Charles Koch Responds to Harry Reid: ‘These Attacks Are Dishonest’

‘It’s frightening for the future of the country to have these public officials try to hurt and destroy private citizens who oppose what they are doing’

SCARBOROUGH: "I want to ask you something personally because Mika and I talked about this when we had spent a little time with Liz and you before about how surprised you seemed a few years back at the level of vitriol leveled against you and your family and even Harry Reid calling you un-American, something that we talked about on our show time and time again and again."

REID: "It’s too bad that they’re trying to buy America and it’s time that the American people spoke out against this terrible dishonesty of these two brothers who are about as un-American as anyone that I can imagine."

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SCARBOROUGH: "What kind of personal impact did that have on you and your family, and were you shocked by the level of vitriol?"

KOCH: "Well, I mean, I — to get in this business, you’ve got to realize that Harry Truman was right. If you can’t stand the heat, don’t go in the kitchen. So I recognize that. I mean, people aren’t going to scare me off. I mean, I’ve been doing this for 50 years -- in politics, what is that, 12, I have been involved in this for 12 years. But I’m kind of like Martin Luther when he was on trial and he said, 'Here I stand, I can do no other.' I mean I dedicated my life to this. This -- these ideas, the ideas we’ve been talking about transformed my life, and so it’s my mission. I feel a moral obligation to help other people learn these and transform their lives. But it’s frightening for the future of the country to have these public officials try to hurt and destroy private citizens who oppose what they’re doing rather than have a conversation and maybe find, as we’ve done with the White House, find areas where we can work together on things we agree to make the country better instead of this vitriol and these dishonest attacks."

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