Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Dies at 82
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid died Tuesday at 82 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Reid served as a majority leader from 2007 to 2015 and helped pass former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act amid heightened partisan politics. He entered Nevada politics in 1969 as a member of the state’s legislature, and would later become a U.S. House representative in 1983 and a U.S. senator in 1987. Reid retired from the Senate in 2017.
Outlets across the spectrum published reports, opinions and obituaries about Reid on Wednesday. Coverage from the left generally praised Reid and his political legacy. Several left and center-rated outlets described him as “pugnacious” or “pugilistic,” a possible reference to his teenage career as an amateur boxer; NPR (Center) began its tribute with “Former Sen. Harry Reid has left the ring.” Coverage from the right was more mixed; an opinion in National Review (Right) attributed Reid’s success as majority leader not to his personality, but to the fact that “Reid had 60 senators.” A Washington Examiner (Lean Right) homepage headline said his “polarizing legacy” had reemerged.
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From the Center
Political leaders react to death of Harry Reid
The death of former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid prompted an outpouring of tributes locally and nationally late Tuesday afternoon.
Reid, a political titan and perhaps the most influential person to call the the Silver State home, died at age 82 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
President Joe Biden took to Twitter, calling Reid a dear friend and “a giant of our history.”
From the Left
Harry M. Reid, pugnacious Senate majority leader, dies at 82
Harry M. Reid, a Nevada Democrat who rose from a hardscrabble mining town to become one of the longest-serving Senate majority leaders in history and a political force during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, died Dec. 28 at his home in Henderson, Nev. He was 82.
The death was confirmed by David Krone, a former chief of staff. Mr. Reid was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018.
A combative but soft-spoken former amateur boxer, Mr. Reid displayed an economy of personal magnetism and embraced the art of...
From the Right
Harry Reid, former Senate majority leader, dead at 82
Harry Reid, a longtime Democratic U.S. senator from Nevada who rose to serve as Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015, died Tuesday at age 82.
Reid, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018, served in Congress from 1983 until his retirement in 2017. He announced in 2019 his cancer was in remission.
He became most well-known for his use of the "nuclear option" in 2013, leading the charge to end the filibuster on executive branch nominees and judicial nominees other than to the Supreme Court.
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