US Attorney General Eulogizes Former New York Governor as ‘True Statesman’

Dignitaries paid tribute to former three-term New York governor Mario Cuomo at a funeral in uptown Manhattan on Tuesday.

NEW YORK, January 7 (Sputnik) — Dignitaries, including US Attorney General Eric Holder, paid tribute to Mario Cuomo at a funeral in uptown Manhattan on Tuesday at which the former three-term New York governor was eulogized as a family man, statesman and progressive Democrat politician.

“With the passing of Mario Cuomo, America has lost a giant and a true statesman – a leader of strength and rare humility; of wit and ceaseless compassion,” Holder said. “Governor Cuomo was more than a distinguished public servant or a great American success story."

“Throughout his extraordinary life, he was a tenacious champion for those too often forgotten and too long overlooked,” Holder added.

Vice President Joe Biden, former US president Bill Clinton and his wife and potential 2016 Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended the service at St. Ignatius Loyola Church.

Cuomo, 82, died in his Manhattan home Thursday evening, hours after his son Andrew Cuomo was inaugurated for a second term as governor of New York. He is possibly best known for a 1984 speech in which he scolded Republican President Ronald Reagan over wealth inequality in the United States.