“I've been through an impeachment, and they're not pleasant,” Harry Reid told MSNBC in his first network interview since leaving Congress in 2017. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Reid warns Democrats to lay off impeachment talk 'I think the less we talk about impeachment, the better off we are as a country,' the former party leader said.

Former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid cautioned Democrats to ratchet down talk of impeaching President Donald Trump ahead of November’s midterm elections, warning such rhetoric could further divide a politically splintered nation.

“I've been through an impeachment, and they’re not pleasant,” the Nevada Democrat told MSNBC in his first network interview since leaving Congress in 2017. “And I think the less we talk about impeachment, the better off we are as a country.”


Reid ascended to Senate leadership in 1999, taking over the role of Democratic Whip amid lawmakers’ contentious debate to remove then-President Bill Clinton from office. Reid consolidated power as his party’s whip until 2005, when he replaced outgoing Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) as minority leader.

“I've been through impeachment — I was a brand-new whip at the time,” Reid said. “I’d never sat down in the front row. I mean, the Supreme Court was right ahead of me. [Chief Justice of the United States William] Rehnquist was right up there. I felt so nervous. Everything going on was right in front of me.”

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Reid also revealed that he feels vindicated in his decision to send a letter to James Comey on Oct. 30, 2016, alleging the former FBI director “may have broken the law” in his handling of the Clinton email probe ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election.

On Oct. 28, 2016, Comey had informed lawmakers that his department discovered new evidence regarding a probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails after the FBI had previously cleared her that summer.

“Well, I’m right,” Reid told MSNBC. “People talk about how right I was. I was right. And I’m glad [Comey] has his day in the sun, but that doesn’t take away from what I thought happened in the election. With the Russia investigation, I wish the federal government of the United States had done more. But the good work has been done by the press, not the federal government.”

