Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a "sick, twisted old man" for making comments about refusing to pass a funding bill that would allow young cancer patients to continue with clinical trials during the government shutdown, Fox News anchor Sean Hannity charged.
On Wednesday, the Nevada Democrat questioned why funding should be provided to the National Institutes of Health
to "help one child who has cancer," and then attacked CNN reporter Dana Bash, calling her "irresponsible and reckless" for asking him about it during a Capitol Hill news conference.
Editor's Note:Knowing these 5 cancer-causing signs is crucial to remaining cancer-free for life
"What a sick twisted old man to say, 'Why would we want to do that?'" Hannity said on his Fox show later Wednesday. "To help a kid with cancer? Pretty heartless . . . pretty sick. I mean, if you want to talk about cold, callous, heartless, mean-spirited, hateful, all the rhetoric that Harry Reid recklessly throws around about Republicans, it fits him.”
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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a guest on the program, agreed, saying he thinks Reid's comments reflected "cynicism and partisanship."
Later in the day, Reid said the comments came because Democrats are being pressed by Republicans to fund the government by "cherry-picked" appropriations that would fund numerous government programs yet exclude Obamacare.
Reid was trying to argue that Democrats would not go along with Republican attempts to fund the government through piecemeal appropriations, because the GOP was seeking to fund everything except for Obamacare.
"Why would we want to have the House of Representatives, John Boehner, cherry pick what stays open and what should be closed?,”
he said on "The Bill Press Show."
"Listen, I gave a speech on the floor talking about the babies — 30 babies, little kids who are not going to have clinical trials. Of course I care about that. I have 16 of my own grandchildren and five of my own children.”
Reid said he told Bash — "who is a fine reporter" — that "We care about all of these things," and that there are other agencies that are just as important to fund.
“We care about our state parks, we care about our veterans, but we can’t fall into the tr . . . of Cruz-led Republicans," Reid said.
Hannity, though, said Reid should put himself in the place of the sick children's parents.
"I have a question for Harry Reid: How would you feel if it was your grandson or granddaughter? Or your child?” Hannity asked. “Maybe that’s why you’d want to fund the NIH as the House is passing the bill, and put aside your bitter, angry partisanship.”
Editor's Note:Knowing these 5 cancer-causing signs is crucial to remaining cancer-free for life
Reid tweeted Wednesday night that the accusations show Republicans to be in "desperate straits."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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