来自内华达州的前五届美国参议员哈里·梅森·瑞德领导参议院民主党人他的妻子兰德拉·里德(Landra Reid)在一份声明中证实，在布什和奥巴马执政的十年间，里德于周二去世。他当时82岁。
“我悲痛地宣布，我的丈夫、前参议院多数党领袖哈里·里德去世了。在与胰腺癌进行了勇敢的四年斗争后，他今天下午在我们家人的簇拥下平静地去世了。哈利已经82岁了。我们结婚62年了，”她说。“我们为他在国家舞台和他热爱的内华达州留下的遗产感到骄傲。最近几周，为了纪念他，拉斯维加斯机场重新命名，这让哈里深受感动。哈里是一个虔诚的家庭成员，也是一个非常忠诚的朋友。"
兰德拉·里德感谢过去几年来照顾丈夫的医生和护士，并表示葬礼安排将在未来几天宣布。
里德的半个多世纪公共服务追踪美国机会的弧线。从一个贫困的教养在内华达州的探照灯，里德上升成为最有权势的政治家在乡下。
作为一名美国国会大厦警官，他很早就尝到了政治的甜头，以完成法学院的学业。他最初是一名出庭律师和城市律师，后来寻求民选职位，以推进他的信念，即政府有一个改善生活的责任。
参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默在一份声明中说:“哈里·里德是我见过的最了不起的人之一。”推特声明周二晚上。“他非常坚强，但富有爱心和同情心，总是悄悄地去帮助那些需要帮助的人。他是一个出身卑微的拳击手，但他从未忘记自己来自哪里，并利用这些拳击本能无畏地与那些伤害穷人和中产阶级的人战斗。”
“他是我的领袖，我的导师，我最亲爱的朋友之一。他已经走了，但每天都会和我们参议院中的许多人站在一起，”舒默补充道。
里德当选为州议员、副州长和博彩委员会主席。1986年，内瓦丹斯派他去华盛顿担任美国参议院议员。
“他和他的家人受益于富兰克林·罗斯福的新政，他从未忘记它，”里德的前高级通信顾问兼发言人吉姆·曼利说。"他在亲眼目睹政府能带来多大的好处后，总是小心翼翼地照顾这个小家伙。"
CQ-通过盖蒂图像，文件点名
即将退休的参议院少数党领袖哈里·里德在他的肖像揭幕仪式上讲话..
作为参议院民主党领袖，里德支持7870亿美元复苏法案2009年旨在减轻大衰退影响的经济刺激计划，并努力制定具有里程碑意义的2013年《平价医疗法案》(平价医疗法案)——他认为这两项法案是他最伟大的立法成就之一。
前总统巴拉克·奥巴马在周二的一份声明中说，当里德接近尾声时，他的妻子要求他的一些朋友分享她可以给他读的信。
“这是我写给我朋友的信，”奥巴马说。“哈里，我得到消息，健康状况发生了严重变化，电话里很难交谈。让我们面对现实吧，这并不是什么大的改变，因为你从来都不喜欢打电话!这是我想让你知道的。你是参议院中一位伟大的领袖，在早期，你对我比我期望的更慷慨。如果没有你的鼓励和支持，我就不会成为总统，如果没有你的技巧和决心，我也不会取得大部分成就。”
“最重要的是，你一直是个好朋友。尽管我们不同，但我认为我们都在对方身上看到了自己的一些东西——一对局外人，他们不顾一切，知道如何出拳，关心这个小家伙。你知道吗，我们组成了一个非常好的团队，”奥巴马在信中继续说道。“享受你的家庭，知道你被很多人爱着，包括我。世界因你的所作所为而变得更美好。对探照灯公司的一个又瘦又穷的孩子来说还不错。”
乔·拜登总统在周二晚些时候的一份声明中也赞扬了里德的一生和遗产，称他是历史上最伟大的参议院多数党领袖之一。
“我有幸与我们历史上一些有史以来最伟大的参议院多数党领袖共事。哈里·里德就是其中之一。对哈利来说，这不是为了权力而权力。这是关于为人民做正确事情的权力，”拜登在谈到他的前参议院同事时说。
虽然这两个人在美国的不同地方长大，但拜登说他们“来自同一个地方，在那里某些价值观根深蒂固。”拜登列举了里德的许多立法成就，包括复苏法案、患者保护与平价医疗法案和多德-弗兰克华尔街改革，以及他在结束“不问不说”和批准《新裁武条约》中的作用。
但是，尽管里德在职业上取得了长期的成就，拜登指出，对里德来说，家庭才是最重要的。
“但最重要的是，哈利首先是他亲爱的兰德拉忠诚的丈夫。在一起的60年里，他们和他们的孩子——拉娜、罗里、叶小开、乔希和基——以及他们所有的孙子和曾孙建立了一个非凡的家庭。吉尔和我向兰德拉和整个里德家族致以我们的爱和祈祷，”拜登写道。“作为内华达州探照灯的儿子，哈利从未忘记自己卑微的根。作为一名拳击手，他从未放弃过战斗——无论是在政治上，还是在对抗癌症上。作为一个伟大的美国人，哈里着眼于世界的挑战，相信我们有能力做好事，做正确的事，尽自己的一份力量来完善我们都热爱的联邦。”
里德致力于阻挠共和党将社会保障私有化的努力，并以援引“核选择”在参议院规则，以消除行政部门任命和司法提名的阻挠。这一变化意味着以简单多数票确认，这一门槛大大降低，前总统唐纳德·特朗普和他备受争议的最高法院大法官人选在2018年从中受益布雷特·卡瓦诺。
参议院共和党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)在2016年的告别致辞中谈到里德时说:“如果说我们对哈里有什么了解的话，那就是他不会轻易放弃。
里德是一个自由派煽动者，但并不总是与民主党主流保持一致。他在自己的职业生涯中对堕胎权摇摆不定，对枪支管制也有不同的看法，两次反对攻击性武器禁令。2003年，他投票支持伊拉克战争，后来他称之为“玷污我心灵的可怕错误”
“我最大的遗憾是投票支持了伊拉克战争，”里德在2016年参议院的一次演讲中说。“和许多人一样，我被误导了，但没多久我就发现了这一点。所以我确信这是一个错误，我大声而清晰地说了出来。”
作为内华达州任职时间最长的参议员，里德还是该州博彩业和酒店业的坚定捍卫者，也是蓬勃发展的可再生能源行业的倡导者。
周二，参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)就里德的去世发表了一份声明，称里德掌权是“典型的美国式”，并称赞他们之间的“友好”关系。
麦康奈尔写道:“内华达州和我们的国家正在悼念一位敬业的公务员和一位真正独一无二的美国参议员，我的前同事哈里·里德。“哈里的工作性质和我的工作性质使我们在政治和政策上经常发生冲突，有时甚至是激烈的冲突。但我从未怀疑过，哈里总是认真地做着他深深觉得对内华达州和我们国家正确的事情。他将理所当然地作为他所热爱的祖国的发展和历史中的一个关键人物而载入史册。”
副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯也在一份声明中赞扬了里德，称他是一名“可敬的公务员”，“把事情做好了”
哈里斯说:“每当我们有机会发言时，里德领袖都很和蔼、慷慨，而且总是很中肯。“今晚，兰德拉和整个里德家族都在我们的脑海中。”
尽管沉默寡言，说话温和，但里德在党内领导层的高姿态使他成为政治避雷针。他经常因愿意对对手进行侮辱和人身攻击而引发争议，最近还被拿来与特朗普相提并论。
他曾著名地抨击小布什总统既是“骗子”又是“失败者”，只是后来才为“失败者”的言论道歉。在参议院，里德称特朗普是“人类水蛭”，并抨击麦康奈尔是“共和党懦弱的典型代表”
里德以坦率直言著称，从不担心政治正确性。他曾暗示西班牙血统的人“不可能是共和党人”，在首都猛烈抨击满身汗臭的游客，并在参观椭圆形办公室时称布什的狗为“胖子”。
2010年，里德是被迫道歉因为他在2008年的一次竞选采访中，将奥巴马贬为“一个肤色浅的‘黑人’‘没有黑人方言，除非他想有一种’”。
在2012年的竞选中，里德攻击共和党总统候选人米特·罗姆尼是个税务骗子——没有证据。事实核查人员揭穿了这一说法，但里德仍然没有道歉。
共和党领导人告诫里德走向退休2016年。阿肯色州的参议员汤姆·科顿指责他是一个“癌症领袖”，他的“漫谈”是“尖刻、粗俗和语无伦次的”怀俄明州参议员约翰·巴拉索将里德的任期描述为“失败、阻碍和僵局”
“他是一个直言不讳的人，”曼利说，“当他说一些话时，他是认真的。有时候这让他陷入了困境，但我总是觉得它令人耳目一新。”
就里德而言，他是一名业余拳击手，从未为这场比赛道歉。
2016年底，他在国会山的最后一次新闻发布会上表示:“我对自己推动民主党议程的努力没有任何遗憾。
里德退休后去了内华达州，健康状况每况愈下。手术后，他肋骨骨折，面部骨骼和右眼失明2015年运动事故当一根橡胶阻力带断裂，把里德扔进一些健身房的柜子里。
2018年，医生在里德的胰腺上发现了一个肿瘤做了手术来移除它。
里德直言:“一旦你发现你的胰腺上有东西，你就死定了。”告诉《纽约时报》在一月份的一次采访中。
里德经常谈到在他的摩门教信仰和与妻子兰德拉60年的婚姻中找到安慰。
麦康奈尔在2016年的致敬中说:“手牵手，额头冒汗，他们总是一起走过这一切。这对夫妇有五个孩子和19个孙子。
朋友和以前的同事说，里德对自己远离聚光灯感到满意——周围都是家人——但从未放弃对政治的热情。
里德在2007年告诉长期采访内华达州政治的记者乔恩·罗尔斯顿他最后的一次采访他一直在为2020年民主党总统候选人提供建议。
“我有一个总统崇拜者打电话给我，她说，‘你知道，我听说了很多关于你的事情，我们见过面，但时间很短。“告诉我，你为什么认为自己成功了，”我说，我之所以成功，是因为我一直愿意冒险，”里德告诉罗尔斯顿。
探照灯公司的参议员可以作为一个案例来研究冒险和挑战可能性。
正如里德喜欢说的那样，当他1939年出生在大萧条的阴影下时，这个内华达州的矿业小镇“没有矿山，有13家妓院”。他的矿工父亲自杀了;他母亲为镇上的妓院洗衣服。他童年的家被描述成一个棚屋，没有厕所、自来水和电话。
探照灯缺乏医疗保健设施和学校，这迫使年轻的里德寻求逃离，去过更好的生活。
“他知道全国各地都有探照灯，”奥巴马总统说告诉内华达州一家电台里德在2015年。“有和他一样的孩子，他在为他们而战。”
Harry Reid, the former 5-term US senator from Nevada, has died at 82 following cancer battle
Harry Mason Reid, the former five-term U.S. senator from Nevada wholed Senate Democratsfor a decade spanning the Bush and Obama presidencies, died Tuesday, his wife, Landra Reid, confirmed in a statement. He was 82.
"I am heartbroken to announce the passing of my husband, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He died peacefully this afternoon, surrounded by our family, following a courageous, four-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Harry was 82 years old. We were married for 62 years," she said. "We are so proud of the legacy he leaves behind both on the national stage and his beloved Nevada. Harry was deeply touched to see his decades of service to Nevada honored in recent weeks with the re-naming of Las Vegas' airport in his honor. Harry was a devout family man and deeply loyal friend."
Landra Reid thanked the doctors and nurses that cared for her husband over the past several years and said funeral arrangements will be announced in the coming days.
Reid's more than half a century ofpublic servicetracked the arc of American opportunity. From ahardscrabble upbringingin Searchlight, Nevada, Reid rose to become one of themost powerful politiciansin the country.
He got an early taste of politics working as a U.S. Capitol Police officer to put himself through law school. He started out as a trial lawyer and city attorney before seeking elected office to advance his belief that government had aresponsibility to improve lives.
"Harry Reid was one of the most amazing individuals I've ever met," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in aTwitterstatement Tuesday night. "He was tough-as-nails strong, but caring and compassionate, and always went out f his way quietly to help people who needed help. He was a boxer who came from humble origins, but he never forgot where he came from and used those boxing instincts to fearlessly fight those who were hurting the poor and middle class."
"He was my leader, my mentor, one of my dearest friends. He's gone but will walk by the sides of many of us in the Senate every day," Schumer added.
Reid was elected state assemblyman, lieutenant governor and gaming commission chairman. In 1986, Nevadans sent him to Washington as a member of the U.S. Senate.
"He and his family benefited from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and he never forgot it," said Jim Manley, Reid's former senior communications adviser and spokesman. "He always was looking out for the little guy after seeing firsthand how beneficial government could be."
As Senate Democratic leader, Reid championed the$787 billion Recovery Acteconomic stimulus program to blunt the impact of the Great Recession in 2009 and fought to enact the landmark Affordable Care Act of 2013 -- two bills he considered among his greatest legislative achievements.
Former President Barack Obama said in a statement Tuesday that when Reid was nearing the end, his wife asked some of his friends to share letters that she could read to him.
"Here's what I wrote to my friend," Obama said. "Harry, I got the news that the health situation has taken a rough turn, and that it's hard to talk on the phone. Which, let's face it, is not that big of a change cause you never liked to talk on the phone anyway! Here's what I want you to know. You were a great leader in the Senate, and early on you were more generous to me than I had any right to expect. 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."
"Most of all, you've been a good friend. As different as we are, I think we both saw something of ourselves in each other - a couple of outsiders who had defied the odds and knew how to take a punch and cared about the little guy. And you know what, we made for a pretty good team," Obama continued in his letter. "Enjoy your family, and know you are loved by a lot of people, including me. The world is better cause of what you've done. Not bad for a skinny, poor kid from Searchlight."
President Joe Biden also praised the life and legacy of Reid in a statement late Tuesday, calling him one of the greatest Senate majority leaders in history.
"I've had the honor of serving with some of the all-time great Senate Majority Leaders in our history. Harry Reid was one of them. And for Harry, it wasn't about power for power's sake. It was about the power to do right for the people," Biden said of his former Senate colleague.
While the two men grew up on opposite sides of the country, Biden said they "came from the same place where certain values run deep." Biden ticked through many of Reid's legislative accomplishments, including the Recovery Act, the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, as well as his role in ending "don't ask, don't tell," and ratifying the New START Treaty.
But despite Reid's lengthy professional achievements, Biden noted it was his family what was most important to Reid.
"But above all, Harry was first and foremost the devoted husband to his dear Landra. Over six decades together, they built a remarkable family with their children—Lana, Rory, Leif, Josh, and Key—and all of their grandchildren and great-grandchild. Jill and I send our love and prayers to Landra and the entire Reid family," Biden wrote. "A son of Searchlight, Nevada, Harry never forgot his humble roots. A boxer, he never gave up a fight—whether in politics or even against cancer. A great American, Harry looked at the challenges of the world and believed it was within our capacity to do good, to do right, and to do our part of perfecting the Union we all love."
Reid worked to stymie Republican efforts to privatize Social Security, and famously invoked the"nuclear option"in Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster for executive branch appointments and judicial nominations. That change meant confirmation by a simple majority vote, a drastically lower threshold which in 2018 benefitted former President Donald Trump and his controversial pick for the Supreme Court, JusticeBrett Kavanaugh.
"If there's one thing we know about Harry, he doesn't give up easily," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said of Reid in a farewell tribute in 2016.
Reid was a liberal firebrand but not always in lockstep with the Democratic mainstream. He vacillated on abortion rights over his career and had a mixed view of gun control, twice opposing the assault weapons ban. In 2003, he voted in favor of the Iraq War which he later called a "horrible mistake" that "tainted my heart."
"My biggest regret is having voted for the Iraq War," Reid said in a speech from the Senate floor in 2016. "I was misled, as a number of people were, but it didn't take me long to figure that one out. So I became convinced that it was a mistake, and I spoke out loud and clear."
As the longest-serving senator from Nevada, Reid was also a fierce defender of the state's gaming and hospitality industries and advocate for the burgeoning renewable-energy sector.
On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement on Reid's passing, calling Reid's rise to power "quintessentially American" and praising their "cordial" relationship.
"Nevada and our nation are mourning a dedicated public servant and a truly one-of-a-kind U.S. Senator, my former colleague Harry Reid," McConnell wrote. "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."
Vice President Kamala Harris also praised Reid in a statement, calling him an "honorable public servant," who "got things done."
"Whenever we had a chance to speak, Leader Reid was kind, generous, and always to the point," Harris said. "Tonight, Landra and the entire Reid family are in our thoughts."
Despite a taciturn and soft-spoken demeanor, Reid's high profile in party leadership made him a political lightning rod. And he often kindled controversy with his willingness to sling insults and personal attacks against rivals, most recently drawing comparisons to Trump.
He famously blasted President George W. Bush as both a "liar" and a "loser," only later apologizing for the "loser" remark. On the Senate floor, Reid called Trump a "human leech" and attacked McConnell as a "poster boy for Republican spinelessness."
Reid was known for being frank and blunt, never one to worry about political correctness. He once suggested that no one of Hispanic heritage "could be a Republican," lashed out at sweaty and smelly tourists in the nation's capital, and called Bush's dog "fat" -- on a visit to the Oval Office.
In 2010, Reid wasforced to apologizefor disparaging Obama as "a light-skinned" Black man "with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one" during a 2008 campaign trail interview.
During the 2012 campaign, Reidattacked GOP presidential nomineeMitt Romney as a tax cheat -- without evidence. Fact checkers debunked the claim, but Reid remained unapologetic.
Republican leaders admonished Reid as heheaded for retirementin 2016. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas accused him of being a "cancerous leader" whose "ramblings" were "bitter, vulgar and incoherent." Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming characterized Reid's tenure as "failure, obstruction and gridlock."
"He was a plainspoken individual," said Manley, "and when he said something he meant it. Sometimes it got him in trouble, but I always found it refreshing."
For his part, Reid -- an amateur boxer -- never apologized for the fight.
"I don't have any regrets whatsoever about my efforts to push forward a Democratic agenda," he said at his final press conference on Capitol Hill in late 2016.
Reid retired to Nevada with his health in decline. He had suffered broken ribs, facial bones and loss of vision in his right eye after anexercising accident in 2015when a rubber resistance band snapped, hurling Reid into some gym cabinets.
In 2018, doctors discovered a tumor on Reid's pancreas andperformed surgery to remove it.
"As soon as you discover you have something on your pancreas, you're dead," Reid bluntlytold the New York Timesin an interview in January.
Reid often spoke of finding comfort in his Mormon faith and marriage of 60 years to wife Landra.
"Hand in hand, sweat on the brow, they've always moved forward together through it all," McConnell said in his 2016 tribute. The couple had five children and 19 grandchildren.
Friends and former associates say Reid was content with his retreat from the limelight -- surrounding himself with family -- but never surrendering a passion to be plugged in to politics.
Reid told longtime Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston, inone of his final interviews, that he had been offering advice to Democratic presidential hopefuls for 2020.
"I had one of the presidential wannabes call me, and she said, 'You know, I've heard so much about you and we've met, but it was very brief. Tell me, why do you think you've been successful?' I said, I've been successful because I've always been willing to take a chance," Reid told Ralston.
The senator from Searchlight could be a case study in taking a chance and defying the odds.
As Reid liked to tell it, the tiny Nevada mining town had "no mines and 13 brothels" when he was born in 1939 in the shadow of the Great Depression. His miner father committed suicide; his mother did laundry for the brothels in town. His childhood home has been described as a shack, with no toilet, running water or telephone.
The lack of health care facilities and schools in Searchlight forced the young Reid to seek an escape to a better life.
"He knows there are Searchlights all across the country," President Obamatold a Nevada radio stationof Reid in 2015. "There are kids just like he was, and he was fighting for them."
