Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a former Democratic senator who was Al Gore’s running mate and later became a prominent force for independent candidates, has died at the age of 82.
Lieberman, from Stamford, Connecticut, served in the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 2013, where he worked with Joe Biden when he was a Democratic senator.
He died of complications from a fall, Punching bowl reported Wednesday.
He co-founded the group No Labels, which is trying to get a ticket to challenge the major party candidates in elections in all fifty states.
Joe Lieberman (R) has died at the age of 82. He was a longtime Democratic senator who became an independent and helped mount challenges to the major parties
He became the first Jewish major party candidate in 2000, when George W. Bush won the White House.
He switched to becoming an independent in 2006 and ultimately endorsed his old friend John McCain in 2008, who spoke on his behalf at the Republican National Convention.
Lieberman pictured in 1994 with Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa. He also served with Joe Biden
Former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman wrote a book about a Connecticut power broker and said of Biden: ‘I haven’t seen him do enough of it now as president’
Lieberman was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000, served 24 years in the Senate and became an independent. Here, Lieberman talks to reporters as he walks through the Senate subway in Washington on Tuesday, June 22, 2021
“Connecticut is shocked by the sudden passing of Senator Lieberman,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who holds Liberman’s old seat, said in a statement.
‘In an era of political copies, Joe Lieberman was a singularity. One of one. He fought and won for what he believed was right and for the state he adored. My thoughts are with Hadassah and the entire family.”
Lieberman helped fire up Democrats as Gore made history with his selection in 2000, often relying on humor and debating Dick Cheney during the campaign.
Hey worked with McCain on major legislation in the Senate, but would later anger fellow Democrats in the Senate when he split from the party.
He began to drift away from Biden early on, telling DailyMail.com in 2021 that Biden needed to become more of a “power broker.”
“I have to say I haven’t seen enough of that,” he told DailyMail.com in an interview in October that year.
He said he was “proud to support Biden in 2020.”
He complained that his last two years in the Senate, as an independent during the Obama administration, were the “most partisan and the least productive.”
His career later in life took him to the law firm Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, where partner Marc Kasowitz represented Trump during the Russia investigation.