Harry Reid
Harry ReidReuters

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Friday issued a scathing attack on President-elect Donald Trump, saying his election “emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.”

“White nationalists, [Russian President] 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,” charged Reid in a lengthy statement dealing with the results of the 2016 election.

“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 claimed. “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.”

“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,” continued the statement.

“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,” added Reid.

“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.”

Trump or his spokespeople have not yet responded to the scathing criticism by Reid, who will be retiring in January.

American media noted that Reid’s vitriol toward Trump after his election stands in contrast to most Democratic leaders, who have been trying to offer a conciliatory note in the wake of his election.

Last year, before the Republican primaries even began, Reid said he does not really care who wins the Republican nomination for president because “I think they’re all losers.”

He previously announced his support for the nuclear deal with Iran, which Israel opposed and which Trump said he would tear up if elected.

Most recently, Reid said FBI Director James Comey “may have broken the law” by announcing days before the election that the agency would reopen the probe into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)