Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid weighed in on the Nevada ranch standoff, warning
that even though federal agents retreated over the weekend, "it's not
over."
Mr. Reid's
remarks Monday appeared to be his first public comments since Bureau of Land
Management agents touched off a confrontation with demonstrators last week by
seizing cattle from the Bundy family ranch in a dispute over grazing fees. The
agency, which says Cliven Bundy owes more than $1 million in unpaid fees,
backed off Saturday and returned the cattle.In impromptu remarks Monday after a
speech at the University of Nevada, Reno, however, Mr. Reid struck a defiant
tone on the matter of lawbreaking."We can't have an American people that
violate the law and just walk away from it," Mr. Reid told Reno TV station
KRNV. "So it's not over."That feeling was shared, albeit from the opposite
direction, by some of the hundreds of protesters from across the West who
congregated at the Bundy cattle ranch near Mesquite, Nev.
Many of them
remained Monday at the property, despite pleas from federal and state officials
to disband and return home."I feel sorry for any federal agents that want
to come in here and try to push us around or anything like that," Jarad
Miller said in an interview with KRNV-TV. "I really don't want violence
toward them, but if they're going to come bring violence to us, if that's the
language they want to speak, we'll learn it."Bureau of Land Management
agents returned about 400 cattle to the Bundy family over the weekend amid
escalating tensions between law enforcement and hundreds of anti-BLM
demonstrators outside the ranch.Mr. Bundy's son Ammon was struck with a stun
gun, and local television footage showed Bundy relatives and supporters engaged
in heated arguments with law enforcement officers.
BLM
spokesman Craig Leff confirmed Monday that "the gather is over" after
telling reporters over the weekend that the bureau will "continue to work
to resolve the matter administratively and judicially."Speculation on Mr.
Reid's role in last week's confrontation at the ranch has been rife, given his
prominent position as Nevada's elder statesman and his ties to BLM director
Neil Kornze.Mr. Kornze, 35, served for eight years on the Senate leader's staff
before joining the BLM in 2011. He was the Mr. Reid's pick to head the agency,
and his final confirmation was April 8 as the roundup at the Bundy ranch was
underway.In an updated statement Saturday, Mr. Kornze said the cattle gather
was halted "because of our grave concern about the safety of employees and
members of the public."
Mr. Reid
also has been accused of attempting to shut down the ranch in order to move
ahead with two nearby solar energy projects, an accusation denied Monday by the
senator's press aide.Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman told KLAS-TV in Las Vegas
that "there is no truth to the conspiracy theories that are being pushed
by right-wing media outlets."
Mr. Reid's
son Rory Reid, a former Clark County commissioner, represented ENN Mojave
Energy, a Chinese-backed company seeking to build a $5 billion solar plant near
Laughlin, Nev. The company ultimately dropped those plans after failing to
secure sufficient financial backing, according to reports.That project was more
than 100 miles from the Bundy Ranch, Ms. Orthman said.A separate solar project,
involving a local Indian tribe, that Mr. Reid has pushed also does not overlap
with the Bundy ranch.
"[Harry]
Reid's push for solar energy development in southern Nevada included attendance
last month at a groundbreaking ceremony for a solar power facility that
involves the Moapa Band of Pauites and First Solar Inc.," said the KLAS-TV
report. "But that 250-megawatt power plant will be roughly 35 miles
southwest of the Bundy ranch."
The BLM
cattle roundup began after a 21-year-old court battle between the agency and
Mr. Bundy, who has refused to pay federal grazing fees over a dispute about
whether the federal government has sovereignty over his land.Mr. Bundy has said
he pays grazing fees to Clark County, Nev., as he has since before the BLM took
over management of the lands. The Bundy family has maintained a cattle ranching
operation on the southern Nevada property since the 1870s."We are so so
grateful for the overwhelming show of support. It is clear freedom loving
Americans still exist!" said a Monday post on the Bundy Ranch website.He
told Las Vegas radio station KDWN-AM that the demonstrators backing him
"have faith in the Constitution."
"The
Founding Fathers didn't create a government like this," he said.The Bundys
also have refused to scale back their cattle operation in reaction to the Fish
and Wildlife Service's listing of the desert tortoise as "threatened
(similarity of appearance)" in 1990. The Bundy operation is reportedly now
the only operating cattle ranch in the area as a result of enforcement efforts
aimed at protecting the desert tortoise.
In August,
however, the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas announced that it
would begin euthanizing half of the 1,400 tortoises in its 220-acre facility as
a result of federal budget cuts, according to The Associated Press."The
Center is scheduled to close in December 2014 due to funding issues," said
a statement on the BLM's website. "All healthy tortoises at the Center
will be relocated to sites that will support the recovery of the species.
Healthy tortoises will not be euthanized.
