Harry Reid supports Hillary Clinton for president

The Washington Post

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said yesterday he backs Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination over his colleague, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

“Hillary Clinton has spent decades fighting for middle class Americans and standing up for our nation’s values at home and abroad. She is the right person to be the first woman president of the United States, and she is the best person to lead our country,” Reid said in a statement.

He cited her “proven record of accomplishment” and said she would be able to “fight partisan Republican gridlock and get things done for the American people.”

Reid is expected to campaign for Clinton, although no plans were announced yesterday.

“Proud to have Senator Reid on this team,” Clinton tweeted, over the image of a smiling Reid.

Reid first announced his endorsement on CNN, four days after Clinton won the Democratic caucus vote in Reid’s native Nevada. He had remained publicly neutral ahead of the caucus vote.

Reid said he wants to see Democrats unite behind Clinton.

“I think the middle class would be better served by Hillary,” Reid said on CNN.

“I think that my work with her over the years has been something that I have looked upon with awe. She was the first lady. She started the trend toward looking to do something about health care. She understood the issue well; she was the front on the health care during that administration,” he said.

In Kansas City, Missouri, meanwhile, a largely young and fully adoring crowd heard Sanders’ pitch for an economy no longer “rigged” for the rich and a political system less moved by money. The midday speech to several thousand at Bartle Hall focused on his usual themes of economic inequality.

“Wall Street is getting nervous,” Sanders said, his outer-borough New York drawl distinct amid Midwestern supporters. “We have taken on the political establishment. We have taken on the media establishment. We are gaining momentum every single day.”

The Vermont senator arrived shortly after losing last week’s Nevada caucuses, needing to turn things around quickly to pose a serious threat to Clinton. Yet he brimmed with electoral optimism.

The age of the crowd was clear when Sanders talked about the burden of college debt, which drew a more thunderous applause than when he said people on Social Security were struggling to get by on “$11,000 or $12,000 a year.” With the Kansas City Star (TNS