Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is presenting a new explanation of how he acquired those gruesome injuries on New Year’s Day. During an interview with CNBC, Reid says he was hurt in his own bathroom. But that explanation doesn’t hold up.
CNBC’s John Harwood gave Reid an easy set-up for the interview:
“In the last few days a bunch of people are saying, Reid, he didn’t have an exercise accident, he got beat up by the mob,” Harwood says.
“It shows the credibility of Rush Limbaugh. He’s the guy that got all this started,” Reid responds.
“Why in the world would I come up with a story that I got hurt in my own bathroom with my wife standing there? How could anyone say anything like that? I think a lot of people that I read kind of don’t like me as a person. I think that’s unfortunate,” Reid says.
Conveniently, the incurious Harwood fails to ask Reid any follow up questions.
You can watch the video here, starting at the 28 second mark.
This marks the first time that Reid, in his own words, has claimed he sustained his New Year’s Day injuries in the bathroom of his Henderson, Nevada home. Previously, on January 22, Politico, relying almost certainly upon Reid’s staff authorized by Reid, reported that “[s]ources familiar with the incident said Reid was exercising in his bathroom, with the exercise band attached to the shower door.”
In his CNBC interview, Reid adds a new detail to his story, claiming “I got hurt in my own bathroom with my wife standing there.” (emphasis added).
Last week, Senator Reid told Univision’s Jorge Ramos he attached his exercise band to “a big metal hook” in an unspecified room of his Nevada home.
In his first version of the story, Reid said, the band “broke.” In the next version he told Ramos it “slipped.”
“I was doing that [exercising with resistance bands] in my new home here in Nevada,” Reid told Ramos, “and a big metal hook that came out from the wall that was hooked there that the strap had no handle on it, slipped, spun me around, uh, about, oh I guess four feet and so I smashed my face into a cabinet so hard that uh…” (emphasis added).
As previously reported, Breitbart News has obtained several images of the master bathroom in the Henderson, Nevada house Harry Reid purchased in July, 2014.
The image of the master bathroom in Reid’s house, below, clearly shows that, as of the time the photo was taken (presumably shortly before Reid purchased the house), the only “hook that came out from the wall” in Reid’s bathroom visible in this image is one that supports a circular towel hanger of the sort used for small hand towels. The circular towel hanger is located above the bathtub and adjacent to the straight towel rack.
The circular towel hanger in the bathroom of Reid’s home, like most circular towel hangers, would easily be pulled from the wall if any significant force was applied. It is not credible that it could remain in the wall and support the torque exhibited when an exercise band was attached to it for the purpose of conducting strength exercises.
Breitbart News shared a copy of this image with Senator Reid’s staffers and asked if they could confirm or deny that Senator Reid was referring to the circular towel hanger located above the bathtub and adjacent to the straight towel rack pictured in this image below of the master bathroom of Senator Reid’s Henderson, Nevada house, posted by the realtor who sold him the house, as “the big metal hook” he spoke of to Mr. Ramos.
Breitbart New also asked if Senator Reid’s office could not confirm this if they could point to where in the bathroom the “big metal hook” Senator Reid mentioned to Mr. Ramos was located.
Senator Reid’s office has not responded to our inquiries.
For his part, on his program today, Rush Limbaugh gave Reid a dose of his own medicine.
Limbaugh relayed the story of “Easton Elliott” the pseudonym for a person who claims to live in Las Vegas and sets forth an alternative theory for how Reid sustained his New Year’s Day injuries.
“Elliott” first told his story to Powerline’s John Hinderaker, who relayed it to his readers on April 3.
“I might now know who did it,” Limbaugh said of Reid’s injuries.
“This man [“Easton Elliott”] wanted to talk to me about what happened to Harry Reid,” Limbaugh reported.
Limbaugh said he spoke on the phone with “Elliott” after his story first appeared at Powerline, then described “Elliott’s” claim that Harry Reid’s younger brother, Larry Reid, was the likely culprit.
You can read the full account of “Elliott’s” story on the Powerline blog here.
But Limbaugh was careful not to vouch for “Elliott’s” story.
“Hinderaker can’t vouch for it and neither can I,” Limbaugh said.
“Bottom line,” Limbaugh concluded, “somebody attacked Harry Reid New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.”
Let Harry Reid prove otherwise.
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