Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Wednesday quickly walked back a comment about rooting for Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, calling it a joke from the Senate floor.
“Look we’ve gotten along fine,” Reid said of Trump at a press conference at the Capitol, according to The Hill. “With that bunch of people running, I’m kind of pulling for him.”
But soon after he made those remarks, Reid clarified from the Senate floor that he was just “trying to be funny.”
“Obviously it wasn’t very funny, Schumer kicked me in the back leg,” he said, adding: “I’m watching with pleasure the Republicans fumbling around. …I just think it has made a mockery of our Republican Party.”
He also called Trump a “hateful demagogue who will do immeasurable damage to our country.”
“There’s some things I shouldn’t joke about,” Reid said. “The danger of a Donald Trump candidacy to our country is not a joke.”