--- title: Harry Reid's Speech on 'Normalizing' Donald Trump's Behavior description: Here's the full transcript of his remarks from the Senate floor canonical: https://time.com/4572395/harry-reid-speech-donald-trump-stephen-bannon/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-15T23:02:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:54:23.399Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Harry Reid's Speech Calling on Donald Trump to Rescind Stephen Bannon's Appointment og:description: Here's the full transcript of his remarks from the Senate floor og:url: https://time.com/4572395/harry-reid-speech-donald-trump-stephen-bannon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ee0aa750359b8b1/6988ae9e97cdff860c6ae9c5/harry-reid.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4341 og:image:height: 2442 og:image:alt: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Nevada Democrats og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Harry Reid's Speech Calling on Donald Trump to Rescind Stephen Bannon's Appointment twitter:description: Here's the full transcript of his remarks from the Senate floor twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ee0aa750359b8b1/6988ae9e97cdff860c6ae9c5/harry-reid.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Harry Reid's Speech Calling on Donald Trump to Rescind Stephen Bannon's Appointment > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=b38f72d2-4568-4c7d-bed2-44e21b6c7669&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Harry Reid’s Senate Speech Against ‘Normalizing’ Donald Trump’s Behavior [Watch (HLS stream): Harry Reid’s Senate Speech Against ‘Normalizing’ Donald Trump’s Behavior](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6cvVb3R5.m3u8) (1:56)  _Published 2016-11-15. Sen. Harry Reid spoke out against Donald Trump’s early actions as president-elect, calling on him to “Rise to the dignity of the office…instead of hiding behind your Twitter account.”_ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 15, 2016 11:02 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 15, 2016 11:02 PM UTC Sen. [Harry Reid](http://time.com/4567860/donald-trump-harry-reid-statement/) spoke out on Tuesday against Donald Trump’s early actions as president-elect, calling on him to “Rise to the dignity of the office…instead of hiding behind your Twitter account.” Of concern to Reid and his allies (as well as many Republicans) is the appointment of [Stephen Bannon](http://time.com/4569588/donald-trump-stephen-bannon-breitbart-white-house/) as chief White House strategist and senior advisor. The former [Breitbart](http://time.com/4571258/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-steve-bannon/) chief executive is known to promote white nationalist, anti-Semitic, racist and misogynist viewpoints, and many see his presence in the White House as a dangerous proposition. “If we fail to hold Trump accountable,” Reid said, “we all bear a measure of responsibility for normalizing his behavior.” Read the full transcript here: --- > “” --- ## Transcript Even as we as leaders accept the results of this election, we must also give voice to those who are afraid. Cuz there are many who are afraid. Indeed, a majority of Americans post- Donald Trump. Many of Republican colleagues in this chamber oppose Trump. They weren't alone. Trump will be the first president to take office having lost the popular vote by 2 million. Democrats have a responsibility to improve the life of Americans, all lives. But we also have other responsibilities. We have a responsibility to be the voice of millions of Americans sitting at home. Afraid that they're not welcome anymore in Donald Trump's America. We have a responsibility to prevent Trump's bullying, aggressive behavior from becoming normalized in the eyes of America. Especially the millions of young people who are watching and wondering, for example of sexual assault is now Laughing matter. [ INAUDIBLE ] responsibilities say it is not normal for the KKK Ku Klux Klan to celebrate the election of the president. They view as their champion with a victor parade. They had one scheduled. In another words we have a responsibility to lead. If Trump is serious about seeking unity the first thing he should do is rescind his appointment of Steve Banner. Resend it, don't do it. Think about this, don't do it. As long as a champion of racial division is step away from the old office. It would be impossible to take Trump's efforts. You have a nation seriously. So I say do Donald Trump Take responsibility. Wise to the dignity of the office. The president of the United States instead of hiding behind your Twitter account and show America that racism, bullying, biggoting have no place in America. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4572395/harry-reid-speech-donald-trump-stephen-bannon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4572395/harry-reid-speech-donald-trump-stephen-bannon/"},"headline":"Read Harry Reid's Speech Calling on Donald Trump to Rescind Stephen Bannon's Appointment","datePublished":"2016-11-15T23:02:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-07T06:54:23.399Z","description":"Here's the full transcript of his remarks from the Senate floor","url":"https://time.com/4572395/harry-reid-speech-donald-trump-stephen-bannon/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ee0aa750359b8b1/6988ae9e97cdff860c6ae9c5/harry-reid.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ee0aa750359b8b1/6988ae9e97cdff860c6ae9c5/harry-reid.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Nevada Democrats","caption":"Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Nevada Democrats","creditText":"Bill Clark—CQ-Roll Call,Inc.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4572395/harry-reid-speech-donald-trump-stephen-bannon/","name":"Read Harry Reid's Speech Calling on Donald Trump to Rescind Stephen Bannon's Appointment"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Harry Reid’s Senate Speech Against ‘Normalizing’ Donald Trump’s Behavior","description":"Sen. 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