Harry Reid Uses Abramson News to Slam GOP on Equal Pay

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took to the Senate floor today and, in the middle of a rant against obstructionist Republicans, he invoked Jill Abramson‘s ouster from The New York Times to push for equal pay legislation, taking a shot at the Gray Lady in the process. Reid was basing his comment on a report that Abramson learned she was making a lot less money than her male predecessor.

And while the author of that report said that aspect of the firing might have been over-emphasized, at least one former NY Times reporter has confirmed that there is an “endemic” pay gap at the paper.

And so, when Reid was on the Senate floor railing against Senate Republicans for blocking pay equity legislation, he invoked the Abramson case to make his point.

“Look what happened, it appears, in The New York Times. The woman who ran that newspaper was fired yesterday. Why? It’s now in the press, because she complained she was doing the same work as men in two different jobs and made a lot less money than they did. That’s why we needed that legislation.”

You can watch the video below, via C-SPAN 2:

[h/t National journal]
[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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