Did Mobsters Really Beat Down Harry Reid

An accident using an exercise machine, such was the explanation provided to the public for Senator Harry Reid’s (D-Nevada) injured eye.

Others, like conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh aren’t buying it.  Instead, there are murmurs going around Vegas that Reid in fact had a little run-in with some shady organized crime figures.

"I don't believe for a minute that whatever happened to Harry Reid has anything to do with an exercise machine unless somebody repeatedly threw him into it," Limbaugh told Bloomberg News. "Harry Reid looks like and is acting like—and now with this announcement, behaving like—somebody who may have been beaten up.  Nobody... I've never seen anybody have an accident with an exercise machine that ends up suffering symptoms much like Harry Reid's for as long as Harry Reid has."

Reid, a former boxer, remained out of commission for several weeks following the “accident”.

Back in January, blogger John Hinderaker, a member of the Powerline collective, asked "what really happened" to Reid. "He looks like he has been in a fight, and not with an elastic band," wrote Hinderaker. "Some are speculating that he had a run-in with Las Vegas underworld characters. There is zero evidence for that."

Hindertaker followed up with his assertion this past weekend.

"A friend of mine was in Las Vegas a week or two ago," wrote Hinderaker. "He talked to a number of people there about Reid’s accident, and didn’t find anyone who believed the elastic exercise band story. The common assumption was that the incident resulted, in some fashion, from Reid’s relationship with organized crime. The principal rumor my friend heard was that Reid had promised to obtain some benefit for a group of mobsters. He met with them on New Year’s Day, and broke the bad news that he hadn’t been able to deliver what he promised. When the mobsters complained, Reid (according to the rumor) made a comment that they considered disrespectful, and one of them beat him up."

As Bloomberg News points out, there remains little evidence to suggest that a mobster or mobsters  broke through Reid’s security detail to rough up the long time Senator, who just this week announced his retirement. 

Reid’s aides have since mocked the “mobster cover up” theory, especially following a Breitbart “investigative report” released on Tuesday.  

"The main problem with the mobster theory is that it completely overlooks the critical role played by the Yeti," Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said in an email.

Reid remains blind in his right eye as a result of whatever occurred and doctors cannot be certain whether he will regain his vision. 

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com