Thiessen: ‘For The Past Ten Years Harry Reid Has Been Beating His Wife’ Thursday afternoon on Fox News’ America Live, Megyn Kelly‘s panel debated Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid‘s un-sourced allegations that Republican candidate Mitt Romney did not pay taxes for ten years. Former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen likened Sen. Reid’s allegations to the age-old “beating your wife” logical trap, while former Democratic staffer Julie Roginsky defended the allegations as a politically “brilliant move.”
In response to Reid taking to the Senate floor to declare that “the word is out” that Romney avoided taxation for ten years, Thiessen quipped: “The word is out that for the past ten years Harry Reid has been beating his wife. Do I know that? Do I have any proof? No. But the burden of proof is on him to prove that he hasn’t been beating his wife.”
“That’s essentially what Harry Reid just did to Mitt Romney,” Thiessen said.
“What does ‘the word is out’ mean?” he continued. “He admits he doesn’t have any proof. In fact, this is the quote: he said, ‘Do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain. But I don’t think that the burden of proof should be on me, the burden should be on him. He’s the one I’ve alleged has not paid taxes.’”
“I mean, that’s Orwellian,” the conservative pundit added.
Kelly then asked liberal guest Roginsky: “If somebody called you up and told you ‘I believe the guy didn’t pay taxes for ten years,’ would you then repeat that on the airwaves?”
Roginsky responded first by attacking Thiessen’s point: “Go back to Marc’s point about Harry Reid and beating his wife. If there were police records existing about Harry Reid and he didn’t want to release them, then, yeah.” After Kelly pressed her for an answer, she responded, “I think politically it’s a brilliant move on Harry Reid’s part. Is politics fair game? No. Is Harry Reid doing something as a Democrat? Of course.” She then added that the burden of proof is on Romney to disprove the allegations.
Thiessen then agreed that Romney should release more tax returns, but added that Reid is among senators who recently refused to release their own tax records. “What is in those tax returns? I’d like to know. What the heck, let’s speculate. Is he taking money from corrupt casino moguls? Is he on the take from the Las Vegas mob? The word is out that Harry Reid is corrupt. I have no evidence whatsoever that Harry Reid is corrupt, but I’ve made the accusation. Let him prove that I’m wrong.”
