Joe Lieberman, former vice presidential candidate, dies at 82
Joe Lieberman, a former United States Senator and vice-presidential nominee, has passed away at the age of 82 due to complications from a fall, as indicated by a family statement obtained by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
Representing Connecticut in the Senate for nearly twenty-five years, Lieberman was known for his centrist views.
He made history in 2000 as the first Jewish politician to be part of a major party’s US presidential ticket when Al Gore chose him as his running mate.
Gore expressed deep sorrow at Lieberman’s passing, recalling their joint efforts during the campaign and praising Lieberman’s dedication to improving America’s future.
Lieberman served as a US senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013, wielding significant influence in Washington. His family described him as a man whose love for God, family, and country persisted throughout his lifetime of public service.
A Democrat of long standing, he broke from his party ranks on several issues – including its opposition to the Iraq War. He won his final term in office in 2006 as an independent.
In recent years, he was known as the founding chairman of No Labels, a centrist political group that aimed to establish a third-party presidential ticket for the general election in 2024.
“Senator Lieberman was a singular figure in American political life who always put his country before party,” No Labels said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mr Lieberman made that clear in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV last week.
“Thomas Jefferson once said America will need a little political rebellion every now and then, which should be as important in politics as the storms are in the natural world,” he said.
“And I think he meant to clear away the dead wood, and boy, does our political system need a good storm and a political rebellion right now.”
Mr Lieberman was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1942, and worked his way through state politics, serving as both a state senator and the state attorney general before launching himself to the US Senate in 1989.
Mr Lieberman was one of the most prominent Jewish politicians in the US during his career. His White House run with Mr Gore was a milestone for Jewish Americans and the former senator was public in the exercise of his faith.
As a moderate Democrat, Mr Lieberman developed a reputation in Washington for crossing party lines – as well as simply crossing members of his own party.
In 2000, Mr Gore selected Mr Lieberman as his running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket. They would go on to lose to Republican George W Bush and his vice-presidential pick, Dick Cheney, in one of the most contentious conclusions to a presidential election in American history.
But by 2008, Mr Lieberman was endorsing a Republican presidential candidate, the US Senator John McCain of Arizona, who was his close friend.
Mr McCain would ultimately lose to Barack Obama, America’s first black president.
As a senator, Mr Lieberman also backed several progressive policies. He notably helped end the Pentagon’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, which barred LGBTQ people from openly serving in the military.
“When I look back at my own career, the legislative achievements I am proudest to have been part of… all were achieved only because a critical mass of Democrats and Republicans found common ground,” Mr Lieberman said in his farewell speech from the Senate in December 2012.
