Biden pays tribute to late former Sen. Herb Kohl: ‘One of the finest people I’ve served with’

President Joe Biden praised the late former Democratic Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl on Thursday as “one of the finest people” he’d ever served with in the U.S. Senate.

Kohl, who died Wednesday at 88 following a brief illness, was elected to the Senate in the late 1980s, but prior to that, he was best known in Wisconsin for purchasing the Milwaukee Bucks in 1985, helping keep the NBA team in the city in the process. He was the only senator to own a professional sports team and was awarded a championship ring by the Bucks following their 2021 league title.

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In a statement published Thursday, Biden referred to Kohl as “a kind and principled man of integrity and character, one of Wisconsin’s greatest-ever advocates, and a dear friend.”

He referenced Kohl’s business career as “living proof of the American dream.”

“The son of immigrants, he rose from his first job as a bag boy in his father’s market to build an iconic retail chain. As the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, he helped to mold future world champions, and made sure the NBA team stayed put in his cherished hometown,” the president wrote. “As a senator, he always chose work over the limelight and responsibility over ego, serving not for credit, but for the common good.”

Biden and Kohl overlapped on the Senate Judiciary Committee and collaborated on the 1994 “assault weapons” ban.

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“Throughout his career, Herb was unafraid to stand up to the business community that he’d come from, seeking to level the playing field for workers and make our economy more efficient and fair,” he continued. “In all our years of friendship and time spent serving his beloved Wisconsin, Herb’s humility was always an immense source of strength — for him, and for all of us blessed to know him. He embodied the simple truth that we are a great nation because we are a good people.”

Biden closed by extending condolences to the Kohl family “and the people of Wisconsin,” reiterating that Kohl represented “the best of who we are as Americans.”