Biden Honors Pelosi, Gore, Swipes at Trump

US President Joe Biden took pointed digs at election rival Donald Trump as he awarded the country's top civilian honor to Democratic allies including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and vice president Al Gore.

Biden said the veteran Pelosi had "defended democracy" during the January 6, 2021 assault on the US capitol by a mob of Trump supporters enraged by the Republican's election loss a few weeks earlier.

Gore meanwhile was "amazing" for accepting his own disputed election loss to George W. Bush in 2000 for the sake of the country, Biden said, drawing a clear contrast to Trump's refusal to accept defeat.

The comments came as 81-year-old Biden presented them with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony at the White House, whose political overtones were clear as the next US presidential election looms just six months away.

But the 19 winners also covered the fields of culture, activism and sport, including Oscar-winning Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, Olympic swimming champion Katie Ledecky and, posthumously, a Black civil rights leader who was murdered in 1963.

Other prominent Democrats honored included former secretary of state John Kerry, 80, and former New York mayor and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, 82.

Before placing the award around the neck of Pelosi, 84, Biden said that "history will remember Nancy as the greatest speaker of the House of Representatives."

"On January 6, Nancy stood in the breach and defended democracy," said Biden, who has repeatedly bashed Trump for what he says is the former president's fueling of the Capitol assault.

Pelosi also led efforts to impeach Trump over the assault.

Biden then praised Gore, 76, who served as vice president to Bill Clinton and narrowly lost the 2000 election after a Supreme Court decision, before going on to be a climate campaigner.