Harry Reid rips Donald Trump for unleashing ‘tide of hate’
Yahoo News Colin CampbellYahoo NewsNovember 11, 2016
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)View photos
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)
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Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid released a scathing statement on Friday tearing into President-elect Donald Trump.
“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate,” Reid said.
Reid’s statement further declared that “white nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory” in Tuesday’s election, “while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear.”
The Nevada senator and former boxer is well known for his willingness to lob political grenades into the national discussion. In late October, the Democrat claimed that the FBI had “explosive information about close ties and coordination” between Trump and the Kremlin. After his comments, CNN reported that the FBI had opened an investigation into ties between Trump aides and the Russians.
Reid, in his final weeks in office, clearly has no interest smoothing a transition to the upcoming Trump administration.
In his Friday statement, Reid accused Trump of demonizing wide swaths of the American public.
“I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics,” he said.
“If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed,” Reid concluded, “he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.”
Yahoo News reached out to Trump’s spokeswoman for comment.
View Reid’s full statement below:
“I have personally been on the ballot in Nevada for 26 elections and I have never seen anything like the reaction to the election completed last Tuesday. The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.
“White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear – especially African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans and Asian Americans. Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.
“I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics. Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them and feeling afraid to walk down the street holding hands. American children waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away. Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president.
“I have a large family. I have one daughter and twelve granddaughters. The texts, emails and phone calls I have received from them have been filled with fear – fear for themselves, fear for their Hispanic and African American friends, for their Muslim and Jewish friends, for their LBGT friends, for their Asian friends. I’ve felt their tears and I’ve felt their fear.
“We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows. Their fear is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them. Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.
“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate. Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.
“If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.”
