Harry Reid to Trump: Rescind Steve Bannon's appointment and 'rise to the dignity of the office'


In his first Senate floor speech since Election Day, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that in order to prove he wants to bring the country together, Donald Trump must rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon as his chief strategist and senior adviser.
Bannon is the former head of right-wing Breitbart News, and his appointment energized people like former KKK leader David Duke and the American Nazi Party. Bannon is a "champion of white supremacists," Reid said, and by naming him as a top aide, Trump is not sending a "message of healing." He urged Trump to "take responsibility" and "rise to the dignity of the office — president of the United States — instead of hiding behind your Twitter account. Show America that racism, bullying, and bigotry have no place in the White House or in America."
Reid also said Trump's election has "sparked a wave of hate crimes across the nation," and his fellow senators have a "responsibility to prevent Trump's bullying, aggressive behavior from becoming normalized in the eyes of Americans — especially the millions of young people who are watching and wondering, for example, if sexual assault is now a laughing matter. We have a responsibility to say that it is not normal for the KKK — the Ku Klux Klan — to celebrate the election of a president they view as their champion with a victory parade." Read his entire speech here.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from