Harry Reid described the billionaire Koch brothers’ philosophies as “radical” more than a dozen times on Thursday morning, making good on his vow to continue hammering them directly from the Senate floor.
The GOP has blasted Reid for his description of the Koch brothers as “un-American,” but the Senate majority leader said that Charles and David Koch should be able to defend themselves from his attacks and dared the GOP to back the brothers on the Senate floor.
“When Republican senators rush to defend the Koch brothers, they are also defending the Koch brothers’ radical philosophy. And it’s radical. How do we know it’s radical? They said so. I’m not making those words up,” Reid said. “Is even one of you [Republicans] willing to stand up and disavow the Koch brothers’ radical agenda? It’s radical. It’s radical because they say it’s radical. And it is radical.”
“Obviously, they must agree with the Koch brothers’ radical philosophy. Republicans are willing to defend the Koch brothers on the floor of this Senate, but are they willing to defend the Koch brothers’ radical agenda as well?” added the Nevada Democrat.
The Koch-backed super PAC Americans for Prosperity has carpet-bombed Senate Democratic incumbents with millions of dollars of attack ads ahead of this year’s midterm elections, dropping $ 700,000 in ads on Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) on Thursday.
But AFP is also taking increasing heat from fact checkers for assertions that the Affordable Care Act would make a cancer patient’s treatment less affordable.
Reid called AFP a “phony banner” for the Kochs’ political activities and said the brothers and their allies are “willing to do anything, even exploit Americans suffering from cancer, to advance their campaign of distortion” in a midterm election year.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has criticized Reid for dumping on the Kochs while supporting the efforts of wealthy environmentalist Tom Steyer, who plans to spend millions in support of Democratic candidates this fall. On Thursday, McConnell didn’t directly respond to Reid’s blistering Koch speech, but he did continue his opposition to the Obama administration’s proposed rules that would crack down on the political activities of some nonprofits.
“The IRS needs to get out of the speech regulation business altogether, and the Obama administration can do that,” McConnell said. “This regulation needs to go, and it needs to go now.”
Reid says Kochs blocking Ukraine aid
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