Reid: 'I Really Do Believe President Bush Is the Worst President We've Ever Had'

Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress at 9:22 AM on January 5, 2009.

In early 2006, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said of President Bush: “I really do believe this man will go down as the worst president this country has ever had.” Sunday morning on Meet the Press, host David Gregory asked Reid whether he regrets making that statement. Reid refused to back down. “I think you just have to call things the way you see them,” he said. “I really do believe President Bush is the worst president we’ve ever had.”

Transcript:

GREGORY: Before you go, do you have any regrets about the way you have publicly battled with President Bush?

Over the years you’ve called him a liar, a loser, and you’ve described him as, quote, our worst president ever.

REID: I wrote a book and I said that in the book several times. David, I am who I am. I’m going to continue being who I am. I think you just have to call things the way you see them.

I really do believe that President Bush is the worst president we’ve ever had. I think his efforts to destroy Social Security were very bad. That brought about one of those statements.

I think, as we’ve looked, now, at what’s happened to the stock market, wouldn’t that have been an awful thing to do, to privatize Social Security?

Medicare — he’s done his very best to destroy Medicare, Medicare, a wonderful program. Perfect? Of course not, but one of the best programs ever developed to take care of sick people, so…

GREGORY: No regrets?

REID: Well, you know, I am just who I am.

UPDATE: White House Press Secretary Dana Perino issued a terse response to Reid's statement. "The Senate Majority Leader isn't really taken seriously," she said.

Tagged as: george bush, harry reid

Faiz Shakir is the Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Editor of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report.