A plainclothes Capitol Hill policeman forcefully pushes journalist Jason Mattera into a wall after Mattera asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) a question. (Photo: Daily Surge.)
Posted on 10/16/2014 9:54:25 AM PDT by jazusamo
(CNSNews.com) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did not respond to repeated questions about whether public citizens who ask him a question in the Capitol hallway should be physically barred from doing so by Capitol Police, as happened recently when reporter Jason Mattera introduced himself, shook Reid’s hand, and asked him a question about how he became a millionaire on a government salary.
A plainclothes Capitol Hill policeman forcefully pushes journalist Jason Mattera into a wall after Mattera asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) a question. (Photo: Daily Surge.)
Through several e-mails and telephone calls, CNSNews.com asked Sen. Reid’s office the following question: “Does Sen. Reid think that Americans should in any way be barred or intimidated from asking questions of members of the Senate walking in public hallways in a Senate office building?”
Reid’s office did not respond.
Back on Sept. 16, a Capitol Hill police officer walking with Reid pushed Mattera into a wall and pushed him around, even though all Mattera did was ask a question, which any U.S. taxpayer is free to do.
As captured on videotape by one of Mattera’s colleagues, Mattera, a journalist and author, walked along with Sen. Reid and several other people down one of the Russell Senate Office Building hallways.
Mattera, several feet away from Reid, said, “Hey Senator Reid. Hello, sir, let me introduce myself, Jason Mattera. (He shook Reid’s hand.) Hi.”
Mattera then asked, “How did you become so rich working in government? How does someone on a government salary most of their career accumulate your type of wealth?”
Journalist and author Jason Mattera. (Photo: Fox News.)
At that point, one of the men walking with Reid said to Mattera, “Are you press? Are you press?” and then physically pushed and pinned Mattera to the wall. The man, a Capitol Hill police officer in casual clothes, held Mattera and then held him longer as Mattera tried to move away.
Mattera said, “What are you doing? What are you doing holding me up like that?”
The man said, “I’m asking you a question. I’m asking you a question.”
Mattera said, “I’m Jason Mattera, author of Crapitalism – seriously, you’re going to do this? (as the man physically held him). Yes, I’m press. You’re going to do that to press?
“I don’t care if you’re press or not,” said the man, who then started to walk away.
“You don’t care? You’re going to rough up people like that?” said Mattera. “You don’t care if they’re press? What’s your name, sir? What’s your name, sir? What’s your name? I’m asking a question and you’re going to rough up the press like that? That’s how you do it?”
The man at that point was walking briskly away to catch up with Sen. Reid and did not reveal his name.
Mattera is the author of the new book Crapitalism: Liberals Who Make Millions Swiping Your Tax Dollars , and the author of the New York Times best sellers Obama Zombies: How The Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation, and Hollywood Hypocrites: The Devastating Truth About Obama’s Biggest Backers. He is a former editor of Human Events and current publisher of Daily Surge.com.
“With a net worth as high as $6.7 million — and living arrangements that include permanent accommodations at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C. — Mattera believes taxpayers deserve answers about how Senator Reid made all his earnings while living on a government salary,” reported the Daily Surge.
Mattera told CNSNews.com that the response his question elicited was “emblematic of the disgust people have for D.C. and the arrogance in thinking that a taxpayer can be roughed up for asking a question about how tax dollars are being used by someone claiming to represent them.”
The bodyguard in the video was later identified as a member of the U.S. Capitol Police, who responded to the video Thursday with the following statement:
“The U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) became aware today of a video posted online showing an interaction between a Special Agent from our Dignitary Protection Division, and an unknown individual with no observable credentials approaching a Senator. The individual subsequently identified himself by name. Our Special Agent is a member of a leadership team assigned to provide security and protection to a Senator.”
“In accordance with applicable training when encountering an unidentified individual in close proximity to a protectee who is encroaching on the protectee's zone of security, the Special Agent is expected to take proactive measures to maintain the security and protection of their protectee.”
Mattera criticized the USCP’s statement saying they would not answer his main question: “This Capitol Hill police officer, plainclothes police officer assigned to Reid, did he assault and physically attack someone asking him (Reid) a question?”
“Clearly, the senator’s life wasn’t in danger, there was no explosive element. It was just one calm question, and then the guy choking me up and slamming me up against the wall,” said Mattera.
He also said that while he was not wearing press credentials, the hallway of the Russell Senate Office Building where the incident took place is an area accessible to the public -- any person can enter the building after going through the security check, which includes a metal detector and x-ray screening machine and is staffed by several police/security officers.
“I can be with the media, which I am, or I could have been a tourist or an intern or just a taxpaying American concerned about how the majority leader is getting rich,” Mattera told CNSNews.com. “Whoever I’d be with doesn’t justify the assault and battery that took place for calmly asking Senator Reid a question, which conservatives have been asking for a while. How do you enter politics broke and leave rich?”
He said he had to go through the metal detector to even enter the Senate building.
Mattera further said the USCP has been “unresponsive to say the least,” to his multiple requests for answers to the following questions: “Has this individual been reprimanded? What is the justification for the assault? If there is a justification, please provide one.”
CNSNews.com also asked Senator Reid’s office if the senator believes this is acceptable behavior for a federal employee and if the senator is going to apologize to Mattera. The Majority Leader’s office did not respond before this story was posted.
“Some Republicans in the Senate ought to speak out and file an ethics complaint,” conservative talk-radio host Mark Levin said of the incident in an Oct. 2 interview with Mattera.
According to the Associated Press, as reported May 17, 2014, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is worth between $2.9 million and $6.7 million.
We call this FELONY ASSAULT, False Imprisonment, Using a Firearm during the commission of a Violent Felony, looks like 20 to life for the Gestapo Agent, He has been ARRESTED RIGHT??
Silence nods assent.
Dingy Harry belongs on the end of a rope.
I’m sure that Capitol Hill Police thug is the type thug Reid is used to being around in Las Vegas when taking care of personal business.
... and tied behind an ebola-infected truck.
He should be buried in Yucca Mountain where he buried the nuclear waste storage program after $10 billion was spent. In fact, bury him now.
Another one of Obama’s Brown Shirts, armed and ready to obey his Marxist masters. Don’t kid yourself. There are plenty of them out there who will be willing to do it if for no other reason than to protect themselves and/or their families. Its been done before in every dictatorship around the world.
“when reporter Jason Mattera introduced himself, shook Reid’s hand”
Don’t feel bad Jason. I did that once too when I was a reporter. I still don’t feel clean. But with a good shrink, you learn to manage the trauma.
“I’m sure that Capitol Hill Police thug is the type thug Reid is used to being around in Las Vegas when taking care of personal business.”
And it should be noted for the record that the “thug” is a Holder’s Person!
In Ferguson, or the hallways of Congress, they are usually the same!
Perhaps the most evil man in the US Senate - Harry Quisling, Communist - Blacklight, NV
Mattera should hire Wanderlei Silva as his bodyguard for his next Congresscritter questioning.
Not anymore. He just sold his house/land there to a MINING COMPANY.
And not a peep from Sierra or Greenpeace. Wonder why.
Well said and so true.
That assault was like something right out of a third world country being run by an ironfisted dictator.
That's only what he allows us to know.
==================================================
Ex-pres Clinton received zillions from the Chi/Coms---we all assumed it was going to their three tax-exempt foundations. Now here's another angle (think money-laundering, and kickbacks).
===================================================
The Harry Reid connection to the tax-exempt "Clinton Global Initiative" foundation needs to be investigated.
PUT ON YOUR TINFOIL HATS TO CONNECT THE DOTS:
(1) Harry Reid's son Rory is in business w/ the Chi/Coms on a multi-billion dollar solar energy project; Cliven Bundy and his land are standing in the way.
(2) Reports say Bill Clinton recently went to China to panhandle for his tax-exempt "Clinton Global Initiative" foundation.
(3) The "Clinton Global Initiative" (NOT KNOWN for giving out grants)---gave Harry Reid's granddaughter a grant for a Brooklyn, NY theatre she runs (what is a Brooklyn theatre's connection to "global initiatives?")
(4) A Nevada energy company also gave Reid's granddaughter's theatre group a grant.
================================================
"Money laundering" comes to mind. Could the Chinese be financing the Reid's solar project through donations to theClinton Foundations....which is then laundered to Reid's granddaughter?
================================================
REFERENCE----HARRY REID IS LIVID THAT HIS GRAND-DAUGHTER HAS BEEN OUTED AS A RECIPIENT OF LAUNDERED CAMPAIGN CASH---Reid lashed out at reporters, saying, “My granddaughter has been the target of harassing phone calls, strangers tracking her down, knocking on her door and negative, unwanted attention on the Internet.” “This has gone too far and it needs to stop now,” Reid said. “I deeply regret any role I had in creating this situation but now, as a grandparent, I say enough is enough.”
============================================
Besides the "jewelry company" financed by her grandfather, Ryan Elisabeth Reid runs the Sprat Theater Company, a small theater in Brooklyn, which is also coming under scrutiny. According to Sprat’s Theatre Company Web site, it has received grants/contributions from:
<><> the Clinton Global Initiative (connected to global terrorism via Muslim Brotherhood employee),
<><> two major Las Vegas foundations:
Caesar’s Foundation, and the NV Energy Foundation.
NOTE NV Energy Foundation---is a non-profit division of NV Energy (a public utility). The NV Energy utility is a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company which took over in 2013....and is now owned by a Warren Buffet unit.
Harry w/ grand-daughter Ryan Elizabeth Reid.
“Mattera should hire Wanderlei Silva as his bodyguard for his next Congresscritter questioning.”
I just hope Mattera files a lawsuit, and make this black bastard go before a magistrate and fully explain how he was “protecting” Reid in the absence of any reason to do so.
I wonder how much Rory Reid is worth?
Now if only Jason were black.... Well....
Not a single individual in the MSM will ask Reid the question. Tools all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
