|
This article is incomplete and has not been edited recently, and is considered abandoned. It is to be deleted on January 17 (today), if work on it does not resume. Please edit it so it becomes un-abandoned. If you feel that this article is ready to be reviewed by a peer reviewer, please add {{review}} to it. |
| This article is incomplete and has not been edited recently, and is considered abandoned. It is to be deleted on January 17 (today), if work on it does not resume. Please edit it so it becomes un-abandoned. If you feel that this article is ready to be reviewed by a peer reviewer, please add {{review}} to it. |
|
The validity of this article as a news story is, as written, disputed. Wikinews does not publish reports on events that are not sufficiently recent. For synthesis, new details must have come to light within the past two or three days, and the news event itself must have happened within a week. Unless sources can be found and a news event chosen to bring this article into compliance with those requirements, the article may be deleted. If any new details from the last two to three days are newsworthy in their own right then an article could be written with these updates as the actual news event. Exceptions are possible where original reporting adds significant new and newsworthy information to the article.
Please try to resolve objections on the discussion page, or move the article to Wikipedia or another sister project where it may be more relevant. |
| The validity of this article as a news story is, as written, disputed. Wikinews does not publish reports on events that are not sufficiently recent. For synthesis, new details must have come to light within the past two or three days, and the news event itself must have happened within a week. Unless sources can be found and a news event chosen to bring this article into compliance with those requirements, the article may be deleted.
If any new details from the last two to three days are newsworthy in their own right then an article could be written with these updates as the actual news event. Exceptions are possible where original reporting adds significant new and newsworthy information to the article.
Please try to resolve objections on the discussion page, or move the article to Wikipedia or another sister project where it may be more relevant. |
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Former United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, died Tuesday at his home in Henderson, Nevada. He was 82. In a statement, Reid’s wife of 62 years, Landra, said he died of pancreatic cancer. Reid had suffered from the disease since at least 2018, but claimed to be in remission in 2019.
“A son of Searchlight, Nevada, Harry never forgot his humble roots,” wrote US President Joe Biden, who served alongside Reid for 22 years in the Senate. “A boxer, he never gave up a fight. A great American, he looked at challenges and believed it was within our capacity to do good — to do right.”
A boxer and United States Capitol Police officer before embarking on a career in politics, Reid first won election to the US House of Representatives in 1982. Four years later, Nevada sent Reid to the US Senate, a position to which voters re-elected him four times. Known for his hardnose and partisan approach, Reid was Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015, during which Democrats held control of the Senate. During his tenure, Reid opposed the Iraq War, controversially observing “this war is lost.” He pushed for and passed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the American Recovery Act, and ended the Senate filibuster for executive branch nominations, allowing judges to be confirmed with just a simple majority vote. He served two more years as Minority Leader before his retirement in 2017.
“Harry Reid was one of the most amazing individuals I’ve ever met,” tweeted Senator Chuck Schumer of New York who took over for Reid as Minority Leader and now serves as Majority Leader. “He never forgot where he came from and used those boxing instincts to fearlessly fight those who were hurting the poor and the middle class.”
Also on Twitter, former President Barack Obama, whose presidency was largely contemporaneous with Reid’s leadership, posted a letter he recently sent to Reid, revealing “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.”
Statements were not as forthcoming from Reid’s past political opponents in the Republican Party. Fellow Mormon Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, whom, during the 2012 presidential election Reid accused of not paying federal income taxes for the previous ten years, did not comment on the death. This, despite having issued statements in December upon the deaths of former Senators Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Bob Dole of Kansas. Likewise, former President George W. Bush, whose last two years as president coincided with the first two of Reid’s leadership and whom Reid called a “loser” and a “liar,” did not make any public comment.
Nevertheless, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who succeeded Reid as Majority Leader, and who currently serves as Minority Leader, issued a press release eulogizing Reid while acknowledging their political clashes:
The nature of Harry’s and my jobs brought us into frequent and sometimes intense conflict over politics and policy. But I never doubted that Harry was always doing what he earnestly, deeply felt was right for Nevada and our country. He will rightly go down in history as a crucial, pivotal figure in the development and history of his beloved home state.
Leader Schumer has ordered flags at the Capitol to be flown at half-staff to honor Reid. A memorial service has been scheduled for January 8 at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas.