President Joe Biden presents the 2021 National Medal of the Arts to Bruce Springsteen at White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden welcomed a high-wattage collection of singers, authors, artists and humanitarians to the White House on Tuesday to present them with medals — and then stole the show himself with a quip about seeking reelection. Bruce Springsteen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mindy Kaling and Gladys Knight were among the 22 people and organizations being honored. When author Colson Whitehead’s award was announced, Biden noted the novelist had already won back-to-back Pulitzer Prizes. The president, who is expected to announce for reelection this spring, quickly picked up on that and joked that he was looking “for a back-to-back myself.”