Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid flatly called Donald Trump a “racist” from the Senate floor Monday and blasted the media and Republicans for not using the term in discussing the GOP presidential nominee.
“They never label Trump as a racist,” Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat said. “But he is a racist. Donald Trump is a racist. ’Racist’ is a term I don’t throw around lightly.”
Mr. Reid cited a civil rights investigation of race-based housing discrimination early in Mr. Trump’s career, when he worked in real estate alongside his father, and the mogul’s position at the forefront of the “birther” movement that questioned President Obama’s place of birth.
Mr. Trump recently admitted he believes Mr. Obama, the first black president, was born in the U.S.
The Democratic leader also cited Mr. Trump’s comments about Mexico sending “rapists” to the U.S., his earlier proposal to ban Muslim entrants to the U.S. and his decision to spar with a Khan family, whose son died in the Iraq War.
Mr. Reid has derided Mr. Trump before as a “bigot,” but his speech Monday used tougher rhetoric and singled out Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan for endorsing Mr. Trump, despite the nominee’s more strident remarks and positions.
When Mr. Trump questioned whether an American-born judge of Mexican descent could preside over a case regarding his business interests, because the mogul wants to build a wall along the southern U.S. border, Mr. Ryan said saying someone couldn’t do their job because of their heritage is “sort of the textbook definition of a racist comment.”
After some fence-sitting, Mr. Ryan ultimately endorsed Mr. Trump.
“Think of the example he’s setting for our nation’s youth,” Mr. Reid said of Mr. Trump. “Republicans are normalizing this racist behavior.”
Mr. Reid made his remarks hours before Mr. Trump debates Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, a showdown that’s expected to draw as many as 100 million viewers, and as Mrs. Clinton’s backers urge moderators to hold Mr. Trump to account if he spins the facts.
“It’s time for Republicans to stop closing their eyes to Donald Trump’s racism, and it’s time for reporters and journalists to be honest with the American people,” Mr. Reid said. “They owe America the truth.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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