WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (UPI) — The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate is still having a difficult time accepting a Donald Trump presidency.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., lambasted the businessman in a lengthy statement Friday — his first since Trump’s election — and slammed the electoral process in a rebuke that questions the state of American democracy.
“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.”
Reid went on to say the sadness, fear and anger from disappointed voters is of great concern to him.
“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 continued.
“Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.”
The five-term senator, who will retire in January after 34 years in the U.S. Congress, even went so far as to call Trump a “sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate” — a reference to an audiotape from a 2005 interview with Access Hollywood released last month, in which Trump made sexually charged remarks.
“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,” Reid said. “We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows.
“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.”
