Politics
Commentary: They were like oil and water. Then Harry Reid wanted someone to tell his life story
To say Harry Reid and Jon Ralston had a fraught relationship is like suggesting Arabs and Israelis haven’t always been on the best of terms.
Or there’s a wee bit of tension between fans of the L.A. Dodgers and San Francisco Giants.
Reid, the former Senate majority leader and most powerful and important lawmaker ever to emerge from Nevada, went for long periods without speaking to Ralston, the state’s most prominent and highly regarded political journalist. Beyond that, Reid tried several times to get Ralston fired, finally succeeding when he was unceremoniously dumped by the TV stations that for years broadcast Ralston’s statewide public affairs program.
And yet when it came time to etch his name in history, Reid summoned Ralston and asked him to write his biography.
“He said, ‘Jon, you and I have something in common. We’re both survivors,’ ” Ralston recounted last week, laughing at the memory of their 2021 conversation.
“Which I thought was quite ironic, since he had tried to make sure I didn’t survive in my job several times. But he said, ‘You’re the only one who can do this book right. … I know I’m not going to like everything you write, but I want you to do the book.’ ”
The moment speaks to the quintessence of Reid, a flinty product of Nevada’s hardpan desert, who was famously unflinching and unsentimental in his pursuit and application of political power.
Reid, who died a little over four years ago, was a paradoxical mix of pugilism and self-effacement: cunning, ruthless and, at times, surprisingly tender-hearted. Beneath the bland exterior of a country parson, all soft-spoken solemnity, beat the heart of a bare-fisted brawler.
In short, he was an irresistible subject for a longtime student of politics like Ralston, whose book, “The Game Changer,” comes out Tuesday.
“I think there was a mutual respect there,” Ralston said of his parry-and-thrust relationship with Reid, who left the Senate in 2017 after more than 30 years on Capitol Hill. “Not to sound like an egoist, but he knew that I chronicled him in a way that nobody else did and recognized things about him that no one else did.”
Ralston took up the subject with no constraints.
Reid, who died about six months after asking Ralston to pen his biography, sat for two dozen interviews. He encouraged family, friends and former staffers to cooperate with Ralston. He granted unlimited access to his voluminous records — 12 million digital files and 100 boxes archived at the University of Nevada, Reno — including personal correspondence and internal emails. (Those include the senator and his chief of staff gleefully celebrating Ralston’s professional setbacks.)
The result is the definitive work — clear-eyed, evenhanded — on Reid and his legacy, which includes passage of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, if you prefer; the survival of the Las Vegas Strip during the Great Recession, and, most controversially, the Senate’s abandonment of the filibuster for presidential nominees, which eventually led to today’s Trump-stacked Supreme Court.
(Full disclosure: Your friendly columnist read the book in galley form and provided a favorable blurb that appears on the back cover.)
The biography recounts standard Reid lore.
The hardscrabble upbringing in Searchlight, Nev., a pinpoint about an hour’s drive south of Las Vegas. His hitchhiking, 40-mile commute to attend high school in Henderson. His years as an amateur boxer — and scuffle with his future father in law — and work as a Capitol police officer while attending law school in Washington, D.C. The car-bomb attempt on Reid’s life, connected to his work on the Nevada Gaming Commission.
And, of course, his oft-stumbling climb through the ranks of Nevada politics, which included a failed bid for Las Vegas mayor, a U.S. Senate contest he lost by fewer than 700 votes and another Reid won by fewer than 500.
Ralston, of course, was well-versed in that history, having written much of it. (Today, he serves as chief executive of the Nevada Independent, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news and opinion website he founded in 2017.)
Even as the world’s foremost Reid-ologist, as Ralston jokingly calls himself, there were things that surprised him.
He was unaware of the length and depth of an FBI probe, conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s, into Reid over purported mob ties and other alleged improprieties. “He was never indicted or charged or anything,” Ralston said, “but they clearly were after him.”
And he had no idea of Reid’s prolific penmanship.
“Hundreds, maybe thousands of [notes and letters] … to friends, to colleagues in the Senate, to journalists and others,” Ralston said. “That really is something that’s not known about Harry Reid, how he established personal connections with people, which helped him become the effective leader that he was in the U.S. Senate.”
Even after decades of covering Reid, and years devoted to researching his biography, Ralston won’t presume to say he knows exactly what made him tick — though he suggested Reid’s impoverished, trauma-filled childhood had a lasting impact.
“He was an incredibly driven person,” Ralson said, “who went right up the line and, some would say over it, in trying to achieve what he thought was best for himself, for his party, for his country, for his friends, for his family.”
Along with that determination, Reid had an industrial-strength capacity to relinquish hard feelings, forget old animosities and move on. So, too, does Ralston. Their clashes were “just business,” Ralston said, and nothing he took personally.
The result is an improbable collaboration that produced an insightful examination and worthy coda to a remarkable career.
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FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans are pressing the Trump administration for answers over whether China is exploiting U.S. birthright citizenship and visa programs in a U.S. territory to secure long-term influence inside the United States.
In a letter sent Monday to outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., and 32 other GOP members raise concerns that so-called “birth tourism” and visa-waiver policies in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands could be leveraged by Chinese nationals in ways that present national security risks.
Noem will leave her position at the Department of Homeland Security at the end of the month.
“American citizenship is a sacred trust—not a loophole to be exploited. When foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party can leverage birth tourism and visa-less programs to gain influence within our borders, we must restore integrity to our immigration system and defend the sovereignty of our Republic,” Roy said.
Tiffany argued that “Communist China has exploited ‘birth tourism’ by sending women to the Northern Mariana Islands solely to give birth and secure U.S. citizenship for their children,” adding that “It is time to close this loophole, end the abuse, and protect our national security.”
TRUMP SAYS SUPREME COURT RULING AGAINST BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER WOULD BENEFIT CHINA
House Republicans are pressing the Trump administration for answers over whether China is exploiting U.S. birthright citizenship and visa programs in a U.S. territory to secure long-term influence inside the United States. (GemStocks/Getty Images )
The Northern Mariana Islands is a U.S. territory in the Pacific, and like births in any U.S. state, children born there are granted American citizenship under the 14th Amendment, even though the territory operates under certain distinct immigration rules.
The lawmakers cite reports estimating that between 750,000 and 1.5 million Chinese nationals have obtained U.S. citizenship through birthright policies and birth tourism, though federal agencies have not publicly confirmed those figures. In their letter, Roy and Tiffany ask the Departments of Homeland Security, State and Interior to provide data on how many children have been born since 2009 to at least one Chinese national parent, how many have reached voting age, and how many are registered to vote in the United States.
They also ask whether any such individuals have documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party and request entry figures for Chinese nationals under Northern Mariana-specific immigration programs.
Under the 14th Amendment, individuals born on U.S. soil are generally granted citizenship at birth. The debate has centered on whether foreign nationals travel to the United States specifically to give birth so their children will obtain citizenship — a practice commonly referred to as birth tourism.
Federal prosecutors in recent years have brought criminal cases against operators of birth tourism businesses, particularly in California, where organizers were convicted of visa fraud and conspiracy for helping foreign nationals misrepresent their travel intentions in order to give birth in the United States.
The Northern Mariana Islands have long operated under distinct immigration frameworks. In 2009, the Obama administration implemented a categorical parole program allowing certain Chinese nationals to enter without obtaining a traditional U.S. tourist visa. The Biden administration in 2024 finalized a rule creating the Economic Vitality & Security Travel Authorization Program (EVS-TAP) for the Northern Mariana Islands, which allows certain Chinese nationals to enter the territory visa-free for short stays.
In a letter sent to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., and 32 other GOP members raise concerns that so-called “birth tourism” and visa-waiver policies in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) could be leveraged by Chinese nationals in ways that present national security risks. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Tiffany argued that “Communist China has exploited ‘birth tourism’ by sending women to the Northern Mariana Islands solely to give birth and secure U.S. citizenship for their children,” adding that “It is time to close this loophole, end the abuse, and protect our national security.” (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)
The lawmakers argue those policies created incentives for birth tourism in Saipan, the capital of the islands, pointing to reports that births to foreign visitors increased sharply after the 2009 changes.
NOEM BACKS SAVE AMERICA ACT, SLAMS ‘RADICAL LEFT’ OPPOSITION TO VOTER IDS AND PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP
They warn that once U.S.-born children turn 21, they can petition for lawful permanent resident status for their parents, potentially opening additional immigration pathways.
While the letter raises concerns that such individuals could eventually participate in U.S. elections, it does not cite evidence that large numbers are currently registered to vote or that the Chinese government has directed birth tourism as a coordinated strategy.
The Departments of Homeland Security and Interior did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. The State Department referred back to the Department of Homeland Security.
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The letter comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing, with U.S. officials repeatedly warning about Chinese influence operations, intellectual property theft and espionage efforts targeting American institutions.
Roy and Tiffany urged the administration to end any parole or visa-waiver programs extended to Chinese nationals in the Northern Mariana Islands and to provide a full accounting of the scope of birth tourism involving PRC nationals.
The Chinese embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.
Scott MacFarlane, a high-profile hire for CBS News five years ago, announced Monday he is leaving the network.
MacFarlane told colleagues in an email that the departure is his decision.
“I will always value the opportunity I had to work alongside the talented and committed professionals here,” MacFarlane said. “I’m proud to have had the words ‘CBS correspondent’ next to my name and always will be.”
MacFarlane added that he looks forward to “some independence and finding new spaces to share my work in line with my personal goals.”
MacFarlane is the first significant name to depart CBS News since parent company Paramount won its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery on Feb. 27. CBS News is likely to be combined with Warner Bros. Discovery’s CNN if the deal gets regulatory approval.
Journalists at CBS News have also been concerned over the moves by Bari Weiss, the contrarian opinion writer and founder of the digital news site the Free Press who was brought in as editor in chief of the division. Weiss was recruited by Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison with a mandate to move CBS News to the political center.
Weiss is expected to make significant changes to “60 Minutes” and other CBS News programs in the coming months.
Executives at other TV news organizations say privately that they are seeing a heavy influx of resumes from CBS News journalists due to the upheaval at the company.
MacFarlane covered Congress and the Justice Department. CBS viewers saw him featured during extended network coverage of the State of the Union addresses and election nights.
MacFarlane was in Butler, Pa., during the assassination attempt of President Trump in July 2024. He reported the first accounts of the shooting scene and emergency responses moments after the shots were fired.
Before arriving at CBS News, MacFarlane served for eight years as an investigative reporter for WRC-TV, the NBC station in Washington, D.C.
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Fresh satellite images give a rare aerial view of the damage across Iran after U.S.-Israeli strikes and what Tehran’s retaliation left behind across the region.
Planet Labs satellite imagery captured burning ships and damaged facilities at the Konarak base in southern Iran, as well as significant destruction at Iran’s naval headquarters in Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf, reflecting the scale of the strikes on military infrastructure.
Satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows damage at Konarak naval base in southern Iran, left, and Iran’s Bandar Abbas naval headquarters in the Persian Gulf, right. (Planet Labs PBC)
Imagery from Vantor shows damage to facilities and vessels located in Iran’s Bushehr port in the Persian Gulf.
In addition to naval assets, satellite photos show a bunker at Bushehr air base hit by a strike, leaving a large crater and destroying several nearby small buildings.
More strikes targeted the Choqa Balk drone facility in western Iran.
Radar systems at the Zahedan air base in eastern Iran — near the country’s borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan — were also struck.
The two facilities are about 800 to 900 miles apart, underscoring the broad reach of the coordinated strikes.
Satellite imagery also reveals damage to aircraft on the tarmac at Shiraz air base, including scorch marks and debris around several parking areas.
Side-by-side photos showing damage to aircraft at Shiraz air base in Shiraz, Iran on March 6, 2026. (Vantor/Maxar/Getty Images)
Satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows thick smoke plumes rising above Tehran, signaling explosions and fires inside the Iranian capital.
The smoke underscores how the conflict has moved beyond isolated military sites and into the heart of Iran’s political center.
THE UNLIKELY TOOL TRUMP IS EYEING TO TACKLE RISING OIL PRICES AMID THE IRAN CONFLICT
A satellite image from Planet Labs shows a plume of smoke above Tehran, Iran, on March 1, 2026. (Planet Labs PBC)
Iran has since responded with missile and drone strikes of its own, expanding the conflict across the region.
Satellite images reveal damage to the port city of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Sharjah is the third most populous after Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
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The Jebel Ali Port, the region’s largest maritime hub, was also targeted, underscoring how the retaliation extended beyond military sites to key infrastructure.
The new satellite imagery comes on the heels of U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several top members of the regime, triggering a succession crisis.
President Donald Trump warned on Sunday that Iran’s new leader is “not going to last long” without U.S. approval as Operation Epic Fury marches into a third week.
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