Angle defends record and blames Reid for Nevada’s economy

Nevada Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle on Wednesday blamed Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for the state’s poor economy while defending past statements her opponents have used to paint her as extreme. 

In a wide-ranging interview with ABC News that aired in an afternoon webcast, Angle said she is a “mainstream American” and said that Reid, the Senate majority leader, shoulders much of the blame for Nevada’s high unemployment and home foreclosure rates.

{mosads}”I’m a mainstream American and mainstream Nevada understands that,” she said.

Of Reid, she said that “the person who occupies this U.S. Senate seat lives in Washington D.C. and is out of touch.”

Reid deflected blame for Nevada’s struggling economy during the same webcast Tuesday, saying that “it would take a real stretch to think I caused the problems with the economy,” that he tried to combat Bush administration policies before President Obama took office and that since then he has worked to create jobs.

“Understand that Harry Reid was Senate majority leader in the Bush years,” Angle responded. “These policies that have been coming forward, for him to say that he hasn’t been responsible — he’s been responsible through several administrations.”

Nevada, with 14.3 percent unemployment, has one of the highest jobless rates in the country. It also is the epicenter of the housing crisis, with 68 percent of mortgaged properties under water, according to some statistics.

That’s put Reid, the highest-ranking Democratic senator, in danger of losing his seat. But the GOP primary victory by former state assemblywoman Angle, a Tea Party favorite, has appeared to have handed Reid a better opportunity to win reelection.

Polls show Reid and Angle locked in a tight race. Angle has blamed Reid as Senate Democratic leader for failing to bring the economy out of its recession. But Reid has aggressively pushed back against Angle, calling her extreme and unfit to serve in the Senate.

Reid’s campaign has pointed to several statements she has made to make the case that she is outside the mainstream. Angle said that her opponents have taken her remarks out of context. 

Following a comment that Democratic policies — such as healthcare reform and the stimulus — violate the First Commandment, Angle claimed that she was simply using language to relate to her interviewers on a Christian radio show.

“No, I didn’t say that. That was a discussion I was having with CBN. We were talking in very Christian terms. You speak the language of the folks who you are communicating with,” she said, later adding that “we have allowed government to take the place of God.”

Angle also offered to put her comment about there being “domestic enemies” in Congress “in context.” “We were talking about the policies of the government that have really caused problems for us in the last 18 months … that have really become the enemy of the people.”

Pressed on whether she thinks there are any lawmakers who are domestic enemies, Angle ducked.

“Certainly [there are] people who pass these kinds of policies,” she said. “They’re certainly not friends to the free market system.”

The former assemblywoman also said that she was talking about the history of the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms when she said that “I’m hoping that we’re not getting to Second Amendment remedies” with regard to Reid.

Angle named GOP Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.) and GOP Reps. Mike Pence (Ind.) and Michele Bachmann (Minn.) as lawmakers to which she is similar.

“My record has been very strongly ‘lower taxes, less government regulation’ — very constitutionally minded,” she said.