Barney Frank, the Congressman from Massachusetts who made history by becoming the first openly gay member of Congress, has died at 86. Before he died, he shared his one last regret, and it involved President Donald Trump.
Barney Frank’s sister confirmed to NBC Boston that he passed away on Wednesday. Frank, who represented southern Massachusetts in the House for 32 years, became a very important person, not only to his voters but to people nationwide, as he was the first openly gay member of Congress.
He also helped overhaul Wall Street regulations after the 2008 financial crisis. Barney paved the way for other openly gay elected officials in the United States.
In 2012, he made history as the first member of Congress to marry a same-sex partner, when he wed his longtime partner, Jim Ready.
“It was life-changing, lifesaving for me,” Frank told NBC News last month. “I think the key to our having made the enormous progress we made in defeating anti-gay prejudice had to do with us all coming out and people discovering the gap between our reality and the way we were painted.”
Barney Frank, born on March 31, 1940, in Bayonne, New Jersey, retired from politics in 2013. Now, tributes are pouring in.
Pioneer gay Rep. Barney Frank dies at 86
Former President Barack Obama took to X, writing, Barney Frank was one of a kind. For more than three decades in Congress, he fought tirelessly for the people of Massachusetts, helped make housing more affordable, stood up for the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans, and helped pass one of the most sweeping financial reforms in history designed to protect consumers and prevent another financial crisis.”
Obama continued, “Barney’s passion and wit were second to none, and our thoughts are with his family today,” Obama concluded.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also paid tribute to the late Barney Frank. She revealed he had called her last month to inform her he had begun undergoing hospice care.
“He has been about idealism and pragmatism to get the job done,” Pelosi told NBC. “He was a real mentor to so many of us here.”
Barney Frank spent his final weeks in hospice care. During that time, he spoke to media outlets about his life and hopes for the future of politics, in which he made a bombshell claim about President Donald Trump.
During an interview with Politico in his home in Maine, Barney Frank said one of his regrets was that congestive heart failure would take his life before he could see the fall of Donald Trump.
“One of my regrets is that I won’t see the continued implosion of Donald Trump.”
Bombshell claim about Donald Trump on his deathbed
He spoke further about Trump in an interview with Boston-area radio station WBUR, calling the president an “idiot savant.”
“As to Trump, I have developed my theory about him: It’s not just that he’s bad on all these values, but he is an idiot savant,” Barney Frank said. “He has just one talent: an ability to exploit anger that got him into power. But having gotten into power, he’s got nothing left, and that’s why now he’s just floundering.”
“I can’t think of an issue on which he’s popular. The Iran war, the fight with the Pope, the economy, even immigration, where the left was dead wrong in its excessive openness, he’s managed to make himself more unpopular,” the now-late politician continued. “His anger, his narcissism, all of the negative parts of his personality have asserted themselves, and he really doesn’t have much of a positive vision of things to offset that.”
Rest in peace, Barney Frank. What do you think of his words on Donald Trump? Please share your opinion in the comment box.