Biden to honor Olympian Katie Ledecky, actor Michelle Yeoh with Medal of Freedom
By Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON – A winner of seven Olympic gold medals, a pacesetter of the Mississippi civil rights wrestle and a pioneer of tv’s tabloid speak present style are a part of this yr’s class of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.
U.S. President Joe Biden will lengthen the very best U.S. civilian award to 19 folks, together with Workforce USA swimmer Katie Ledecky, the assassinated civil rights chief Medgar Evers and tv host Phil Donahue.
The awards shall be handed out on the White Home on Friday.
Biden additionally included some key political allies within the Democratic Celebration, from Consultant Jim Clyburn, who rescued his 2020 presidential main bid, to Nancy Pelosi, who shepherded his legislative agenda by way of Congress as Home of Representatives speaker till final yr.
Additionally included are a number of one-time presidential candidates, former Senator Elizabeth Dole, former Vice President Al Gore, one-time Secretary of State John Kerry and the earlier New York Metropolis Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“After profitable the favored vote, he accepted the result of a disputed presidential election for the sake of our unity,” the White Home wrote of Gore’s concession to George W. Bush within the 2000 election, a jab at ex-president Donald Trump, who has by no means conceded his 2020 loss to Biden.
Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman who strayed from the Republican Celebration he as soon as known as residence, might change into an necessary monetary backer of the president’s 2024 reelection marketing campaign.
Biden may also honor Father Greg Boyle, a Catholic priest who based the gang intervention program Homeboy Industries; Opal Lee, an activist who pushed for Juneteenth to be a vacation marking the tip of slavery in the USA; Senator Frank Lautenberg, a client security advocate; astrophysicist Jane Rigby; United Farm Staff president Teresa Romero; LGBT advocate Judy Shepard; and Clarence B. Jones, who helped draft Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
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