Harry Reid remembered by friends and foes for reshaping Senate, Supreme Court and Obama presidency
Harry M. Reid, who died Tuesday at age 82, was one of the longest-serving Senate majority leaders in the history of the United States. He was remembered by Republican opponents and his fellow Democrats as one of the nation’s most consequential lawmakers during two presidencies, for his support for young leaders and for a sometimes hidden personal warmth.
Reid, who represented Nevada in the Senate for 30 years, played a key role in the rescue of the American economy during the housing market crisis of the late 2000s and was instrumental in the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Flags at the Capitol will be lowered to half-staff in his honor, and Las Vegas’s international airport was recently renamed after him.
Here is how Reid was remembered in the hours following his death.
Support for young Democrats
Former president Barack Obama recalled Reid pushing him to run for the White House even as a first-term junior U.S. senator from Illinois.
“I wouldn’t have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support, and I wouldn’t have got most of what I got done without your skill and determination,” Obama wrote in a letter to Reid, which was released to the public after the former majority leader’s death.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/harry-reid-remembered-by-friends-and-foes-for-reshaping-senate-supreme-court-and-obama-presidency/ar-AASe1Rk
Obama shares last poignant letter to Harry Reid: 'I wouldn't have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support'
President Barack Obama on Tuesday said in a letter shared after the death of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that he would not have ascended to the highest office in the land if it were not for the help of the longtime Nevada lawmaker.
Reid, who rose from poverty in the small town of Searchlight to the vaunted halls of Congress, was instrumental in the rise of Obama — who launched his first presidential campaign in 2007 only two years after arriving in the Capitol as the junior senator from Illinois.
As the Democratic majority leader of the Senate from 2007 to 2015, Reid helped usher through everything from the Affordable Care Act to numerous federal judges, but the two boasted a friendship that transcended politics and was built on their fondness for one another.
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"I got the news that the health situation has taken a rough turn, and that it's hard to talk on the phone. Which, let's face it, is not that big of a change cause you never liked to talk on the phone anyway! Here's what I want you to know. You were a great leader in the Senate, and early on you were more generous to me than I had any right to expect," the former president wrote.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/obama-shares-last-poignant-letter-to-harry-reid-i-wouldnt-have-been-president-had-it-not-been-for-your-encouragement-and-support/ar-AASfcqu