Mondale, who was vice president under Democrat President Jimmy Carter, died at the age of 93 in April last year.
“There are two ways to propagate light – to be a candle or a mirror that reflects it. Fritz was both a candle and a mirror, I think,” Biden said during a memorial service at the University of Minnesota.
In his speeches, the president recalled his long-standing friendship with Mondale, while calling on the nation to follow the example of the late Minnesota. “He was loved by the American people because he reflected the good of the American people,” Biden said.
In a particularly moving moment, the president recalled the tragic car accident that killed his then-wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, and daughter Naomi, and described how Mondale and his wife, the late Joan Mondale, were with him.
“They helped me find my destination in a sea of darkness and pain,” Biden said.
Mondale was Carter’s number two between 1977 and 1981, but his only term as vice president ended when Ronald Reagan and his candidate, George H. W. Bush, defeated Carter and Mondale in 1980, a loss the Democrats would have made. did not recover until 1992, when Bill Clinton helped the party regain control of the White House. However, Mondale himself won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and helped make history by nominating US Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York as her candidate, the first woman to be nominated for a major political party presidential ticket. USA. Mondale eventually lost to the current Reagan.
In an email to former CNN employees at the time of his death, Mondale acknowledged in a touching message that his “time has come.”
“Before I went, I wanted to tell you how much you mean to me. Never has a civil servant had a better group of people working next to them! We have achieved so much together and I know that you will continue the good fight, “Mondale wrote.
“Joe at the White House certainly helps,” he added of the president. “I always knew it would be good if I came somewhere and was greeted by one of you!”
Devan Cole of CNN contributed to this report.
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