"Donald Trump can make fun of the injury that crushed the side of my face and took the sight in my right eye all he wants -- I've dealt with tougher opponents than him," Sen. Harry Reid said. | Getty POLITICO Playbook Exclusive: Reid hits back at Trump

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid punched right back at Donald Trump for poking fun at his grisly eye injury, calling the GOP presidential nominee a "con artist" and rapping Republican leaders for not getting answers from the New York billionaire.

"Donald Trump can make fun of the injury that crushed the side of my face and took the sight in my right eye all he wants -- I've dealt with tougher opponents than him," Reid said in a statement to POLITICO Thursday night. "I may not be able to see out of my right eye, but with my good eye, I can see that Trump is a man who inherited his money and spent his entire life pretending like he earned it. In Searchlight, we learned a thing or two about hard work that Trump may not have learned at his boarding school."


This is the second cycle in a row that Reid (D-Nev.) has engaged in nearly daily hand-to-hand combat with the Republican nominee. In 2012, Reid floated rumors that Mitt Romney failed to pay any income tax -- genteel stuff compared to his war with Trump. Reid is retiring in January after 33 years in Congress.

Reid was responding to a Washington Post story Thursday night, in which Trump said "Harry Reid? I think he should go back and start working out again with his rubber work-out pieces." Trump was asked what he thought about the rail-thin Reid saying the real-estate mogul was "not slim and trim."

Of course, Reid relishes these battles. He has been a top attack dog for Barack Obama, and now, with 53 days until the election, he's stepping up his game for his former Senate colleague, Hillary Clinton.

Harry Reid: 'Trump is a human leech'

"Trump rips off working people with scams like Trump University," Reid said. "And while the people he ripped off suffer, Trump sits at the posh resort he bought with his daddy's money, with no understanding of the misery he caused. Now, Trump's business interests in foreign countries and his Ponzi-scheme fraud of a 'charity' make clear that Trump intends to scam all of America just like he rips off hard-working people. Trump can insult me all he wants but the American people deserve answers to these questions: Why did Trump appear to use his charity to enrich himself and bribe elected officials who were investigating his scams? Why does Trump refuse to cut ties with business interests that would allow him to exploit American foreign policy to enrich himself? What is Trump hiding in his tax returns?"

He added, "We know how to spot a con artist in Las Vegas. And Donald Trump is a con artist.”

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