Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid returned Thursday to the Capitol with his face bruised and bandaged after a freak exercise accident that crushed his eye socket, boasting that he’s back on the job and ready to run for re-election in two years.
“It didn’t knock me out but it sure hurt,” the Nevada Democrat, who had a bandage over his right eye and a dark bruise stretching from his right jaw down his neck, said at his first press conference since he was injured Jan. 1.
“I’m glad to be back,” he told reporters, who squeezed into a small room in Mr. Reid’s office for the tightly managed appearance.
Mr. Reid, 75, said he is scheduled for surgery Monday to repair his broken eye socket and drain the blood that had welled behind his right eye.
He said that his doctors had been encouraging about his chances for a full recover and that he was not worried about losing his sight in his right eye.
“I may not be doing everything as I did before, [but] I’m doing pretty well,” he said. “There are things I can’t do dealing with strength stuff, because I can’t be strained. But I’m walking a long time. I’ve worked up now to where I’m out walking for an hour. So I’m still doing my best.”
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The former amateur boxer said that for the pain he occasionally takes Tylenol.
“It’s not like a spinal injury, but, you know, I hurt my eye. It hurts,” he said.
The press conference also marked Mr. Reid’s debut at the Capitol following his demotion to minority leader when the session opened this month with a new Republican majority in control of the Senate.
True to form, Mr. Reid pounced on Republicans for delaying funding for the Department of Homeland Security as they attempt to undo President Obama’s deportation amnesty. He said the delay couldn’t come at a worse time, with the terrorist strikes in Paris and North Korean cyberattacks.
“We should put a bill on the president’s desk as soon as possible that’s clean. We don’t need any riders on it. We need to get it done now,” he said, noting that several European countries have announced increases in spending to combat terrorism.
“And we are trying to level-fund it. This is outrageous, for lack of a better word,” he said.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, has vowed to pass a spending bill for Homeland Security before the current funding expires Feb. 27.
He also plans to hold a vote on the House-passed bill that includes riders to stop Mr. Obama’s unilateral move to grant legal status and work permits to up to 5 million illegal immigrants. But Republicans, who have a 54-members majority, don’t expect to have the 60 votes needed to pass the measure.
Mr. Reid tried to tamp down some of the wild rumors about how he got hurt, explaining that it was a mishap while performing an exercise routine in which he pulled on large rubber straps.
“One of them broke and spun me around and I craned into these cabinets and injured my eye,” he said. “We didn’t film it. But, you know, that’s what happened. There’s nothing more I can say.”
The fall also broke four of his ribs, though Mr. Reid downplayed that injury.
“They’re so meaningless, it’s hard to believe,” he said of his ribs.
Pressed about whether his injuries gave him second thoughts about running for a sixth term, Mr. Reid said that his answer was the same as it was before the accident.
“At this stage, I fully intend to run,” said Mr. Reid. “I plan to run.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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