Harry Reid Don’t Care If You’re Mad About His New Hampshire Diss

Senator Harry Reid CNN Democratic Presidential Debate, Las Vegas, America - 13 Oct 2015 (Rex Features via AP Images)
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Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has brought on the wrath of New Hampshire Republicans and Democrats alike by suggesting that the Granite State, along with Iowa, does not deserve its early primary state status considering its lack of diversity.

And he doesn’t care if those remarks have early staters in a tizzy.

Unlike so many politicians who pander to New Hampshire and Iowa, Reid — who is not running for reelection to his Senate seat — dug in and did not yield on his comments.

Reid “apologized” Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters in Las Vegas, “New Hampshire is heavily populated and loaded with a lot of minorities, my apologies.”

The fuss started at a Monday evening panel sponsored by the Washington Post in Las Vegas, during which Reid said he was “terribly upset about how we chose our presidents.”

“You go to New Hampshire and there are no minorities there and nobody lives there and there are no minorities,” Reid said, in remarks that were posted online by a GOP Super PAC. “You go to Iowa and there are a few people there but again that does not demonstrate what America is all about for different reasons.”

By Tuesday morning, New Hampshire’s Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan — whom Reid reportedly recruited to run for a Senate seat in 2016 (reports Reid’s office denied) — issued a statement called his comments “insulting” and demanded an apology.

“Our first-in-the-nation primary is a cherished responsibility for Granite Staters, a responsibility we hold because we invented it, and because we do it exceptionally well,” the statement said, according to WMUR Manchester.

The state’s Republican and Democratic senators both also condemned the remarks.

“Harry Reid knows nothing about New Hampshire, our people, or the important role we play in vetting presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) said, according to WMUR.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), meanwhile, told reporters Reid, “doesn’t understand the New Hampshire primary and why it is so important to the presidential selection process.”

“And clearly he hasn’t been to New Hampshire,” she said, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.

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