CNN
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Joe Lieberman, the first Jewish vice-presidential nominee of a major party, whose conscience and independent streak later led him on a journey away from his home in the Democratic Party, has died at 82, according to a statement from his family.
The former Connecticut senator passed away Wednesday due to complications from a fall in New York. His wife Hadassah and members of his family were by his side.
The peak of Lieberman’s political career came when he was chosen by Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore in 2000 as his running mate. The disputed election was eventually decided by the Supreme Court in favor of then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Lieberman had hailed his selection as a historic breakthrough for Jewish Americans.
On many issues, like abortion and economic policy, Lieberman was a mainstream Democrat. But in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks, his hawkish instincts on foreign policy put him increasingly at odds with his own party, and he was a strong supporter of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, which led to a prolonged conflict that many of his fellow Democrats came to oppose.
He mounted his own campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, but the run failed to take off, further increasing his distance from the party’s core base voters after he refused to repudiate the war in Iraq. That position also led to him losing the Democratic primary for his own seat in 2006. But he ran as an independent anyway and won the election, returning to the Senate.
In 2008, Lieberman infuriated Democrats even more by showing up at the Republican National Convention in support of his dear friend, Arizona Sen. John McCain, that year’s Republican presidential nominee. Many Democrats perceived an act of treachery when he criticized Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, as “a gifted and eloquent young man” but warned that he was too inexperienced to be president.
McCain, who died in 2018 and was eulogized by Lieberman, later admitted that he wished he had chosen Lieberman as the vice presidential nominee on his ticket instead of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose selection sparked an extraordinary outburst of support from the Republican base but later became a liability as her deep inexperience on the national stage harmed McCain’s losing campaign.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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