President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Congressional leaders and other lawmakers of both parties came together at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to pay tribute to the late Bob Dole.
The president called Dole, who died over the weekend at 98, a "giant of our history."
The former Senate majority leader, presidential candidate and World War II veteran lay in state at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday ahead of his funeral ceremony at the National Cathedral on Friday.
"We meet here in the very heart of American democracy, the Capitol of the United States of America, to receive a hero of that democracy for a final time," Biden said at the ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.
"Bob belongs here," Biden added. "He, too, was a giant of our history, and that’s not hyperbole, that’s real. Of wit and grace, of principle and persistence, of courage and conviction."
The congressional delegation from Dole's home state of Kansas was in attendance, as well as a number of former members of Congress who served alongside the former Republican leader – including former Kansas senator Pat Roberts, former Republican leader Trent Lott and former Democratic leader Tom Daschle.
Dole was was first elected to represent Kansas in Congress in 1960, the beginning of a 36-year career on Capitol Hill which ended with him leading the Republican party in the Senate and becoming one of the most powerful and influential Congressional leaders of his era, forging numerous bipartisan compromises.
Prior to his tenure in the Senate, Dole represented a House district in the western part of Kansas, where he voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, despite his opposition to much of then-President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" domestic programs.
“We disagreed a lot,” the president said of his former Senate colleague. “We still found a way to work together. We genuinely, we genuinely respected one another as colleagues, as fellow Americans.”
Biden, quoting of Dole's final columns, published in the Washington Post after his death, made an appeal for bipartisanship as he wrapped up his remarks.
“I cannot pretend that I have not been a loyal champion of my party,” the president said, quoting Dole. “But I always served my country best when I did it first and foremost as an American.”
Dole was honored by lawmakers for his valor in combat and his decades of service on Capitol Hill, as well as his wit, one of his trademark characteristics.
"I swear, Bob could have made it as a stand-up comic," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said of Dole on Thursday.
Biden also spoke of Dole's "great wit," recalling an anecdote about Dole's reasoning behind a vote.
"They once asked him why in God's name did he vote to continue to fund Amtrak," Biden said. "He said because if he didn't, Biden would stay overnight and cause more trouble. I commuted every day. True story. He was the deciding vote."
McConnell said that Dole "built brighter futures for millions" of his fellow citizens in his 36-year career in Congress.
“A son of Dust Bowl hardship who was laser focused on food security and rural issues," McConnell said Thursday. "A wounded warrior who spent decades carrying fellow veterans and Americans with disabilities on his shoulders."
“Bob was the last of the Greatest Generation to run for president, but he was never stuck in the past," the Republican leader added. "His roots ran deep, but he was always looking to new horizons.”
In 1945, Dole was gravely wounded in Italy in the waning days of World War II. His injuries left him with severely limited mobility in his right arm, and nearly cost him his life.
"By 21, Bob had given more of himself than most of us give in a lifetime," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said of Dole's injuries in World War II. "Then he kept going for 77 years after that – and, my God, it was 77 years well spent."
Schumer said that Dole was someone "who redefined and elevated what it means to serve country."
Speaking in Dole's home state of Kansas on Wednesday at an event touting the recently passed infrastructure bill, President Joe Biden called the late lawmaker an "American giant" and a "war hero who sacrificed beyond measure."
"We didn't agree on everything but I always admired and respected him," Biden, who served in the Senate with Dole, said. "And his willingness to work with anyone."
"Our nation owes Bob Dole a debt of gratitude for his remarkable service and a life well lived," the president added.
Dole shaped tax policy, foreign policy, farm and nutrition programs and rights for the disabled, enshrining protections against discrimination in employment, education and public services in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"As I stand here and see his coffin on the catafalque that was built for Lincoln with that flag draped over it, I'm sure many of you here will agree, it's hard to think of anyone who was more worthy to have a flag draped over his coffin because of his great patriotism to our country," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.
He thrice sought the presidency, most recently in 1996, when he won the Republican nomination only to see President Bill Clinton re-elected. He sought his party’s presidential nomination in 1980 and 1988 and was the 1976 GOP vice presidential candidate on the losing ticket with President Gerald Ford.
In February, Dole announced that he was battling Stage IV lung cancer and would begin undergoing treatment.
"While I certainly have some hurdles ahead, I also know that I join millions of Americans who face significant challenges of their own," Dole, then 97, wrote in a statement at the time.
Dole is survived by his wife, former North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, and his daughter, Robin.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.