Nope, it's more complicated than that: e = 'before' try: x = int('cat') except Exception as e: e2 = e print(e) print(e2

Nope, it's more complicated than that: e = 'before' try: x = int('cat') except Exception as e: e2 = e print(e) print(e2) # <- This works! print(e) # <- NameError: name 'e' is not defined It's not a scoping thing, the bound exception variable is actually deleted after the exception block, even if it was already bound before!