Jon Ralston continues to examine Sen. Harry Reid’s campaign finance records. What was first a series of questionable payments to his granddaughter totaling about $16,000 is now a larger series of payments adding up to about $31,000.
Reid, who has lately attacked private citizens from the well of the Senate for their campaign contributions, dismisses the controversy and pleads for his enriched granddaughter’s privacy.
“My granddaughter has been the target of harassing phone calls, strangers tracking her down and knocking on her door and negative, unwanted attention on the internet. This has gone too far and it needs to stop now. I deeply regret any role I had in creating this situation but now, as a grandparent, I say enough is enough.
No one should be harassing Ms. Reid, but frankly, Harry Reid is a confirmed liar, so there’s no reason to believe him when he plays the sympathy card. The FEC may not agree that “enough is enough.” Ryan Elisabeth Reid is a grown woman (and a rapper — no kidding), and she did accept the money that her grandfather paid her out of his campaign funds. Perhaps that rap career just needed a cash injection. She may not have known she was receiving campaign funds, but she probably did. Unless granddad paid her in cold, hard cash (which would be interesting!), she knew exactly where the money was coming from. It was on the check, pay stub or in the email she received when the payment processed. Maybe the FEC needs to take a look.
Reid certainly knew that he was handing out at least $31,000 in several payments to his granddaughter that he was supposed to use for his campaigns. He is reimbursing his campaign now to try and kill off the story, yet there remains the question of whether Reid lopped off his granddaughter’s last name on his FEC filings to fool the agency into thinking that he and she are not related. Maybe the FEC will look into that too.
I’ll just leave this weirdness here for later exploration.
UPDATE, 3 PM: Ryan Elisabeth Reid, Rory Reid’s daughter and Harry Reid’s granddaughter, lists various “current supporters”on the site for her theater company, which is trying to produce a play at the Smith Center in Las Vegas about Alzheimer’s. Among those listed are NV Energy and two of philanthropist Larry Ruvo’s foundations.
The problem: NV Energy and Ruvo both say they never contributed to the theater group.
More at the link.
Harry Reid wants the people and the press to just leave his granddaughter alone. But all of this is his fault. The reason that all of this is now open to public discussion and dissection is because Harry Reid chose to put thousands of dollars of his campaign funds into his adult granddaughter’s pockets, and she accepted it, and ever since the Kennedys Democrats have become the party of dynastic grasping for political power. The Reids are trying to become a political dynasty in Nevada, through the family name and sweetheart deals. Harry Reid put hefty payments in his granddaughter’s pockets at the same time that he has been blasting private citizens for having the gall to donate to free market causes, and calling Americans who have experienced Obamacare problems liars, and at the same time he called Americans who’ve had issues with Healthcare.gov stupid, and a couple years after he shamelessly smeared Mitt Romney as a tax criminal.
Harry Reid has earned every bit of the grief he’s experiencing now. And more.
h/t Dan Riehl for the tip about Granddaughter Reid’s rap career.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member