Harry Reid’s 12 greatest hits (Video)

In honor of Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid’s announced 2017 departure from the Senate, The Daily Caller News Foundation has assembled just a few of the craziest, most insane, looniest things the gentleman from Nevada has shared with us over his decades in office. Herewith, Reid's greatest hits. 1. Oh, the Asian jokes… Reid apologized in August for for making a few offensive and super lame Asian jokes at an Asian Chamber of Commerce event. “I don’t think you’re smarter than everybody else, but you’ve convinced a lot of us you are,” Reid said to a few laughs. Then he quipped, “One problem I’ve had today is keeping my Wongs straight.” He later said the jokes were in very poor taste: “Sometimes I say the wrong thing.” 2. That thing he said about Obama… Reid personally apologized to President Barack Obama in 2010 for saying Obama’s “light-skin” and lack of “a Negro dialect” would help his presidential campaign in 2008. His comments were recorded in the book “Game Changer.” “He [Reid] was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama – a ‘light-skinned’ African American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,’ as he later put it privately.” Reid later said he “deeply regrets” using those words. https://youtu.be/kQnlcUN3qcQ 3. Nuking the Senate… In 2013, Reid damaged the Senate by changing the way judicial and executive nominees are confirmed. The move, known as the nuclear option, lowered the number of votes needed to confirm appointees from 60 to 51, which dealt a serious blow to the traditionally strong power of the minority party. The rule change allowed the Democrat-controlled Senate to push through several contentious appointees. 4. “That’s a clown question, bro”… Reid borrowed a then-viral line from a baseball player to deflect an immigration question in 2012, saying “That’s a clown question, bro.” The Nevada baseball player, Bryce Harper, had used the response to deflect a question about a game-winning home run, and his comment went viral. About a week later, a reporter asked Reid a question about immigration, and after a long pause he said, “I don’t want to answer that question. That’s a clown question, bro.” https://youtu.be/uOw9vMh8A6M 5. Just lying about Mitt… Reid made a completely unfounded accusation in 2012 that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney hadn’t paid his taxes. “He didn’t pay taxes for 10 years!” he told the Huffington Post. “Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain. But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it look?” The claim was based on an anonymous source and was later completely discredited. 6. That stinky American rabble… Reid expressed relief when the Capitol Visitor Center was completed in 2008 because he would no longer have to deal with smelly tourists. “My staff has always said, ‘Don’t say this,’ but I’m going to say it again because it’s so descriptive, because it’s true,’” he said at the dedication. “In the summertime, because [of] the high humidity and how hot it gets here, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol.” https://youtu.be/t1LRB-SpHrM 7. What’s an Internet…? After successfully shepherding Obamacare through the Senate, Reid had a hard time dealing with the law’s flawed implementation and blamed the horrendous roll out of Healthcare.gov on old people’s inability to comprehend and use the Internet. “There are some people who are not like my grandchildren, who can handle everything so easy on the Internet,” he explained in March of 2014. “And these people need a little extra time. The example they gave is, a 63-year-old woman came in and said ‘I almost got it, [but] every time I was just about got there, it would cut me off.’ We have a lot of people just like this, through no fault of the Internet, but because people are not educated on how to use the Internet,” he concluded.” 8. The Americans are lying thing… Reid also had a hard time dealing with the Obamacare horror stories that began to come in, and declared all of them to be complete lies. “There’s plenty of horror stories being told. All of them are untrue, but they’re being told all over America,” he said on the Senate floor in February 2014. “We heard about the evils of Obamacare, about the lives it’s ruining in Republican stump speeches, and in ads paid for by oil magnets, the Koch brothers,” he added. “But then those tales turned out to be just that: tales. Stories made up from whole cloth. Lies distorted by Republicans to grab headlines or make political advertisements.” A month later, Reid denied he “never said a word” on the floor about those Obamacare stories. https://youtu.be/6zUhgnTWn_o 9. That Koch addiction… On the topic of Charles and David Koch, Reid became completely obsessed with the wealthy conservative brothers. His Koch addiction even affected his professional life, taking over his Senate website. He posted a list of “facts” about the brothers, violating strict rules prohibiting the use of senators’ .gov websites for personal or political purposes. Reid later removed the piece under pressure. 10. No Hispanics Allowed… While campaigning in Nevada in 2010, Reid spoke incredulously of Hispanic Republicans. “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK,” he said to an audience full of Hispanic voters. “Do I need to say more?” https://youtu.be/0PqpMOk1gW8 11. Clarence Thomas is what now? Following the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision last year to allow for-profit businesses not to provide their employees with contraceptives on religious grounds, Reid let it slip that he thinks Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is white. “This Hobby Lobby decision is outrageous, and we’re going to do something about it,” he told reporters. The Senate will act to “ensure that women’s lives are not determined by virtue of five white men,” he said. But Thomas, one of the five justices who sided with Hobby Lobby, is black. Whoops. 12. A Lesson in anarchy In 2013, Reid said the tea party is an anarchist movement comparable to the violent anarchists some say started World War I. “They did damage to property and they did physical damage to people,” he said in an interview on KNPR. “The modern anarchists don’t do that — that’s the tea party,” he admitted. “But they have the same philosophy as the early anarchists: They do not believe in government. Anytime something bad happens to government, that’s a victory for them. And that’s what happened. We have absolute gridlock created by a group of people who represent few Americans.” Americans shouldn’t get too sad, though: Reid assured us he’s not going anywhere for the next 22 months. This report, by Rachel Stoltzfoo, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Harry Reid’s 12 greatest hits (Video)

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