Bob Dole dies at 98. Biden say he will miss his friend
Former Senate majority leader Bob Dole, who unsuccessfully ran for president against Bill Clinton, passed away on Sunday at the age of 95. He was 98 years old at the time of his death. In addition to his wife Elizabeth Dole, a former US senator, and their daughter from a previous marriage, Robin, he leaves behind.
As one of the greatest American politicians of the 20th century, Dole’s war heroics, his time as Senate Majority Leader, his 1996 presidential run, and even an appearance in a commercial for the maker of Viagra will be remembered.
During the course of his nearly 50-year tenure as a public official, however, he made two significant contributions to American culture that have endured. To this day, Dole’s work on Social Security and food stamps (now known as SNAP) has had a significant impact on how the American public views and uses these two government programmes.
Among his many accomplishments in the Senate, Dole wrote in his memoir, “One Soldier’s Story,” that Social Security and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability, are the ones he is most proud of.
At the same time, Dole co-founded the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank.
He was one of a handful of traditional Republican elders who endorsed Donald Trump during his run for the presidency in 2016. As recently as the presidential election of 2020, Dole endorsed Trump once more, and then in the years following, on the occasion of his 98th birthday, he told USA Today, “I’m sort of Trumped out, though.” During his time in office, Dole said, “I do believe we’ve lost something” when it came to political discourse.
BPC President Jason Grumet noted in 2019 that “Bob and Elizabeth Dole’s exemplary careers demonstrate that it is possible to be a proud partisan while building coalitions that have changed our country for the better” to mark a leadership series named after Dole and his wife at the Center.