Minneapolis (AP) —President Joe Biden pays homage to his “50-year-old friend” Walter Mondale on Sunday to remember the former Vice President and Democratic Elder, whose memorial service was delayed by a year due to a pandemic. I visited the University of Minnesota.
Mondale Died in April 2021 He is said to have changed the position of Vice President, who himself served under President Barack Obama for eight years, expanded his responsibilities and became President Jimmy Carter’s chief adviser.
“I was a giant in American political history,” Biden told a friend about Mondale, known as “Fritz.” He was one of “the toughest and smartest men I’ve ever worked with” as Mondale as a Senate colleague and as a mentor when Biden was Obama’s second-largest and later president. He added that there is.
Biden emphasized Mondale’s empathy and recalled his own promise to unite the country in the 2020 presidential election. This is a bit off the president in recent weeks, and he aims to draw a clear contrast between his administration and Congressional Republicans who oppose it on almost all major issues. increase.
“It was Fritz that illuminated the road,” Biden said. “Everyone should be treated with dignity. Everyone.”
Biden added about Mondale: “He united those who share the light. It’s the same hope. Even if we don’t agree, he thinks it’s important.”
“It is the responsibility of each of us to reflect the light of Fritz.”
Sunday’s invitation-only 90-minute service in the majestic campus auditorium featured a wealth of organ music. Biden, who received her standing ovation, talked in advance with her family in her Mondale and said she “emotionalized” herself.
Democratic Senator Tina Smith calls Mondale a “genuine political celebrity,” and they still spend time racing big and small in their home states. Josie Johnson, a symbol of Minnesota’s civil rights, talked about what Mondale’s listeners are and how he defended their inclusiveness.
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar explained that when Mondale was Vice President, he was an intern who climbed under chairs and tables to manage furniture inventory.
“That was my first job in Washington, and thanks to Walter Mondale, this was my second,” Klobuchar said was a senator, encouraging Mondale to run for her. “I taught a Washington expert how to say my name,” he said.
Democratic Governor Tim Walz said Minnesota could be better known as Mondale’s hometown than its nickname, “Lake 10,000 Land,” and described Mondale’s intelligence, humility, humor, and optimism. I praised it.
“He embodied a sense of joy. He lived his life every day,” Waltz said. “At the age of 91, he was still fishing for walleye pollock. Unlike me, he was catching some.”
Booklet given to attendees for “Afternoon of Memory and Reflection” quoted from Mondale’s 2010 book “Good Fight”: “I am the Value of Americans-Our Basic Dignity, I Our sense of justice and justice, our love and freedom — the country’s greatest asset and their roadster maneuvering is the only true way forward. “
On the back cover, Mondale’s face was drawn next to the slogan. We obeyed the law. Klobuchar said he was commemorated after the then Vice President told them at the end of the Carter administration.
Mondale is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and its Law School and has a building named after him. During Sunday’s memorial, Biden wiped his eyes as a performer of the musical “Annie”‘s “Tomorrow,” ended service with a college marching band, and kept people away with a fight song of “Minnesota Rouzer.”
Mondale followed the path burned by his political leader, Hubert H. Humphrey, who was Minnesota Attorney General before replacing Humphrey in the Senate. He was Carter’s Vice President from 1977 to 1981.
Mondale also lost one of the most biased presidential elections to date to Ronald Reagan in 1984. After frankly telling voters to expect a tax increase if he wins, he carried only Minnesota and the District of Columbia. However, he made the history of the race by choosing New York Rep. Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate and became the first major party candidate to put a woman on the ticket.
Mondale remained an important democratic voice for decades to come. After that, he served as Ambassador to Japan under President Bill Clinton. In 2002, at the age of 74, after Senator Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash shortly before the election, he was drafted to run for the Senate again. Mondale lost a shortened race to Republican Norm Coleman.