Federal officials are investigating threats made against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid following his anti-Cliven Bundy rhetoric, POLITICO reported.
Even before Bundy -- the Nevada rancher in a standoff with the government over unpaid taxes -- was thrust into the national spotlight for racist comments, Reid was already critical of him, calling his supporters "domestic terrorists" and later describing him as a "hateful racist."
Though authorities did not disclose when the threats were made or what they said, U.S. Capital Police spokesman Shennell Antrobus told POLITICO on Monday they are still performing an investigation.
"We are currently looking into threatening statements made against Sen. Reid as part of an ongoing investigation," Antrobus said.
Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Reid, did not comment on the threats.
U.S. Rep. Steve Horsford, a Nevada Democrat whose district is close to Bundy's ranch, expressed his concern over the "armed militia groups" operating to protect Bundy in a letter to Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie on Sunday.
"We must respect individual constitutional liberties, but the residents of and visitors to Clark County should not be expected to live under the persistent watch of an armed militia," he said in the letter.
Though conservatives initially supported Bundy for his battle with the Bureau of Land Management, they quickly backtracked once he made some choice comments to The New York Times about black people.
"And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?" he said. "They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom."
