinated in 1963. Also included:
- Clarence B. Jones, civil rights activist and lawyer who helped write Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
- Teresa Romero, president of United Farm Workers and first Latina to lead a national union
- Judy Shepard, who fought for LGBTQ rights after her son Matthew was killed in an anti-gay hate crime
- Father Greg Boyle, founder of the world’s largest gang intervention program in Los Angeles, and
- Opal Lee, considered the grandmother of Juneteenth, who lobbied for Juneteenth to be recognized as a national holiday
Olympic gold medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky speaks with then-Vice President Biden during a White House event honoring the Olympians on September 14, 2012.
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Olympic gold medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky speaks with then-Vice President Biden during a White House event honoring the Olympians on September 14, 2012.
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And there are also other lights
Biden also takes the opportunity to present the medal to a few stars from other fields:
- Phil Donahue, whose talk show ran for 26 years
- Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky
- Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh
- Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in space and the second female director of NASA’s famous Johnson Space Center, and
- astronomer Jane Rigby, chief scientist of the James Webb Space Telescope
Jim Thorpe, the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal and who was a star in several sports, will receive the award posthumously.
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