”Harry, this is Barack.” Reid gets a surprise phone call on Nevada Public Radio
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Andrew Prokop is a senior politics correspondent at Vox, covering the White House, elections, and political scandals and investigations. He’s worked at Vox since the site’s launch in 2014, and before that, he worked as a research assistant at the New Yorker’s Washington, DC, bureau.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has been doing a series of interviews since announcing his retirement earlier today. And in an appearance on KNPR this morning, a surprise guest called in — President Obama.
“Harry, this is Barack.” Obama said. “Well, I’ll be damned,” Reid responded. “Are you allowed to say that on live radio?” the president teased.
Obama went on to praise Reid for his “curmudgeonly charm,” and for not forgetting his roots in Searchlight, Nevada. He added, “Harry, I hope you don’t mind if I say this — there are a lot of folks who are slicker and give smoother TV interviews, but in terms of somebody who’s got heart, and cares about ordinary people trying to chase the American dream, I don’t think there’s been anybody ever.”
Reid responded by doing a bit of bragging. “The records will be written about the eight years of Obama and Reid,” he said. “Never in the history of the country have we produced more for a president and somebody who’s led his party than we’ve done together.” Listen to the full segment above, and read more about Reid’s legacy from Ezra Klein here.
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