Longtime US Senator Joe Lieberman has died. His family announced that he died on Wednesday in New York at the age of 82 as a result of a fall. Lieberman served as a Democrat in the Connecticut State Senate from 1989 to 2013. He gained national prominence in 2002 when he ran alongside Al Gore in the presidential election – the first Jewish candidate ever. Two years later he ran again as the Democratic candidate for president, but in the end he was once again unsuccessful.
Joseph Isadore Lieberman was born on February 24, 1942 in Stamford, Connecticut. After graduating from Yale, he worked for a law firm before entering politics. During his time in the Senate, he was elected majority leader three times. During his final term in the Senate, which began in 2007, Lieberman moved increasingly to the right.
For example, he supported his friend John McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona, in the 2008 presidential election and described future President Barack Obama as “too inexperienced.” He got along so well with Donald Trump that, according to rumors, he was almost appointed head of the FBI in 2017. Lieberman also agreed with Trump more often than with his own party on questions about Israel, for example when it came to the question of whether the US embassy should be moved to Jerusalem.