Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave high praise to Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden in an interview published Thursday.
“He looks like a million bucks,” Reid, 79, said of Biden, 76, to the Daily Beast while discussing early Democratic debate performances. Reid addressed criticism Biden has received during his campaign, including from President Trump, asserting that he has “lost his fastball” in his older age. “I think anybody that attributes this to his age is just wrong,” said Reid. “He runs onto the stage. He looks like a million bucks. So I’m not going to do that.”
“Joe Biden has truly lost his fastball,” said Trump, 74, on Wednesday, after Biden gave campaign speech in Iowa that was heavily critical of the president.
Reid has thus far declined to endorse a Democratic presidential candidate from the pool of two dozen that are running. Recalling the history that he and Biden shared while working together under President Barack Obama, he also offered some criticism. Reid was not always pleased with Biden’s choices to negotiate with Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, and felt that some of the yielding on Democratic interests sapped their perceived leverage in the Senate. “That’s who he is,” Reid said of Biden, whom he’s known for 34 years. “He’s been always easy to get along with. And he was Obama’s guy to go work things out with McConnell on several occasions that I didn’t really appreciate.”
Reid was also disparaging of Biden’s persistent claim that he was able to work with Republicans, claiming that was no longer realistic in Washington. “I know he feels that way,” he said. “But for Trump, I think there would still be some of that going on. I think Trump has made it in improbable, if not impossible.”
While discussing his thoughts on the threat of climate change, Reid also stated that he would readily dismantle Senate rules to pass legislation. Reid suggested that he would remove filibustering and change voting rules to a simple majority if it would help pass climate legislation. “The answer is yes,” he said about lowering the 60-vote threshold. “[The] No. 1 priority is climate change. There’s nothing that affects my children, grandchildren, and their children, right now, more than climate.”
Some liberals have criticized Reid since his 2017 retirement for having led Senate Democrats to use the “nuclear option” to confirm executive branch and federal judge nominations made by Obama. The effort effectively ended filibustering in these nominations and lowered the voting threshold to a simple majority. McConnell extended the nuclear option in 2017 to include Supreme Court nominations, paving the way to confirm all Trump nominees without filibustering.
