At a Washington Post event in Las Vegas on the eve of the Democratic presidential candidates first debate, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid blasted New Hampshire’s First In The Nation primary, attacking the Granite State for lacking a large minority population, saying “nobody lives there.” He went on to flat-out state that New Hampshire and Iowa voters shouldn’t be choosing the president:
If Reid doesn’t quickly walk back his Granite State gaffe he’ll likely find himself afoul of the Democrats’ new marquee senate candidate, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, who came out strongly in favor of the state’s First In The Nation status last month:
Gov. Maggie Hassan told WMUR: “I’ll fight along side Secretary Gardner to protect the New Hampshire primary. We invented it. We bring the nominating process to the people and we do it exceptionally well.”
And Hassan, who has endorsed Hillary Clinton, will face an important test about whether she stands with her Party’s out-of-touch leadership, or with New Hampshire voters.
He also threw Iowa under the bus, calling the Hawkeye State “a place that doesn’t demonstrate what America’s all about.” There’s likely a few Iowa Democrats who will take issue with his remarks.
Reid did kindly offer the consolation that he didn’t “mean to denigrate New Hampshire or Iowa.”