President Harry Reid

Or so boxer Mike Tyson believes:

My friend @senatorreid has had an amazing journey from Searchlight to the White House. Read his memoir it’s compelling and funny.

— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) April 3, 2013

Tyson has been lobbying the majority leader and the White House to pardon Jack Johnson, the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champ who served time in the early 20th century for a racially charged case in which he was convicted of violating the Mann Act for “transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes.”

Pleased to meet Champ @miketyson yesterday,talked about the importance of pardoning former boxing great Jack Johnson twitter.com/SenatorReid/st…

— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) April 3, 2013

The cause has actually been a Republican one. In the beginning of President Obama’s first term, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) pushed for a presidential pardon, and Congress passed a resolution in July 2009 urging Obama to grant one.

Tyson also liked hanging out with Reid for other reasons:

.@senatorreid boxed in the amateurs.. he is quite the boxing historian. An all around great person.

— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) April 3, 2013