Harry Reid rates GOP presidential candidates: ‘They’re all losers’

By Amber Phillips

Wednesday, April 15, 2015 | 10:31 a.m.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Harry Reid has never been shy about saying what he thinks.

But since announcing he is ending his 30 year-Senate career in 2017, Reid has had even less of a filter.

The most recent example: In an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood that aired this morning, Reid said all the 2016 Republican presidential candidates are “losers.”

“I don’t really care,” Reid said at a diner in his hometown of Searchlight when asked to assess the Republican field. “I think they’re all losers.”

He went on to compare his Republican counterpart in the Senate — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — to “a lump of coal.”

Reid told reporters Tuesday that deciding to retire hasn’t changed his perspective on being in the Senate. But it seems this major life decision has changed how he opens up to the media.

Here are some more eyebrow-raising statements from Reid since announcing his retirement:

On his life after the Senate, Reid couldn’t resist a jab at the media

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Reid told CNBC. “I’m not going to lobby. I’m not going to practice law. But I’ll keep busy. I may want one of your jobs — to be an analyst on TV and say all these good things that you always say about me.”

On just how much he’d hate being a lobbyist

“I’d rather go to Singapore and have them beat me with whips,” Reid told the New York Times’ Adam Nagourney.

More on his future after the Senate

“I’ve had calls from lots of people,” Reid told the New York Times. “For example, Al Gore called me. Maybe I want to do something with Al Gore? I have no idea.”

On his striking (and unfounded) 2012 assertion that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid his taxes

“I don’t regret that at all” Reid told CNN’s Dana Bash. “Romney didn’t win, did he?”

On his own unpopularity among conservatives

“I think a lot of people, as I read, they kind of don’t like me as a person, and that’s unfortunate,” he told CNBC.

On a right-wing conspiracy theory about how he lost sight in his right eye

“It shows the credibility of Rush Limbaugh,” Reid told CNBC. “He’s the guy that got all of this started. Why in the world would I come up with a story that I got hurt in my own bathroom with my wife standing there? How could anyone say anything like that.”

When President Barack Obama called a KNPR radio show to talk to him

“I’ll be damned. I’ll be damned,” Reid said.

On Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton

“I hope he loses” Reid told CNN. Reid later said Bush would be the easiest Republican for Clinton to beat, mostly because of his ties to his brother, former president George W. Bush. “I’ll take Clinton baggage over that any day,” he told the New York Times.

On the Clintons’ affection for him

Bill Clinton says, “Harry, I love you,” at the end of every conversation, Reid noted to CNBC.

On Hillary Clinton in general

“Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president of the United States” Reid told KNPR radio.

“This is the time for a woman to run,” he told the New York Times. “Women and some men, like me, if they are anything like me, they have come to the realization that women have qualities that we’ve been lacking in America for a long time to be the leader of the country. Women are much more patient. They can be, if they are pushed the wrong way, combative, but they are not combative. A lot of we men are combative just by nature.”

On astronaut John Glenn (because why not?)

“I love John Glenn,” Reid told CNN. “I think he’s 95. But he called me and said, ‘Why did you do that (announce he would not seek re-election) damnit?’ What I said is, ‘John, if I knew that I would end up like you, I wouldn’t have retired. But not many people wind up like you.’”