Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is reportedly hoping the federal government—specifically President Barack Obama’s administration—will grab a stretch of land in Southern Nevada near the infamous Bundy Ranch, now that many in the Bundy group are in federal custody.
“The reason that the President hasn’t had an opportunity to look at that very closely is that is where the Bundy family raised the hell that they did. Now most of them are in jail so maybe we can move forward on that,” Reid said, according to a Nevada political observer, Jon Ralston.
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, his sons Ammon and Ryan, and several supporters, are facing federal charges stemming from two standoffs with the federal government.
In the first standoff, the Bundy family used the support of several militia groups to prevent the federal government from seizing cattle to help pay a debt of nearly one million dollars in unpaid grazing fees.
Emboldened after stopping the feds from seizing the cattle in Nevada, a group led by Ammon Bundy took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. That standoff ended with the death of Lavoy Finicum and the arrest of both Ammon and Ryan Bundy. Cliven Bundy was arrested soon after in the Portland airport while trying to join the Oregon occupation.
Senator Reid appears to be attacking the Bundy family and their supporters, who he previously called “domestic, violent terrorist wannabes” while adding to his legacy.