A Kentucky senator criticized federal officials' approach to a standoff with a Nevada rancher whose cattle were seized, then returned by government agents.
During an interview with Fox News, Sen. Rand Paul said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's classifying rancher Cliven Bundy's supporters as "domestic terrorists" was counterproductive to the issue.
"I don't think calling people names is going to calm this down," Paul said. "I think it's liable to stir it up. So I think all parties, including Senator Reid, should calm the rhetoric a little bit. Let's try to have a peaceful resolution to this."
Agents from the federal Bureau of Land Management engaged in a four hour-long standoff with almost 1,000 of Bundy's supporters and family members last Sunday, CBS reported. Some rode horses and wielded arms during the showdown, according to Reuters. BLM officials stated one week ago that Bundy owed at least $1 million in penalties, back fees and other citations. Authorities contended he'd allowed his cattle to continuously graze on public land, despite multiple summons and court orders.
BLM Director Neil Kornze said the agency agreed to return the nearly 350 cows they seized from the Bundy ranch to sidestep a potentially dangerous situation. But Kornze also said the organization intended to pursue the $1 million owed by Bundy.
"This is a real...intellectual and constitutional and legal debate, but it shouldn't be about violence of arms, and I hope that the government will not be there in full arms and provoke a showdown and something terrible will happen," Paul continued during the Fox interview. "I hope that doesn't happen."
Paul, who is rumored to be running for president in the 2016 election, also said that the feds shouldn't talk down to Bundy, who stated the BLM had no right to take anything off of his land because his family lived there since before the government agency's existence.
"Nobody in Washington really knows anything about ranching or grazing of cattle or the long history that's gone on with this," Paul said.
Paul's comments come in response to a statement made by Reid during an event held by the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Thursday.
"These people who hold themselves out to be patriots, are not. They're nothing more than domestic terrorists," Reid said. "Keep in mind what happened up there. There were hundreds, hundreds of people from around the country, that came there. They had sniper rifles on the freeway. They had assault weapons. They had automatic weapons."
But Cliven Bundy's son Ammon said at the time of the standoff that it was necessary to use force as a form of intimidation against the federal agents.
"We were dedicated to opening those gates and peacefully walking through to retrieve those cattle," Ammond said. "The presence of weapons was needed in order to intimidate them."
The Bundy ranch is located around 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
