Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) doubled down on his criticism of rancher Cliven Bundy Thursday, labeling the rancher’s supporters as “domestic terrorists.”

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal, Reid accused Americans who defended Bundy against the Bureau of Land Management of being terrorists because they protested the Federal government’s actions while armed. The Senator also charged that some families put their children in harm’s way to protect the rancher.

“They’re nothing more than domestic terrorists,” Reid said. “I repeat: what happened there was domestic terrorism.”

Reid, who recently said that the Federal government is not finished with Bundy, went on to suggest that the rancher is a criminal for failing to acknowledge the Federal government’s demands that he pay $1 million in overdue grazing fees.

“Clive Bundy does not recognize the United States,” Reid said. “The United States, he says, is a foreign government. He doesn’t pay his taxes. He doesn’t pay his fees. And he doesn’t follow the law. He continues to thumb his nose at authority.”

The standoff between Bundy supporters and the Feds ended over the weekend when his confiscated cattle were returned— but officials continue in efforts to enact the government’s will over the rancher.

Reid, it seems, wants Federal officials to make an example of the rancher.

“It is an issue we cannot let go, just walk away from,” Reid said.

“There were hundreds, hundreds of people from around the country that came there,” Reid said. “They had sniper rifles in the freeway. They had weapons, automatic weapons. They had children lined up. They wanted to make sure they got hurt first … What if others tried the same thing?”