The severe injuries that kept Sen. Harry Reid from attending his demotion from majority leader also have left him looking like he’d been thrown “though the windshield of a car,” Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin said.
“He’s pretty banged up,” Mr. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, told reporters Tuesday after he had to stand in for Mr. Reid at the opening of the Senate session and swearing in of members.
Mr. Reid’s office announced earlier in the day that the Nevada Democrat would not attend the ceremonies of the first day of Congress because his doctor ordered him to remain home while recovering from injuries sustained last week while exercising.
“The right side of his face is pretty badly beaten with a lot of broken bones and bruising and discolorations, and then add three or four broken ribs to it,” Mr. Durbin said. “Imagine going through the windshield of a car.”
Mr. Durbin provided new details about the accident, explaining that Mr. Reid was thrown “like a slingshot” when an elastic band that he used to exercise broke.
“He set up in his home … an exercise routine involving straps that you stretch. So he was stretching the straps and one broke and tossed him like a slingshot against a cabinet — built-in cabinets. He crashed into it with his face and the side of his body,” he said.
Mr. Durbin described the accident scene as “lots of blood.”
He said he didn’t know when Mr. Reid would return to the Capitol.
Mr. Reid flew from Nevada to Washington a few days ago. Mr. Durbin and other Senate Democratic leaders met with him Monday.
Mr. Reid posted a photo on Twitter showing him meeting with his leadership team. The dark photo shows him sitting in a chair with a bandage across his forehead and eye, speaking with Mr. Durbin and Sens. Patty Murray and Charles E. Schumer.
Mr. Durbin said he also talked to Mr. Reid on Tuesday morning and was “pleasantly surprised” by his improved condition.
“He has made substantial progress in a short period of time,” Mr. Durbin said. “He’s lucid, on his game and he was completely engaged when it came to issues and debate that we are now facing. Of course, he’s been ordered by a doctor to rest and have as little exercise and exertion as possible until he is healed more.”
As the Senate convened for the new Congress, Mr. Reid had faced a difficult day, having to give up the majority leader post he held for eight years. He led his party to disastrous defeats in last year’s elections, but Democrats re-elected him as their leader, giving him a chance to try to right the ship in time for 2016, when he himself is also up for re-election.
The Senate only had ceremonial duties scheduled for the day.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.