Tensions between Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) boiled over during a congressional meeting Wednesday, when the two lawmakers reportedly got in a verbal confrontation where Reid told Grayson he wants him to lose his Senate race.
Reid’s animosity for Grayson’s bid to fill Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) open seat is well-documented, and Grayson appeared at the Progressive Caucus meeting with a copy of a February statement from Reid slamming him as having “no moral compass.”
Each member took their chance to speak to Reid, who was invited to appear at Wednesday’s meeting. When Grayson had the floor, he asked Reid if he was aware of who he was. Two anonymous sources in the room told Politico Grayson demanded: “Say my name, senator. Say my name.”
Then caucus chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) tried to intervene, saying, “Why are you doing that? This is so stupid,” as quoted by The Hill.
Grayson was reportedly undeterred and waved the copy of Reid’s statement, which also branded the congressman “disgraceful” and called for him to leave the Senate race over an ongoing ethics probe into allegations that he used his office to boost a hedge fund based in the Cayman Islands.
Politico reported that Grayson said the statement was false and asked Reid, “Why’d you say that?”
The disruption caused Ellison and other members to end the meeting early.
Reid put out a scathing statement after the meeting, saying he simply used Grayson’s “disruption” to express his “low opinion” of the congressman.
“Alan Grayson decided to be disruptive, to the embarrassment of his fellow colleagues,” Kristen Orthman, a spokesperson for Reid, said in the statement. “Sen. Reid took the opportunity to express his low opinion of Congressman Grayson to his face and remind him that the reason Senator Reid has said that Grayson is under ethics investigation and appears to be running a Cayman Islands hedge fund from his Congressional office in order to line his own pockets is because these things are true, as established by seventy-four pages’ worth of evidence from the Congressional Ethics Committee.”
In an emailed statement from his campaign, Grayson said he was using a rare opportunity to call out Reid’s “lies.”
“I had a rare moment to challenge the lies that Sen. Reid has spread about me, and Sen. Reid made it clear that he’s too heavily invested in the Republican sock puppet he’s calling a Democratic Senate candidate to consider the truth of the matter,” Grayson said in the statement provided to TPM. “Sen. Reid ought to learn that ‘I want you to lose’ is no excuse for a gross smear. But the air is cleared.”
In a statement provided to TPM, Grayson’s office shot back: “I have a low opinion of Reid’s low opinion.”
Grayson also slammed the “corrupt Establishment” in a tweet Wednesday afternoon. Reid and other party leaders have backed U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy in the Democratic Florida primary.
You may be wondering why the corrupt Establishment is so hell bent on defeating me. The reason is simple: they don’t own me. They hate that.
— Rep. Alan Grayson (@AlanGrayson) May 11, 2016
Correction: This story originally misstated Ellison’s party. He is a Democrat. This post has been updated.
This guy is a loose canon, the Democrats’ Donald Trump. I only hope we have the good sense not to nominate him.
well all else fails, blame the establishment.
Too bad. Grayson is formidable and bright. I hope these two make peace, assuming Grayson is clean.
I like Grayson but sometimes he comes across as self-entitled.
Cannot wait until this f*cking meathead is gone. He’s nothing more than a loudmouth freak. Many of the so-called progressives love him because he gets up in people’s faces and can be used as an attack dog on the Rethugs. As far as I’m concerned, it ain’t worth it.
From what I’ve heard of him, Murphy will make a good Senator for the state of Florida.