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U.S. Senator Harry Reid raises millions of dollars from trial lawyers in Canada

July, 2015Montreal, Canada

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HARRY REID SPEECHTranscript

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2:00:30

Linda Lipsen:

Hello-- can everyone hear me. Can I have your attention Senator Reid. Are you in the dock? Would you mind coming up? Can you come up closer? This is an incredibly special event.

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We are so proud and privileged to have Senator Reid with us today. I want to first recognize all the past presidents who are here. And I want to recognize Senator Schatz. Where are you? And he's going to be the next senator from Hawaii. Matt Cartwright where are you. Matt? Matt. Matt. Matt. Matt Cartwright, great congressman from Pennsylvania is also in the house(applause)

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Ok. I have the floor. And I'm going to use it. I'd like everybody's attention. I fought for the right to come up here to introduce this great man. In 1993, when I started with ATLA, I learned that I would have a month and one half to put together 41 votes to defeat the products liability bill, which was a 1,400 page bill that would have deprived every American in this country from getting their remedies in court if they were injured by a dangerously defective product.

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At the time, we didn't know where the votes were. So I started counting the votes. I was a baby lobbyist. I started counting the votes. We had 29 votes. We needed 41. We had about a month and one half to get them. So we were talking to every member of the senate-- every single one.

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So I brought in our president at the time, Rich Hailey. And Rich had studied and studied the bill. And Rich knew everything about the bill. And he was ready for his opening argument. And we went to see Senator Harry Reid. Senator Reid came out into the anteroom. After about a half an hour, (Rich) was still preparing. I was a little bit worried about this.

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Senator Reid came out into the anteroom and said the following. "I'm with you. I will always be with you." And he always has been. (applause)

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Now- Rich Hailey, who had studied and prepared, wanted to follow Senator Reid into the next meeting because he hadn't gotten his argument through. And I said-- "we're good. we're good." So the bill happened. We got 41 votes.

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And Senator Harry Reid has been protecting your clients ever since-- ever since. Whether it be cases involving slip-and-fall. Whether it be cases involving very complicated products liability. Whether it be class actions. Whether it be securities cases. Senator Reid has been our biggest champion. On asbestos. On asbestos we won by one vote. One vote.

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Why did we win by one vote? Because Senator Reid asked Senator Inouye to take a walk. One vote. One vote-- Senator Reid. If not for Senator Reid, every victim in this country of asbestos poisoning would have no remedy and no rights. Senator Reid did that. It's unbelievable. (applause) Unbelievable. (applause)

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So. A month and a half ago or two months ago, I was driving in my car and I heard on the radio that Senator Reid wasn't going to run again, and I nearly ran off the road. And I thought. I gathered my composure and I called him and said 'how can we acknowledge you. how can we acknowledge you. We want to acknowledge you.'

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And he said- you know what. He thought about it for a second actually and he said, there's one thing you can do for me. You can get the gavel back. You can get the Senate back. I want you to know that this room. This ballroom is the fortification ballroom. Right. How apt.

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So today, in this room, we have raised over one million dollars. We have raises over one million dollars to do the thing Senator Reid asked us to do. Which ho will celebrate the tort system, will celebrate the clients, who will preserve the system we hold dear."

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I know he hates this. He's going to hate this whole night because we're going to say such nice things about him. He's going to be hating us, but we're going to be loving him. And you're just going to have to listen.

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We have an award for the senator. It's the champion of civil justice award. We usually-- we give this so rarely to members of the Senate or members of the House who do exemplary work. And I honestly do not have enough adjectives to describe this man. Please help me welcome the great senator Harry Reid. (applause for 20 seconds)

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U.S. Senator Harry Reid:

My youngest boy has four little girls. And they're just-- they're just the greatest little kids. And as all parents should do, he and his wife gave each kid some jobs to do... to make dollars. Pick up your toys, help with the dishes, make your bed and all that kind of stuff.

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... Until the second oldest, basically went on a strike. So my daughter-in-law Nicole went to my son and said, when you get home you need to have a conversation. So he did.. and he said "what's going on?" Your sisters are doing everything they are supposed to do, and you've just decided to do nothing, what's the matter with you? And she said-- "Dad, I just don't need the money." (laughter)

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Well. Linda, we need the money. What's happened with Citizens United is its oppressed. The money that you give to the DSCC is money that can be spent on statutory limits.. where there are statutory limits.

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The super PAC money-- and there are people in this room who have been very generous and have helped Susan and Rebecca with that money. All that super PAC money that comes in from all those people-- the Koch brothers and others-- the TV stations see that coming, and they can charge them whatever they want.

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So the money that you give here-- over a million dollars-- will be multiplied so many times compared to that super pac money so-- thank you all very very much. Brian thank you for being here.. Brian you need to pay attention (laughter). Brian is a good senator. Such a wonderful replacement. He's as nice as Dan and that says a lot. In the years to come he will become a power in the Senate.

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My experience in the law is something I will always cherish. There's nothing like waiting for those juries to come back. Nothing like it. Like most of you, in my life I tried a lot of cases in front of juries-- more than one hundred cases. And (music interrupts). We've all had experiences trying to get something... we've all waited for these juries.

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But you've got a jury that's coming off eighteen months, 16 in the senate. Because it is so important that you retake the senate.

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I met with a man from New Jersey here in this building. And he said-- here's the deal-- five vacancies on the federal bench. They're overworked; they simply cannot do the work they need to do. And the Republicans-- want no judges. They don't care. They are hoping Obama's successor will be Ted Cruz. We need four seats to retake the senate. Four. And we can do that.