President Joe Biden paid tribute to Walter “Fritz” Mondale after the former vice president passed away on Monday night.
In a statement with his wife Jill, Biden called Mondale his “dear friend and mentor.”
“When I arrived in the United States Senate in 1973, Walter Mondale was one of the first people to greet me,” the President said. “Through his work as a Senator, he showed me what was possible.”
Biden praised Mondale as “unwavering in his pursuit of progress” who was his “trusted guide” when Barack Obama asked Biden to consider being his vice president in the 2008 presidential elections.
“It was Walter Mondale who defined the vice presidency as a full partnership, and helped provide a model for my service,” Biden said.
Mondale, who served as vice president under President Jimmy Carter before unsuccessfully running for office against Ronald Reagan in 1984, died in his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota at age 93.
Carter called Mondale an “invaluable partner” in a statement on Monday.
“During our administration, Fritz used his political skill and personal integrity to transform the vice presidency into a dynamic, policy-driving force that had never been seen before and still exists today,” the former president said.
“Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.”
― Hubert H. Humphrey
Beautiful man. I was at a Mondale-Ferraro rally in October 1984 at Rutgers at The State Theater. Some Reaganite frat boys tried to interrupt Mondale’s speech, chanting ‘4 more years, 4 more years’ and we answered with a thunderous ‘Reagan Sucks’ chant that took over the theater for a solid 3 minutes.
Mondale stood good-naturedly, waiting for the chant to peter out, but it kept on going. He actually broke up laughing, and asked somebody on stage: ‘What are you feeding these kids?’ Made me so proud.
He was such a good man. He knew who he was, and was comfortable in his own skin.
Geraldine Ferraro, Mondale’s running mate died in 2011 of multiple myeloma. Would have been a great team if they had beat Reagan.
And, this is what a civil, caring POTUS does and it’s not in a bloody tweet.
There was a great exchange between Walter Mondale and George McGovern (each of whom was absurdly superior to their opponents), I think in the early Aughts.
Walter Mondale: “Tell me, George. When does it stop hurting?”
George McGovern: “I’ll let you know.”