Harry Reid: 'I Am Sightless in My Right Eye

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a Tuesday interview that he cannot see at all out of his right eye, and indicated there's little that can be done about it barring some new medical procedure.

"I am sightless in my right eye," Reid told Fusion in an interview aired Tuesday night.

According to a transcript from Fusion, Reid said in a segment that didn't make the final video that he is "over" the fact that he's blind in his right eye, "and that's the way it's going to be until something comes along that'll change it."

"Right now, I've had 11 hours of surgery," he said, according to Fusion. "They've tried. I can't see out of my right eye. And that's okay, I can live with that."

Reid has said the exercise bands he was working out with on New Year's Day snapped, sending him into a fall that broke several ribs and bones in his face.

But some conservative critics of Reid's have doubts that this is really what happened. Some speculate that he was in a fight with someone, and one website has reported that it may have been Reid's intoxicated brother who beat him up.

Reid's office has declined to answer any further questions about the accident.

Reid also walked back his comments from the 2012 election cycle about whether Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney paid his taxes. Reid attacked Romney relentlessly from the Senate floor during the campaign, and at one point cited unnamed sources who said Romney hasn't paid any taxes in a decade.

"The word's out that he hasn't paid any taxes for 10 years," Reid said then. "Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn't."

Reid admitted to Fusion that "of course he paid taxes. What he didn't do is let us see his tax returns." When asked specifically if Reid had any evidence about his prior claim that Romney paid no taxes, Reid dodged that question, and said Romney could clear up the issue by releasing his tax records.

But Reid refused to apologize to Romney nonetheless. When asked if he had any apology for Romney, Reid said, "none whatsoever, zero, none."

"I have no repentance, because it was an issue that was important," Reid said.