Biden to visit Las Vegas for Harry Reid memorial service

President Joe Biden will visit Las Vegas this weekend to attend a memorial service for former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the White House announced on Tuesday.

The trip will mark Biden’s first visit to Nevada as president. First lady Jill Biden will join the president in honoring the late Senate majority leader, according to an official statement.

“If Harry said he would do something, he did it,” Biden said in a statement after Reid’s death on Dec. 28. “If he gave you his word, you could bank on it. That’s how he got things done for the good of the country for decades.”

Reid, the most powerful Nevadan to ever hold office in Washington, D.C., died last week after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 82.

The service for Reid is planned for 11 a.m. Saturday at the Smith Center in downtown Las Vegas. Tickets for the service will be distributed through Reid’s office, not the venue.

Biden served for years in the Senate with Reid, and worked closely with him on initiatives when Reid was Senate majority leader and Biden was vice president. Biden once described Reid to a reporter as having a “spine of steel.”

“A son of Searchlight, Nevada, Harry never forgot his humble roots,” Biden said in his statement last week. “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.”

Next week, Reid will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, a rare honor reserved for the nation’s most eminent citizens. Reid will be the first Nevadan to be accorded the honor, according to a list maintained on the House of Representatives website.

Due to the pandemic, the ceremony in Washington will be limited to invited guests only.

In a statement announcing the honor, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Reid a “titan of public service” who fought relentlessly for working families.

She said Reid was one of the most consequential Senate majority leaders in history and credited him with rescuing the economy during the Great Recession and moving the country closer to universal health coverage.

Reid played an outsized role in the passage of the Affordable Care Act, mustering a shaky 60-vote majority to passing then-President Barack Obama’s signature achievement. The former president also credited Reid with suggesting that Obama could become president after a short tenure in the U.S. Senate.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.