A tongue-tied and flustered Harry Reid spoke publicly this afternoon about his “light-skinned Negro” comments, answering — sort of — reporters’questions at an appearance in Nevada.
At one point Reid, clearly struck off-balance by a reporter who asked whether he thought his statements about Obama had been “uncomfortable, but true,” Reid stammered for nearly a minute before cataloguing statements, letters, and phone calls of support he had received from key national African-American figures.
In response to the next question, on whether Reid believed darker-skinned blacks were less viable candidates for national office, Reid answered by speaking of the outpouring of support he had received from African-American leaders in Nevada.
There, does that clear things up?
Reid also related the content of a recent phone call with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, in which the latter reportedly encouraged Reid to remind people that he has “done more for diversity in the United States Senate than all the rest of them put together.”
Maybe that will raise the ire of Reid’s fellow Senate Democrats.