Senate Majority Leader: McGovern A 'Great Patriot'

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid remembers ex-U.S. Sen. George McGovern as a "great patriot" who worked tirelessly for social justice.

Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, released a statement in the wake of McGovern's Sunday death. He says his relationship with McGovern dates back decades to his time as Nevada's lieutenant governor, when Reid helped campaign for McGovern in his failed 1972 presidential bid.

Reid says, "As the Democratic nominee for president, Sen. McGovern put principle over politics and stood up for what he believed in."

He praises McGovern for shifting his focus after his landslide loss to Richard Nixon to his life's passion: poverty and hunger around the world.

Reid says that the "forces of social justice lost a great fighter" with McGovern's death.