Former US Sen. Joe Lieberman remembered as 'mensch' who bridged political divides

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — Former Vice President Al Gore and other politician dignitaries remembered the late Joe Lieberman Friday as a “mensch” who both bridged partisan political divides and wasn't afraid to go against mainstream political currents, during a packed funeral service for the four-term U.S. senator.

Noting there is no English equivalent for the Yiddish term, Gore — who ran for president on a Democratic ticket with Lieberman in the disputed 2000 election — told mourners at a synagogue in Stamford, Connecticut, that they could find its meaning just by looking at his former running mate, who passed away this week at 82.

“Those who seek its definition will not find it in dictionaries so much as they find it in the way Joe Lieberman lived his life: friendship over anger, reconciliation as a form of grace," Gore said. "We can learn from Joe Lieberman’s life some critical lessons about how we might heal the rancor in our nation today.”

Top Connecticut Democrats, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Gov. Ned Lamont — Lieberman’s one-time rival for the Senate seat — shared similar sentiments.

Lamont said his acquaintance with Lieberman started on “an inauspicious note” when they ran against each other in 2006. After Lamont defeated the incumbent Lieberman in the Democratic primary for his Senate seat, Lieberman ran as an independent and defeated Lamont.

Lamont said Lieberman loved Frank Sinatra songs, especially “My Way.” “He did it his way,” Lamont said. “He never quite fit in that Republican or Democratic box. I think maybe in an odd way I helped liberate him because when he beat me — he beat me pretty good, by the way — he won as an independent.”

Lamont said Lieberman “was always a calming presence” and a "bridge over troubled waters as you see the partisan sniping from both directions.”

Blumenthal recalled Lieberman’s “tremendous accomplishments,” including helping to form the Department of Homeland Security and championing civil rights, voting rights, women’s reproductive freedom and LGBTQ rights. “But the greatest accomplishment of his life was his marriage to Hadassah and their children and grandchildren,” Blumenthal said.

Services were held at Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford. For Lieberman, a self-described observant Jew who followed the rules of the Jewish Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, the congregation played a key role early on in his life.

He once recalled how the congregation's former synagogue building was “a place that gave me the first sense of religion; a very special uplift," according to a posting on the congregation's website.

“I feel very lucky — my adherence to the Jewish tradition is really an asset," he said. "Religious Catholics and Protestants find a bond of common value with my beliefs and stand. It is this that makes me so proud of being an American.”

Lieberman's youngest daughter, Hana Lowenstein, who moved to Israel in 2018 with her family, said tearfully that she had prayed, “Please God, give my father many more years. Let him see all of my kids’ bar mitzvahs, their weddings, his great-grandchildren.” But she said God “had other plans.”

Lowenstein said that observing the Jewish Sabbath was “very dear” to her father and he would walk 5 miles (8 kilometers) in order to abide by the Sabbath prohibition on riding in a motor vehicle. “You were literally someone who was sanctifying God’s name by everything you did,” she said.

Matthew Lieberman, the former senator’s son from his first marriage, said Lieberman “was a blessing for all of us” but “a solid slice of people” nevertheless developed a hate for him.

Despite that animosity, Matthew Lieberman said his father encouraged others to not let those disagreements devolve into hatred. “We’re not the Hatfields and McCoys here," Matthew Lieberman said. "We’re Americans, we’re fellow citizens in the greatest country in the history of the world. We’re all humans and we’re all we’ve got.”

Lieberman, a former state Senate leader and attorney general, was long known for his pragmatic, independent streak. After losing the chance to serve as vice president with the Democrat Gore, he came close to becoming Republican John McCain's running mate in 2008. However, conservatives balked at the idea of tapping Lieberman, who was known for supporting gay rights, civil rights, abortion rights and environmental causes while taking a hawkish stand on military and national security matters.

President Joe Biden on Thursday called Lieberman a friend, someone who was “principled, steadfast and unafraid to stand up for what he thought was right."

“Joe believed in a shared purpose of serving something bigger than ourselves," Biden, who served 20 years in the Senate with Lieberman, said in his statement. “He lived the values of his faith as he worked to repair the wounds of the world.”

Lieberman came tantalizingly close to winning the vice presidency in the contentious 2000 presidential contest that was decided by a 537-vote margin victory for George W. Bush over Gore in Florida after a drawn-out recount, legal challenges and a Supreme Court decision. He was the first Jewish candidate on a major party’s presidential ticket.

Over the last decade, Lieberman helped lead No Labels, a centrist third-party movement that has said it will offer as-yet-unnamed candidates for president and vice president this year. Some groups aligned with Democrats oppose the effort, fearing it will help presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump win the White House.

Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, have four children.

This story has been corrected to show that Lieberman was Al Gore's running mate in 2000, not 1980.

Former Vice President Al Gore speaks at the funeral for former Sen. Joe Lieberman in Stamford, Conn., Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Former Vice President Al Gore speaks at the funeral for former Sen. Joe Lieberman in Stamford, Conn., Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

The casket of former Sen. Joe Lieberman in the sanctuary of Congregation Agudath Sholom, during his funeral in Stamford, Conn., Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Senator Chris Murphy, D-CT, speaks at the funeral for former Senator Joe Lieberman in Stamford, Conn., Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo / Bryan Woolston)

Former Senator Chris Dodd speaks at the funeral for former Senator Joe Lieberman in Stamford, Conn., Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo / Bryan Woolston)

Current and former elected officials including Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, and Senator Susan Collins listen to reflections during the funeral for former Senator Joe Lieberman in Stamford, Conn., Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Hadassah Lieberman, wife of former Senator Joe Lieberman, and their daughter Hani Lowenstein, arrive for his funeral in Stamford, Conn., Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Former Vice President Al Gore offers his condolences to the Lieberman family during the funeral for former Sen. Joe Lieberman in Stamford, Conn., Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Former Vice President Al Gore offers his condolences to Hadassah Lieberman during the funeral for her husband, former Sen. Joe Lieberman in Stamford, Conn., Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

The casket of former Senator Joe Lieberman is shown in the sanctuary of Congregation Agudath Sholom, before his funeral in Stamford, Conn., Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo / Bryan Woolston)

FILE - Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Al Gore, left, and his running mate, vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman, of Connecticut, wave to supporters at a campaign rally in Jackson, Tenn., Oct. 25, 2000. A funeral for Lieberman will be held Friday, March 29, 2024, in his hometown of Stamford, Conn. Lieberman died in New York City on Wednesday, March 27, at age 82. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)

FILE - Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman waves to members of the media as he leaves the West Wing of the White House in Washington, May 17, 2017. A funeral for Lieberman will be held Friday, March 29, 2024, in his hometown of Stamford, Conn. Lieberman died in New York City on Wednesday, March 27, at age 82. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - Former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Conn., right, speaks with a reporter at the Capitol in Washington, June 22, 2021. A funeral for Lieberman will be held Friday, March 29, 2024, in his hometown of Stamford, Conn. Lieberman died in New York City on Wednesday, March 27, at age 82. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Hope Hicks, a former adviser to Donald Trump, took the stand Friday at the former president's hush money trial and recounted how his 2016 campaign became embroiled in a political firestorm over a recording in which he boasted about grabbing women without their permission.

Hicks, who served as White House communications director, is the first close Trump adviser to testify in the case, which accuses the Republican former president of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by silencing women who claimed to have sexual encounters with him.

Prosecutors contend that the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, which emerged just days before a debate, jolted Trump’s campaign and hastened his then-lawyer Michael Cohen’s hush money deal with porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

Hicks described being deeply concerned after learning about the tape's existence from a Washington Post reporter seeking comment about it. She huddled with other Trump advisers and read some of the transcript of the tape to Trump, she testified.

“I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days,” Hicks testified. “This was a damaging development."

Trump has denied the allegations of extramarital sexual encounters. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee for this year denies any wrongdoing in the case.

Hicks, who is is testifying for the prosecution under a subpoena, acknowledged she was “really nervous” after stepping up to the microphone. Referring to her former boss as “Mr. Trump,” she told the court she last communicated with him in the summer or fall of 2022.

While no longer in Trump's inner circle, Hicks spoke about the former president in glowing terms as the prosecutor began questioning her about her background. Hicks complimented Trump multiple times in the first few minutes of her testimony, describing him as a “very good multitasker, a very hard worker.”

Hicks served as Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary and was one of a small number of early campaign staffers who joined his administration.

Former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, the prosecution's star witness, has yet to take the stand in the hush money trial. But jurors are already hearing Cohen's words as prosecutors work to directly tie Trump to payments to silence women with damaging claims about him before the 2016 election.

The second week of testimony in the case will wrap up Friday, a day after jurors heard a potentially crucial piece of evidence: a recording of Trump and Cohen discussing a plan to pay off an ex-Playboy model who claimed to have an affair with Trump. The former president denies the affair.

Prosecutors have spent the week using detailed testimony about meetings, email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts to build on the foundation of their case accusing Trump of a scheme to illegally influence the election. They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000 for her silence before he went to prison for the hush money scheme.

Trump's defense has worked to poke holes in the credibility of prosecution witnesses and to show that Trump was trying to protect his reputation and family — not his campaign — by keeping the women quiet. The defense also suggested while questioning an attorney who represented two women in hush money negotiations that Trump was, in fact, the victim of extortion.

The recording played Thursday was secretly made by Cohen shortly before the 2016 election. Cohen is heard telling Trump about a plan to purchase the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story from the National Enquirer so that it would never come out. The tabloid had previously bought McDougal’s story to bury it on Trump’s behalf.

In the recording, Cohen revealed that he had spoken to then-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg about “how to set the whole thing up with funding.”

Trump can be heard responding: “What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?”

Trump suggested the payment be made with cash, prompting Cohen to object by repeatedly saying “no." Trump then says “check” before the recording cuts off.

Prosecutors played the recording after calling to the stand Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst from the Manhattan district attorney’s office who performed analyses on iPhones Cohen turned over to authorities during the investigation. Daus returned to the stand Friday morning.

Jurors also heard more than six hours of crucial testimony this week from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented McDougal and Daniels in their negotiations with Cohen and the National Enquirer — the tabloid that bought and buried negative stories in an industry practice known as “catch and kill.” Davidson on Thursday described being shocked that his hidden-hand efforts might have contributed to Trump winning the 2016 election.

“What have we done?” Davidson texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer on election night when it became clear that Trump was going to win. “Oh my god,” the tabloid editor responded.

“There was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way — strike that — our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump,” Davidson told jurors.

Trump’s lawyers sought to blunt the potential harm of Davidson’s testimony by getting him to acknowledge that he never had any interactions with Trump — only Cohen. In fact, Davidson said, he had never been in the same room as Trump until his testimony.

“I had no personal interactions with Donald Trump. It either came from my clients, Mr. Cohen or some other source, but certainly not him,” Davidson said.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. The charges stem from paperwork such as invoices and checks that were deemed legal expenses in Trump Organization records. Prosecutors say they were really reimbursements to Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels.

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday,, May 3, 2024.(Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - Hope Hicks, former White House Communications Director, arrives to meet with the House Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 27, 2018. Prosecutors say Hicks spoke with former President Donald Trump by phone during a frenzied effort to keep allegations of his marital infidelity out of the press after the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape leaked weeks before the 2016 election. In the tape, from 2005, Trump boasted about grabbing women without permission. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Former President Donald Trump leaves court, Thursday, May 2 2024, in New York, following the day's proceedings in his hush money trial. (Mark Peterson/New York Magazine via AP, Pool)

Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings for his trial at the Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, May 2, 2024, in New York. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)