Presidents, Colleagues -- Even Alpacas -- Fete Former Senate Leader Reid
Presidents, Colleagues -- Even Alpacas -- Fete Former Senate Leader Reid
"It was all Searchlight. No spotlight," Biden says of his old friend
American presidents, US senators, and even his former constituents — some with animals in tow — congregated at former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's memorial service Saturday.
Reid, who passed away December 28 at the age of 82, was feted with pomp and circumstance at a service held at the Smith Center in Las Vegas.
A Democratic senator from Nevada for 30 years, Reid led the Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017, serving as majority leader for eight of those years.
A native of Searchlight, Nev., Reid was remembered across the political aisle as a good friend and effective legislator and leader.
Led by President Biden and former president Barack Obama — each of whom served with Reid in the Senate before moving on to the White House — Democrats and Republicans filled the seats in the Smith Center, including Republican Sens Richard Shelby, of Alabama, and Roy Blunt, of Missouri, according to NBC News correspondent Leigh Ann Caldwell.
Biden, who served with Reid in the Senate for more than 20 years, used a play on words to describe the one-time boxer as a workhorse, not a showhorse.
“It was all Searchlight. No spotlight,” the president said, referring to Reid's hometown.
First Lady Dr Jill Biden, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, traveled with the president to attend the memorial, to which Reid’s remains were brought in a flag-draped casket flanked by a US military honor guard.
Obama lauded Reid as a pragmatic problem-solver.
“In a battle between perfection and progress, Harry always chose progress,” Obama recalled, of Reid’s political pragmatism. “He always understood he wasn't going to be right about everything.”
Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), who was always to the left of Reid, no matter, used a tweet projected on a screen at the service to remember his late friend.
“Harry Reid was an outstanding leader and a friend. I have fond memories of working with him on important issues impacting working families, including the vast expansion of community health centers. Jane and I will miss him and send our condolences to Landra and the entire family,” the Sanders tweet read, referring to Reid’s widow, whom Reid married in 1959.
Meanwhile, outside, ordinary Nevadans moved by Reid’s passing gathered outside the memorial — some with handmade signs and even Alpacas in tow.
Despite the warm feelings inside the Smith Center, The Washington Post somewhat inexplicably criticized Biden for attending the Reid memorial despite the fact that the two men were friends and colleagues for decades.
“Biden, who heads to Sen Harry M Reid’s memorial Saturday — his seventh as president — uses funerals to honor friendships and make a point about bipartisanship. Not everyone thinks that it's the best use of his time,” the Post reported, in a rather churlish comment given the timing.
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