Harry Reid — who’s never been known to care much what people think of him — now wears his sunglasses inside.
The Senate Democratic leader sported Wayfarer-like shades — the style immortalized by the Blues Brothers, by Tom Cruise in Risky Business and by Don Henley’s hit “Boys of Summer” — during a news conference Tuesday. His office said they are actually “Boomslang” glasses, made by Reptile.
The fashion choice caused a stir on Twitter, but for Reid, the sunglasses were a new way to shield an injury he’s been covering with a bandage in recent weeks.
“We’re working on my beauty here,” Reid told reporters Thursday who’d asked about his eyewear.
“Tomorrow we’re going to try some other things,” he said. “I can see out of my right eye, just not very well. And it hasn’t healed. I have to be very — I have to be a patient, patient. So I appreciate your interest, but it’s the best I can do.”
Reid has been recovering from a New Year’s Day workout incident, when an exercise band snapped, sending the senator crashing into cabinets in his Nevada home. He broke ribs and several bones in his face and had surgery in late January to repair some of his eye injuries.
He’s worn a large bandage over it on the Senate floor and during press conferences — until Tuesday, when he ditched the bandage in favor of sunglasses.