Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid recently raised more than $1 million for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee by using a name he's criticized over the years: the Koch brothers.
According to a
Politico report, Reid attended a DSCC fundraiser July 12 in Montreal and asked an assembled group of trial lawyers to donate. The website reports Reid flew to the fundraiser on a lawyer's private jet.
"All that super PAC money that comes in from all those people — the Koch brothers and others — the TV stations see that coming, and they can charge them whatever they want," Reid said, according to Politico. "So the money that you give here — over a million dollars — will be multiplied so many times compared to that super PAC money. So thank you all very very much."
Reid has criticized the Koch brothers, who have raised
hundreds of millions of dollars for Republican candidates over the years, many times in the past. Last fall, however, he was called out by several commentators after
an NPR report claimed Reid's Senate Majority PAC was the largest-spending super PAC in the 2014 midterm elections.
"The number one spender, really?"
Joe Scarborough said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" in October. "I just spit some of my oatmeal out.
"Harry Reid should apologize to the American people for using the Senate floor and being such a hypocrite."
A Washington Post story last year, on the other hand, discussed Reid's attacks on the Koch brothers and said his words are causing other wealthy Americans to open their wallets for Republicans.
Reid's spokesperson Kristen Orthman defended the senator's fundraising tactics at the Montreal event in the Politico report.
"Sen. Reid is doing everything he can to leave the Senate with Democrats in the majority," Orthman said. "This includes ensuring campaigns and the DSCC have resources to fight back against the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Koch brothers and other right-wing interest groups plan to spend to buy the election."
Reid announced earlier this year that
he will not run for re-election in 2016.