Biden extols Reid’s service as lawmaker

LAS VEGAS — Former President Barack Obama paid tribute to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Saturday as a man who “got things done,” as Democratic leaders spoke of Reid’s impact on some of the most important legislation of the 21st century, from health care to Wall Street reform.

The turnout at Reid’s Las Vegas memorial service was testament to his legacy, rising from a childhood of poverty to become an influential congressional leader. President Biden escorted Reid’s widow, Landra Reid, to her seat at the outset of services before an honor guard carried the flag-draped casket to the well of a hushed auditorium.

Reid died Dec. 28 at home in Henderson at 82 of complications from pancreatic cancer.

“Let there be no doubt. Harry Reid will be considered one of the greatest Senate majority leaders in history,” Biden said. Speakers credited Reid’s work on strengthening health care and on Wall Street reform and economic recovery in the wake of the 2008 recession, as part of what is considered one of the most consequential congressional sessions of modern times.

Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who described Reid to mourners as a “truly honest and original character,” spoke during the invitationonly memorial.

Obama, who credits Reid for his rise to the White House, delivered the eulogy.

When Reid helped pass the Affordable Care Act at the start of Obama’s first term, “he didn’t do it to burnish his own legacy,” Obama said. When Reid was a boy, Obama explained, Reid’s family was so poor that “he didn’t even know” what health care was. When a tooth went bad, his father pulled it himself. In Reid’s work in Washington, “he did it for the people back home and families like his, who needed somebody looking out for them, when nobody else did. Harry got things done,” Obama said.

Reid’s body will be flown to Washington to lie in state at the Capitol rotunda, and another ceremony will be held there on Wednesday.

The host of Saturday’s Las Vegas services, Marcus Faust, said Reid’s casket will return to Nevada for burial at the family plot in Searchlight.

Susan Walsh / Associated Press President Biden speaks during a memorial service for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at the Smith Center in Las Vegas. Reid, 82, died of complications from cancer last month in Henderson, Nev.