Harry Reid calls rancher’s gun-toting backers ‘domestic terrorists’

STEVE MARCUS

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is calling armed backers of a Nevada rancher "domestic terrorists" for using guns in a grazing rights battle with the federal Bureau of Land Management.

The Democrat was speaking at an event hosted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Thursday when he referred to Saturday's armed confrontation between BLM agents and self-described militia members supporting Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy.

No shots were fired.

After the confrontation, the BLM released almost 400 of Bundy's cattle that had been rounded up. The BLM says its action was spurred by Bundy's failure to pay more than $1 million in grazing fees on federal land.

Bundy says he doesn't recognize federal authority on the land his family has used since the 1870s.

Reid says a federal task force is being formed to resolve the dispute.