Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Friday issued his first lengthy statement about the impact of Donald Trump’s election on the country, arguing that it has “emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry” and must account for the “grave sins he has committed against millions of Americans.”
Reid waited two days after Donald Trump’s decisive win over Hillary Clinton before weighing in, and he clearly remains shell-shocked.
“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,” he said. “The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.”
The outgoing Democratic leader took a swipe at Trump’s “Electoral College” win, an implicit criticism of his failure to capture the majority of the popular vote, and said the election is tearing up the country, devastating minority communities while America’s worst enemies celebrate.
“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,” he said. “Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.”
U.S. citizens now, he argued, are “living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans” more so than any time Reid said he could remember in his 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,” he said.
“American children [are] waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away,” he said. “Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president.”
The rest of his statement is here:
I have a large family. I have one daughter and 12 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 tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.
