Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Sen. Harry Reid to reporter: ‘That’s a clown question, bro’

It’s no secret that Sen. Harry Reid is a fan of Bryce Harper, the 19-year-old slugger from Las Vegas who’s led the Washington Nationals from the butt of capital-city jokes to first place in the National League’s Eastern Division.

But few ever expected the septuagenarian senator would start emulating the phenom teen’s now-infamous quips.

When confronted with a question Reid didn’t feel like answering at his weekly press availability, Reid turned and told a reporter: “That’s a clown question, bro.”

Harper said the same thing to a Canadian reporter last week who asked him if he would celebrate hitting a home run against the Toronto Blue Jays with a beer. Harper is above the legal drinking age in Canada.

Reid invoked Harper’s line when a reporter asked him what he thought of Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, saying the Republicans were going to wait to fully respond to President Barack Obama’s announcement last Friday that DREAM-Act eligible youth could start applying for work visas until Mitt Romney presented his response.

Reid seemed pleased by his delivery of the joke, which elicited a congressional hallway-full of guffaws.

Reid often invokes Harper’s name when lashing out at the Republicans. Just moments before, he had cited Harper, who is supposed to be “the most powerful man in Washington” as wielding not quite as much power as Grover Norquist. Norquist is the author of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which is an unequivocal pledge not to raise taxes. Most Republicans in Congress have signed it.

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