Biden honors Michelle Yeoh with the Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian award.

Also included on the honor list are several former presidential candidates, former Senator Elizabeth Dole, former Vice President Al Gore, former Secretary of State John Kerry and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“After winning the popular vote, he accepted the result of a 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, a blow to the former president Donald Trump. , who has never admitted his 2020 loss to Biden.

“It was amazing to me what you did, Al. I won’t go into that.” The comment caused some laughter.

“In my opinion, the last two should be here on this podium,” Biden said of Gore and Kerry.

Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman who walked away from the Republican Party he once called home, may become a major financial backer of the president’s 2024 re-election campaign.

Biden also honored Father Greg Boyle, a Catholic priest who founded the Homeboy Industries gang intervention program; Opal Lee, an activist who pushed for Juneteenth to be a holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States; Senator Frank Lautenberg, consumer safety advocate; astrophysicist Jane Rigby; the president of the Agricultural Workers Union, Teresa Romero; LGBT advocate Judy Shepard; and Clarence B Jones, who helped draft Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.