Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that Donald Trump wasn’t being “sarcastic” when he suggested Russia hack into Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but instead, “he’s being dumb.”
The famously blunt Democratic leader dismissed Trump’s defense, after the Republican came under fire for suggesting Russian hackers should look for Clinton’s missing emails.
“He’s being dumb,” Reid told CNN’s Manu Raju in an interview at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. “Donald Trump can’t control his mouth, can’t control his brain. He’s proven that time after time.”
The Senate’s top Democrat also said Trump should be given “fake” intelligence briefings.
“It’s obvious he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s obvious he can’t control his mind or his tongue. And what I’ve suggested is now, because he’s the nominee for the party, and he’s entitled to briefings from the CIA for example, I said publicly give him fake briefings,” Reid said. “It means they’ll tell him stuff, he won’t know the difference.”
Reid noted that he has attended briefings similar to the ones each nominee is set to receive and said he thinks the CIA knows that Trump will be a danger to the nation.
Trump said Russian hackers should be enlisted to find the 33,000 emails missing from Clinton’s private email server.
Trump’s comments Wednesday whipped up a furious response, but he told Fox News Thursday that he was “being sarcastic” and didn’t mean it.
Reid, who is retiring at the end of his term, also said he would likely return to practicing law after he finishes his run in the Senate. Reid has been known for his sharp jabs at opponents throughout his tenure, but he also addressed the divide inside his own party which has been on display throughout the week in Philadelphia.
Reid, who has often acted as an intermediary between Bernie Sanders and the Democratic establishment, was critical of the Democratic National Committee after the emails leaked at the beginning of the week rocked the convention.
Reid said that DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz should have resigned “at least six weeks before she did.”
“A lot of people who were running the DNC were not fans of Bernie. And I think that one of the difficult things we have whenever we have a primary election, is the party should be fair,” Reid told CNN. “It would be better if Bernie were treated a little better by the people that run the DNC.”
But Reid also played down protests from angry Sanders delegates, including Tuesday’s walkout from the arena after Clinton secured the nomination.
“I was concerned three days ago when I learned some of the Bernie people walked out of the convention,” Reid said. “But I checked it out, there’s less than a hundred. There’s thousands and thousands of people in this great arena. Bernie has done a good job of telling his supporters, look, it’s more important that we beat Donald trump than continue this battle.”