believe in us the least. and few people have done more for this state and this country than this driven, brilliant, sometimes irascible, deeply good man from searchlight, nevada. i want to bring in former senator carol moseley braun and alaina beverly, an obama white house aide. thanks for speaking with us, guys, we were looking as we were looking at the conclusion of the services there, the president and former president. senator, what stuck out to me here was the sense that former senator harry reid always got things done, and he never forgot where he came from, from abject poverty, essentially, to become who he was throughout his life, always carrying that with him. at one point, speaker pelosi saying he never forgot his north star, fighting for working families like his own and to
you got me again, but he always got me. the first time i met harry, i got a call asking whether, as i had just been elected at 29 years old to the united states senate, hadn t even turned 32 yet, he was newly i was a newly elected senator. he asked me to campaign for his election for nevada s senate seat being vacated by a man i had only just begun to know, alan bible. the first thing when we met, i met him in nevada, we were talking about where he s from, and he said, well, i used to have to go out and shoot mad dogs. i thought, what in the hell am i doing here? i swear to god. i used to go out and shoot mad dogs. and i m thinking, bless me, father, for i have sinned. what s going on? harry lost that general election by less than 600 votes to paul axle, and he never let me forget thinking that i probably cost
and the next frame is a picture of hagar on the ship and the voice coming down from heaven saying, why not? that was my dad. what makes you so special these things wouldn t happen to you? why not? stand up. get up. never bow, never bend, never yield. that was harry. never complain. that s what i admired so much about him. above harry s desk, as we all know, in the senate office, was a giant portrait of mark twain. they both, harry and mark twain, loved nevada, and they both knew how to say things we know to be true about ourselves and about our country. for harry, it was this, as he
him those 600 votes. i m only kidding about that piece, but i probably did. but when he asked me to come back and campaign for him when he ran for the house in 1982, he won that time, and he won in 86 and would go on to serve in congress together for more than 30 years. we worked together with barack during the eight years we were in office, and even when harry was done in the senate, he was never really done, as all of you from nevada know. he d ask me to campaign for an awful lot of nevada democrats, many of whom are here today. i could never say no, although you probably said, oh god, he invited biden into my district? well, i talked to him often during this past election, taking his advice and landra can tell you, coming to his home on
always believed was the most important thing which you can measure a person by, their actions and keeping their word. if harry said he was going to do something, he did it. he didn t do it the modern-day rationale is, when i told you i would do that, i didn t realize this would happen. no matter what happened, he gave you his word. he kept it. you could bank on it. that s how he got so much done for the good of the country for so many decades. that s how he literally saved, we forget it, social security during the bush years. stopped yucca mountain from becoming a nuclear waste site. secured the votes for the affordable care act. it s how he helped us rein in wall street, the excesses and repealed don t ask, don t tell. it s how he created nevada s first national park and conserved lake tahoe and how he