Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had a message for Republicans just hours after Donald Trump won big on Super Tuesday: Don’t act surprised. You made Trump.
“Donald Trump is the standard-bearer for the Republican Party,” Reid said from the Senate floor Wednesday. “Republicans created him by spending seven years appealing to some of the darkest forces in America. Now it’s up to the Republicans to try and undo what they have done by denouncing Donald Trump. It’s time for the Republicans to stop the Frankenstein they created.”
Reid said that by blocking President Barack Obama’s agenda at every turn, by using hurtful language against minorities, Republican had paved the way for Trump to arise as the party’s nominee, a nightmare scenario for party leaders who worry Trump will be a liability for them and down ballot candidates in a general election.
“The Republican Party has spent years railing against Latinos and immigrants, trying to incite fear. Congressman Steve King called undocumented immigrants drug dealers. He described their bodies in a very negative, ugly way,” Reid said on the floor. “Now Donald Trump is saying the same thing. Donald Trump is the ultimate fulfillment of the Republican Party’s legacy of obstruction and resentment.”
But Reid went a bit further even calling out the GOP’s other options in the race as too extreme.
“It’s not only Trump. Senator Cruz, Senator Rubio and Ben Carson are saying basically the same thing,” Reid said. “Maybe a little more subtle, but they’re saying the same thing. After all, this is the same party.”
