Biden Quips About Lost Job as He Honors Coppola, Grateful Dead

Bonnie Raitt, Apollo Theater also get Kennedy Center awards
Biden cites Cuba-born trumpeter Sandoval as ‘American story’

Joe Biden, right, speaks during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on Dec. 8.Photographer: Ron Sachs/CNP/Bloomberg

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By Hadriana Lowenkron and Alexis Shanes

December 8, 2024 at 11:36 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Joe Biden joked with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola about the looming end of his presidential term as he hosted this year’s Kennedy Center honorees at the White House, saying he’ll soon be looking for a job.

Coppola, 85, was among the award recipients being feted Sunday in Washington, along with the Grateful Dead, singer-songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt and jazz trumpeter and composer Arturo Sandoval. Biden also name-checked actor Robert De Niro, whom Coppola famously directed in The Godfather Part II.