Watch: Harry Reid Blames Rise of Trump on GOP’s ‘Moral Cowardice’

GOP ‘Should Put on Make America Great Again Hats and Stand by Trump’ Like Chris Christie

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid Thursday morning took the entire Republican Party – but especially Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – to task for the rise of Donald Trump. 

“When Trump calls immigrants ‘rapists and murderers,’ he’s just doing what he’s learned from generations of conservatives,” Reid said at an event hosted by the Center for American Progress. “The Republican Party has become the party of Trump,” he added, the Washington Post reports.

“The Republican establishment acts bewildered. But they shouldn’t. As much as they may try to distance themselves from Trump now, Republican leaders are responsible for his rise,” Reid offered. “Republican leaders created the drought conditions. Donald Trump has simply struck the match,” he continued.

“Republicans spent eight years torching the institutions Americans once relied on to help them face the challenges of their daily lives. Instead of engaging on policy, Republicans simply told Americans there was nothing to be done. So what thrived in the wasteland Republican leaders created? Resentment, hatred — which Republican leaders were all too eager to embrace and too cowardly to renounce.”

Reid focused much of the blame on Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying his “blind rejection of any policy proposed by President Obama, regardless of the merits, is the kinder, gentler version of birtherism.”

“Donald Trump’s style of no-holds-barred politics was forged in the Senate Republican caucus,” Sen. Reid said. “If Sen. McConnell wonders from where Donald Trump came, he should take a look in the mirror. No one is working harder to support Trump than Mitch McConnell.”

“For too long, Senator McConnell and Speaker Ryan have tried to have it both ways, giving Trump occasionally a slap on the wrist each time he says something detestable, but always committing to support him at the end of the day. This is precisely the kind of moral cowardice that enabled the rise of Trump,” Reid said.

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“After years of refusing to denounce birtherism, McConnell and Ryan are now supporting the most prominent birther in the nation,” he accused. “Why are they waiting to withdraw their support? What more do they need to see? … There is no gray area here. It is time for Sen. McConnell and Speaker Ryan to find the backbone to say: ‘Enough, Trump, enough.’”

If Senator McConnell and Rep. Ryan “refuse to revoke their support for Trump, they should put on Make America Great Again hats and stand by Trump at his next press conference, and be a mini [Chris] Christie, I guess. 

Watch:

 

Image: Screenshot via CNN/YouTube
Hat tip: Addicting Info