Harry Reid's casket has been removed for departure after the late senator lay in state at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. He was only the 15th senator accorded the honor. His casket rested on the catafalque used for Abraham Lincoln.
was remembered Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol as a “legendary leader,” a hardscrabble Democrat who rose from poverty in a dusty Nevada mining town to deliver landmark legislation from the Senate’s most powerful position.
Reid served longer in Congress than anyone from his state and was the Senate majority leader alongside two presidents. He led the Senate during one of its more consequential legislative sessions, securing the economic recovery bill during the Great Recession and President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law.
The service was largely closed to the public under COVID-19 protocols, though former colleagues, staff and others streamed in to visit, most wearing masks. He was only the 15th senator have to had the honor; his casket rested on the catafalque used for Abraham Lincoln.Vice President Kamala Harris did not speak during the ceremony, but paused at the casket in tribute, as did the Republican leaders in Congress, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California.
Influential in retirement, Reid said that Biden won election, he should give his new presidency just three weeks to try to work with Republicans. If not, Biden should force changes in the“The time’s going to come when he’s going to have to move in and get rid of the filibuster,” ReidWith the Senate in difficult discussions this week on changes to the filibuster to push election and voting legislation past Republican objections, Schumer leaned on Reid’s legacy as a “steward of the Senate.
During Wednesday’s ceremony, Landra Reid held a black hat that her husband often wore in his final years, as she sat in the Rotunda with the couple’s five adult children. As she approached the casket, she set the hat beneath it under the Capitol dome, before placing a hand out in a kiss goodbye. A man of few words, Reid often wrote notes instead — to family, colleagues and a Nevada student advocate who had reached out on immigration law changes. He championed the Dream Act and Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to protect young immigrants in the U.S. without legal status from deportation.