Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Thursday called Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters “domestic terrorists” at an event sponsored by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, according to reporter Jon Ralston.
.@SenatorReid says Bundy “does not recognize the United States.” Calls armed folks who backed him ” domestic terrorists.” Wow.
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) April 17, 2014
“What happened in Mesquite was domestic terrorism.” @SenatorReid
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) April 17, 2014
“These people who hold themselves out to be patriots are not. They are domestic terrorists.” @SenatorReid clearly prepared that line.
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) April 17, 2014
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has been in dispute with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing fees on federal lands. Because Bundy hasn’t paid the fees for 20 years, federal authorities began to round up his cattle earlier this month.
Over the weekend, Bundy gathered more than 1,000 people, some of them armed, to protest the BLM. Federal authorities backed off, and Bundy then declared victory over the government.
On Monday, Reid said that the showdown was “not over.”
“We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it. So it’s not over,” he told Las Vegas TV station KRNV.
The conservative media has been hyping the standoff. Alex Jones’ website InfoWars called the “surrender” by the federal government “historic.” And Breitbart News called the showdown, “THE SAGA OF BUNDY RANCH — FEDERAL POWER, RULE OF LAW AND AVERTING POTENTIAL BLOODSHED.”
A writer for National Review compared Cliven Bundy to Mahatma Gandhi. And former sheriff Richard Mack likened Bundy’s militia to Rosa Parks and the federal authorities to Nazi soldiers.
This post has been updated.
