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

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last updated 16 November 2016

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.

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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.

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