[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14265-14269]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have been in politics for five decades. I 
have not seen anything like what we are seeing today in America. The 
man who lost the popular vote by 2 million votes is now the President-
elect. I will repeat that. A man who lost the election by 2 million 
votes or more is now the President-elect.
  His election has sparked a wave of hate crimes across America. This 
is a simple statement of fact, but it raises critical questions for us 
as a country and as a nation. How do we respond to the election of 
Donald Trump?
  The Democrats want to work with Mr. Trump when we can. I understand 
and respect the impulse because Democrats like to get things done. That 
is why most of us are in government in the first place.
  For example, Democrats have been trying for multiple decades to get 
Republicans to invest in our deteriorating infrastructure. What kind of 
makeup do we have in the infrastructure? Some say $1 trillion; some say 
$3 trillion. It is really badly in need of help and repair. It is an 
automatic job creator. Over these decades, each time we tried to do 
something on infrastructure, Republicans obstructed. So if we can 
finally get Republicans to make the job-creating infrastructure 
investments we have been seeking for years, that would be a welcome 
development for the Senate and the country.
  If Trump wants to pursue policies that will help working people, 
Democrats will take a pragmatic approach. Democrats have a 
responsibility to improve the lives of Americans, but we also have 
other responsibilities. We have a responsibility to be the voice of 
millions of Americans sitting at home, afraid that they are 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 Americans, especially to the many young people who are watching 
and wondering, for example, if sexual assault is now a laughing matter.
  We have a responsibility to say that it is not normal for the KKK and 
groups like the Klan to celebrate the election of a President they view 
as their champion with a victory parade. They have one scheduled. In 
other words, we have a responsibility to lead.
  Outside this Senate Chamber, workers can be heard hammering away on 
the platform for the inauguration ceremony. It will take months to do 
it, but it will be done right. In 65 days Donald Trump will step onto 
that platform. For 4 years he will wield the loudest and most powerful 
microphone in the world. But even as those workers hammer away on 
Trump's platform, and even as we as leaders accept the results of this 
election, we must also give voice to those who are afraid because there 
are many who are afraid.
  Indeed, a majority of Americans opposed Donald Trump. Many of my 
Republican colleagues in this Chamber opposed Trump. They were not 
alone. Trump will be the first President to take office having lost the 
popular vote by 2 million.
  Every day for the past week, the majority of American voters have 
awakened to a difficult reality: Not only did the man who lost the 
popular vote win the election, but his election sparked a rise in hate 
crimes and threats of violence. Since Election Day, the Southern 
Poverty Law Center has reported hundreds of incidents of harassment and 
intimidation. The last count reported is 315 from their calculations.
  Overwhelmingly, the hateful acts are anti-Muslim, anti-Hispanic, 
anti-African American, anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-Semitic, and anti-
Asian.
  I have heard these stories from friends and family. My and my wife's 
Nevada physician is a Pakistani-American of Muslim faith. We think so 
much of him. We have known each other for 35 years. The day after the 
election my friend was in a restaurant in Las Vegas having dinner. A 
man approached him in a threatening manner and said: Where are you 
from? He said: Where are you from? The man said: I'm local. The doctor 
said: So am I.
  That same night, in another restaurant in Las Vegas, another friend 
of mine who is also a Pakistani-American physician was having dinner. A 
man walked up to him in the same manner and said: Where are you from? 
He said he was from Pakistan. The other man said: Why don't you go 
back?
  One of my staffers has a daughter in middle school. I have known that 
little girl since she was a little baby. The day after the election, 
the principal addressed the entire student body on the school's PA 
system because of two incidents that had occurred that he wanted to 
talk about. In one instance, a boy yelled at a Latina student, saying 
he was glad she was being deported now that Trump was President.
  Another boy was sent home for yelling a derogatory, hateful term to 
an African-American student. The boy justified himself by saying he 
could use that language now that Trump was President.
  In Spokane, WA, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center was defaced with 
the same hateful word.
  Those are only a few examples that people close to me have related. 
But these disturbing accounts have been heard across America.
  I have a compilation of many of these incidents. One is from NBC 
news. Another is from another publication. There is a headline: 
``Hundreds of Hate Crimes Reported Since the Election.'' Mr. President, 
I ask unanimous consent that they be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                            [Nov. 14, 2016]

  NBC--Hundreds of Hate Crimes Reported Since Election: SPLC CHELSEA 
                                 BAILEY

       More than 300 incidents of harassment or intimidation have 
     been reported following Donald Trump's election Tuesday 
     night, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) told NBC News 
     Monday.
       The SPLC first published its report on post-election 
     incidents on Friday but said reports have continued to stream 
     in. They found that harassment most commonly occurred in K-12 
     schools and on university campuses. Many, though not all 
     incidents, involved direct references to the Trump campaign, 
     according to the group's report.
       The anti-intolerance watchdog said it will continue to 
     tally incidents of hate and harassment reported through 
     social media, news reports and direct submissions to its 
     website.
       The Law Center said they were unable to independently 
     verify each incident reported, but NBC News has separately 
     confirmed dozens.
       Some incidents of hate crimes that NBC News has confirmed 
     independently:
       On Sunday, a rector found the words ``Trump Nation, Whites 
     Only'' scrawled on the walls of the Episcopal Church of Our 
     Saviour in Silver Spring, Maryland. The church offers weekly 
     Spanish-language services.
       The University of Michigan issued a campus safety alert 
     Sunday after a Muslim student told police a white male 
     demanded she remove her hijab or he would ``set her on fire 
     with a lighter.'' Police are investigating.
       New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered state police to open 
     a multi-agency

[[Page 14266]]

     hate crimes investigation into reports that a swastika and 
     the word ``Trump'' was spray painted on the walls of a 
     residence hall at SUNY Geneseo.
       In Philadelphia, police are searching for the man who 
     grafittied ``Trump Rules'' and ``Black B* * *'' onto the hood 
     of a woman's van.
       Parishioners found graffiti on the walls of St. David's 
     Episcopal Church in Indiana. A swastika, ``Heil Trump'' and 
     ``F* * * Church'' were spray painted on the walls of the 
     church, which performs same-sex weddings, WTHR reports.
       ``Colored'' and ``Whites Only'' signs were placed above 
     drinking fountains at First Coast High School in 
     Jacksonville, Florida, a district spokeswoman confirmed with 
     NBC News.
       Mere hours after Trump won the election, ``Make America 
     White Again'' was scrawled across the wall of a softball 
     field in Wellsville, New York. Police are investigating.
       Also on Monday, the FBI'S Uniform Crime Reporting division 
     also released its annual ``Hate Crimes Statistics'' report, 
     tracking the number of bias-motivated incidents reported to 
     law enforcement officials in 2015. The number of hate crimes 
     rose 6 percent in 2015, according to the report, and the vast 
     majority (59 percent) of victims were targeted because of 
     their race or ethnicity.
       Attacks motivated by religious bias and sexual orientation 
     were also among the most frequently reported types of hate 
     crimes. The number of reported anti-Muslim hate crimes spiked 
     in 2015, growing by an astonishing 66 percent, according to 
     the FBI report.
       In all, more than 5,800 incidents of hate crimes were 
     reported to authorities, involving 7,121 victims. Of the 
     known offenders, ``48.4 percent were white, 24.3 percent were 
     African American, and race was unknown for 16.2 percent of 
     offenders,'' according to the report.
       Related: How the 2016 Election Exposed America's Racial and 
     Cultural Divides.
       In addition to monitoring anti-Arab bias, the report also 
     tracked incidents of anti-religious bias for seven additional 
     religions for the first time. The expanded report now tracks 
     anti-religious bias against Buddhist, Eastern Orthodox, 
     Hindu, Jehovah's Witness, Mormon, Sikh and other Christian 
     victims.
       Monday's report marks the 25th anniversary of the FBI's 
     efforts to compile data around hate crimes. The report 
     contains data from nearly 15,000 law enforcement agencies.
                                  ____


                        [Updated: Nov. 14, 2016]

 BuzzFeed--Here Are 26 Reported Racist Incidents After Donald Trump's 
                       Victory Tasneem Nashrulla


                        ``This is the normal.''

       1. Threatening ``vigilante'' fliers calling for torture of 
     ``university leaders spouting off all this diversity 
     garbage'' were posted in bathrooms across Texas State 
     University after Donald Trump's win in the elections.
       ``Now that our man TRUMP is elected and republicans own 
     both the senate and the house--time to organize tar and 
     feather VIGILANTE SQUADS and go arrest and torture those 
     deviant university leaders spouting off all this Diversity 
     Garbage,'' the fliers, which were glued to bathrooms and 
     minors in buildings across the campus, said.
       Other fliers criticized the the concept of diversity and 
     its proponents.
       One flier said, ``NO OTHER RACE (BUT WHITES) HAS BENT OVER 
     BACKWARDS to assure that all non-whites receive a `fair 
     shake' in being part of American life, even to the detriment 
     and social well-being of `our own kinds' (whites).'' The 
     flier said ``multiculturalism'' and ``diversity'' and ``code-
     words for white genocide.''
       The Texas State University Police was investigating the 
     incident, President Denise M. Trauth said in a statement. 
     Trauth said she was aware of reports of ``action and 
     expression that have occurred on campus following the recent 
     elections in our country.''
       ``Actions such as pasting flyers to bathroom mirrors 
     amounts to criminal activity, and our university police are 
     investigating these incidents,'' Trauth said. ``Texas State 
     strives to maintain an atmosphere that protects free speech, 
     but one that is respectful to other members of the Bobcat 
     community.''
       The university police did not return BuzzFeed News' request 
     for comment.
       2. Racial slurs and threats, including the n-word, ``Go 
     back to Africa,'' and ``Whites only,'' along with pro-Trump 
     slogans were found scrawled in a high school bathroom in 
     Minnesota on Nov. 9.
       Police said they were investigating the graffiti found in 
     the boys bathroom at Maple Grove Senior High School. The 
     graffiti included F* * *allPorchmonkeys, #Whitesonly, Trump 
     Train, #Gobacktoafrica and ``Make America Great Again.''
       According to police, the ``racist'' messages were written 
     during the school day on Nov. 9.
       ``This type of behavior is highly offensive, will not be 
     tolerated and does not reflect the views of the Maple Grove 
     community,'' police said in a statement.
       In a letter to students' families, the school's principal, 
     Bart Becker, said he was ``horrified'' by the ``serious and 
     disturbing racial incident.''
       ``We immediately launched an investigation into this 
     incident and we will take swift and appropriate action based 
     on the investigation findings,'' Becker said. ``We will work 
     very hard to identify who did this horrible act and determine 
     how we can support the students and the staff who have been 
     affected by it.''
       3. Mehreen Kasana, an editor in New York City who was 
     wearing a scarf around her head the day after the election, 
     said that a man told her, ``Your time's up, girlie.''
       Mehreen Kasana @mehreenkasana
       I have a scarf on. Passed by someone on the platform today 
     and he says, ``Your time's up, girlie.'' 8:50 AM--9 Nov 2016
       Kasana, a Muslim woman, told BuzzFeed News that she didn't 
     usually cover her head but her younger sister observes the 
     hijab. She said she wore a scarf on Nov. 9 because of the 
     cold.
       Kasana said that while she was passing by people at the 
     subway station, a ``white man who had to be in his mid-30s, 
     holding a briefcase and a newspaper first looked at me and 
     grunted. Then he said, `Your time's up, girlie.'''
       According to Kasana no one at the station did anything. ``I 
     almost always fight back but I think that moment was so 
     replete with defeat and misery that, out of the sheer need to 
     protect myself, I remained silent,'' she said. ``The last 
     thing I needed was to get pushed on the tracks.''
       4. Middle schoolers in Michigan chanted ``Build the wall'' 
     in their lunchroom on Nov. 9.
       Philip Lewis @Phil_Lewis
       Middle school students in Royal Oak, Michigan chanting 
     ``Build The Wall!''
       9:55 AM--10 Nov 2016
       A group of middle schoolers in Royal Oak, Michigan, broke 
     out in a ``build the wall'' chant inside their cafeteria on 
     Wednesday, echoing one of Trump's rallying cries during his 
     campaign.
       ``Because of the strong emotions and intensity of rhetoric 
     that the posting of this incident to social media has 
     elicited, we have had parents express concern regarding 
     student safety,'' Superintendent of schools Shawn Lewis-Lakin 
     said in a statement Thursday.
       5. A ``Make America White Again'' sign with a swastika was 
     graffitied on a softball dugout wall in a park in Wellsville, 
     New York.
       Brian Quinn @brianqwdr
       Trump has spoken about ``Making America great again,'' but 
     someone else had a different message recently in Wellsville.
       1:38 PM--9 Nov 2016
       Wellsville Village Police Chief Tim O'Grady told the 
     Wellsville Daily that no one had filed a complaint about the 
     graffiti, which was spotted on Nov. 9. He said the wall was 
     on a privately owned field. ``Unless somebody makes a 
     complaint, we don't have any cause for action,'' O'Grady 
     said. ``It's vandalism, we'll look into it.''
       On Saturday, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced a 
     joint investigation involving New York State Police and the 
     State Division of Human Rights looking into the graffiti, 
     calling it a hate crime.
       ``New York has zero tolerance for bigotry, fear and hatred, 
     and those who seek to undermine the core values this state 
     and nation were founded upon,'' Cuomo said in the statement. 
     ``I have ordered a full investigation into this deplorable 
     act.''
       Sixty-seven percent of votes in Allegany County, where 
     Wellsville is located, went to Trump-Pence.
       6. Photos of a black baby doll which appeared to be hung in 
     an elevator in Canisius College in New York on the night of 
     Nov. 8, surfaced on social media.
       Jordan Roth @Baby_Jay1221
       This baby doll was found in a freshman elevator last night 
     at Canisius. I don't care who you are or what your beliefs 
     are this is awful 3:51 PM--9 Nov 2016
       The Tuesday-night incident prompted Canisius President John 
     Hurley to send a campuswide letter strongly condemning the 
     act, which he called ``extremely troubling on several 
     levels,'' the Buffalo News reported.
       He later issued a detailed message describing two separate 
     incidents--placing the doll in the elevator and the use of 
     the doll in a residence hall room--which involved two 
     unrelated sets of students.
       According to the public safety report, the doll was first 
     placed in an elevator as a prank to startle people and the 
     two strings at the doll's neck were part of its construction. 
     Hurley said there was no evidence that the doll was hung in 
     the elevator as several social media posts appeared to 
     suggest.
       The elevator prank set off a chain of events ``on a night 
     when the results of the presidential election had many 
     students feeling distressed and vulnerable'' Hurley said, 
     adding that those involved in the elevator prank would be 
     disciplined.
       The doll was then later put in residence hall room where it 
     was hung from the curtain rod, according to the report. 
     Students took photos of it and created memes using language 
     about ``Trump fans'' which were then posted to social media, 
     according to Hurley.
       ``It's evident that what may have started as a thoughtless, 
     insensitive prank earlier in

[[Page 14267]]

     the evening in the elevator degraded into a very offensive, 
     inappropriate act later that night,'' he said.
       The students involved in the residence hall incident have 
     been involuntarily suspended from the college pending the 
     outcome of disciplinary cases against them, the consequences 
     of which could include dismissal from the college, Hurley 
     said.
       7. A ``fair skinned male'' allegedly pulled at a woman's 
     hijab on Nov. 8, choking her and causing her to fall, San 
     Jose State University police said in an alert to students.
       Pam Howell @BookaliciousPam
       San Jose State University sent an email that a woman had 
     her hijab ripped off by a white male with such force it 
     choked her as she fell.
       9:08 PM--9 Nov 2016
       It wasn't clear whether the woman was attacked because of 
     her hijab, and the university said the case was under 
     investigation.
       ``We are of course very concerned that this has occurred on 
     our campus,'' a spokeswoman told the Mercury News. ``No one 
     should experience this kind of behavior at San Jose State.''
       Doaa Abdelrahman, the president of the Muslim Student 
     Association at San Jose State, told the Mercury News that she 
     knew the victim and believed the attack was related to 
     Trump's campaign on election night.
       ``I've experienced racism for my religion since age 9,'' 
     Abdelrahman said. ``I think Trump is the cause of a lot of 
     segregation and division between people.''
       8. ``Trump'' was scrawled on the door of a Muslim prayer 
     room at New York University on Nov. 9.
       The incident at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering was 
     reported by the NYU Muslim Students Association (MSA).
       The day after Trump was elected president, a Muslim student 
     making his way to the prayer room found ``Trump'' scribbled 
     across the front of prayer space door, Afraz Khan, the 
     president of NYU MSA, told BuzzFeed News.
       ``Our campus is not immune to the bigotry that grips 
     America,'' the MSA said in a Facebook post.
       The incident was reported to university officials, whom 
     Khan said were doing a ``wonderful job in supporting us.''
       In the wake of the vandalism, the MSA organized a rally and 
     called on fellow students ``to show support that fear and 
     intimidation have no place on our campus.''
       Within 24 hours, more than 1,000 people signed up as 
     supporters ``to denounce this hate,'' Khan said.
       ``Nothing like this has happened before at NYU and we pray 
     this is the first and last incident,'' he said.
       9. ``F* * * your safe space,'' ``Build wall,'' and 
     ``Trump'' were scrawled in chalk at the University of 
     Louisiana at Lafayette on Nov. 8.
       The Vermilion @TheVermilion
       PRO-Trump chalk was littered in front of the EGD library 
     last night.
       10:32 AM--9 Nov 2016
       Other graffiti scrawled on campus after Trump's win 
     included ``Democrats can kiss Trump's a* * *.''
       Campus maintenance workers washed away some of the reported 
     graffiti, while campus police were investigating several more 
     reports of pro-Trump graffiti across the campus, the 
     Advertiser reported.
       10. ``Black lives don't matter and neither does your 
     votes,'' was spray-painted across a wall in Durham, North 
     Carolina on Nov. 9.
       Derrick Lewis @DerrickQLewis
       Someone spray painted ``Black lives don't matter and 
     neither does your votes'' on a wall in Durham overnight.
       3:27 PM--9 Nov 2016
       Community members gathered Thursday and cleaned up the 
     message, WNCN reported.
       11. After one photo went viral, Southern Illinois 
     University issued a statement saying they were aware of 
     offensive social media posts and were reviewing the 
     incidents.
       ``This week's presidential election was extremely divisive 
     and emotions are running high,'' the interim chancellor, Brad 
     Colwell, said in the statement. ``A number of people have 
     contacted my office regarding offensive behavior and 
     comments, including social media posts. While federal law 
     prohibits us from discussing issues related to specific 
     students, please know that we deeply share your concerns. We 
     are reviewing every incident and will take appropriate 
     action.''
       Colwell said that while discussions about the future of the 
     country were important, he urged students to do so in a 
     ``civil manner that respects everyone's right to agree or to 
     disagree.''
       Colwell issued his statement after a viral social media 
     post showed two students from wearing blackface and standing 
     in front of a Confederate flag.
       However, one of the students in the photo later wrote on 
     Facebook that the picture had been taken out of context. She 
     said she had been wearing a ``boscia face mask'' in front of 
     a Confederate flag she had ripped because she does not 
     support it.
       12. A Muslim student at San Diego State University (SDSU) 
     was attacked and robbed by two men ``who made comments about 
     President-Elect Trump and the Muslim community'' on Nov. 9, 
     the SDSU police said in a safety alert.
       A Muslim student at San Diego State University (SDSU) was 
     attacked and robbed by two men ``who made comments about 
     President-Elect Trump and the Muslim community'' on Nov. 9, 
     the SDSU police said in a safety alert.
       The two suspects, a white male and a Hispanic male, 
     confronted the student in a stairwell in what police 
     described as a ``hate crime, robbery and vehicle theft.''
       The two men ``made comments about President-Elect Trump and 
     the Muslim community, confronted her and grabbed her purse 
     and backpack,'' according to police. They also took her car 
     keys and stole her vehicle.
       ``Comments made to the student indicate she was targeted 
     because of her Muslim faith, including her wearing of a 
     traditional garment and hijab,'' SDSU police said in a 
     statement provided to BuzzFeed News.
       13. Two men in a pickup truck with a Trump flag drove to 
     Wellesley College, a women's liberal arts school in 
     Massachusetts and Hillary Clinton's alma mater, stopped in 
     front of a house for students of African descent, and 
     ``antagonized'' and screamed ``Trump'' and ``Make America 
     Great Again'' on Nov. 9, according to accounts from students 
     and college officials.
       Wellesley police confirmed the incident and said the two 
     ``disruptive individuals'' were asked to leave the property.
       The two men, who were students at Babson College, were 
     expelled from their fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon. The 
     fraternity said that both men's actions were ``abhorrent'' in 
     a statement.
       ``This type of abusive, misogynistic behavior has no place 
     in our society, and we're proud of our chapter swiftly 
     removing these men from our organization,'' the fraternity 
     said, Babson College was investigating both men's actions, 
     which the president described as ``highly offensive, 
     incredibly insensitive, and simply not acceptable.''
       14. A Facebook post on Nov. 9 appeared to show a Trump 
     supporter in a car that had Trump flags and anti-Muslim 
     stickers including ``All Muslims are terrorists, deport them 
     all.''
       A Facebook post on Nov. 9 appeared to show a Trump 
     supporter in a car that had Trump flags and anti-Muslim 
     stickers including ``All Muslims are terrorists, deport them 
     all.''
       The Facebook user posted a video showing the truck with a 
     Confederate flag on the front bumper and also stickers 
     saying, ``Kill all Muslims'' and ``All Muslims are child 
     molesters.'' The user later deleted the Facebook post.
       15. Yarden Katz, a fellow at Harvard Medical School, said 
     that he witnessed a US postal worker telling a man who 
     appeared to be of Hispanic descent, ``Go back to your 
     country. This is Trump land'' at a gas station in 
     Massachusetts on Nov. 9.
       Yarden Katz @yardenkatz
       My letter to @USPS about what I witnessed today in 
     Cambridge, Massachusetts. #Trump
       5:46 PM-9 Nov 2016
       USPS said the issue had been ``escalated to the appropriate 
     members of USPS management.'' Katz told BuzzFeed News that it 
     was an ``appalling incident.''
       ``I was taken aback by how brazen it was on the part of the 
     USPS worker to make racist comments, in broad daylight, in a 
     supposedly progressive town. It clearly looks like part of a 
     bigger national trend,'' he said.
       16. A swastika, ``Seig Heil 2016,'' and the word ``Trump'' 
     with the T replaced with a swastika were graffitied on the 
     windows on an empty store in South Philly on Wednesday, 
     Philly.com reported.
       Philly.com @phillydotcom
       PhillyClout: ``Sieg Heil,'' swastikas, racist Trump 
     graffiti appear in South Philly.
       http://bit.ly/2fSN1kN
       2:10 PM--9 Nov 2016
       The graffiti was spray-painted on the 78th anniversary of 
     Kristallnacht or ``Night of the Broken Glass''--a wave anti-
     Jewish pogroms in Nazi Germany in 1938.
       Police also investigated several other incidents of pro-
     Trump racist graffiti, including the words ``Trump Rules'' 
     and ``Black B * * *,'' spray-painted across a car belonging 
     to a 62-year-old black woman, Philly.com reported.
       17. Chris Weatherd, a former University of Tennessee 
     linebacker, posted a video that appeared to show his car 
     vandalized with the n-word and ``Trump'' on Nov. 9 in 
     Knoxville.
       Chris WeatherdTM @Chris_Weatherd Whoever did 
     this I'm throwin' hands
       11:08 AM--9 Nov 2016
       Weatherd told BuzzFeed News that he woke up on Wednesday 
     morning to find that someone had used washable paint to 
     vandalize his car with racial slurs.
       He did not file a police report, but said that a family 
     member of the person who did it had apologized to him. 
     Weatherd did not wish to disclose the identity of the alleged 
     suspect, but said it was a neighbor who was a Trump 
     supporter.
       He said that while he wasn't ``entirely upset'' about it, 
     he posted it to Twitter to show that ``this is the normal.''
       18. Rochelle Abraham posted a picture of a car with a 
     Confederate flag and ``Kill Kill Kill'' signs in Needham, 
     Massachusetts, the morning after Trump's victory.

[[Page 14268]]

       Abraham told BuzzFeed News that she spotted the car, which 
     had a POW flag, an American flag, and the Confederate flag, 
     on the morning on Nov. 9.
       ``I was already feeling off center with respect to what a 
     Trump presidency would mean for myself and those that I 
     love,'' Abraham said. ``First and foremost I fear for what 
     this means for my 26-year-old son. The current murders of 
     young unarmed black men, Giuliani era stop-and-frisk and just 
     so much on my mind after hearing the final results. The last 
     thing I expected to see was this atrocious, blatant display 
     of hurtful disrespect, racism, and bigotry,'' she said.
       While she did not see any Trump signs on the car, ``just 
     the fact that I saw this the day after the election kind of 
     speaks for itself,'' she said.
       19. A student at the New School in New York City on Nov. 12 
     tweeted a photo of what appears to be a swastika that was 
     drawn on the door of her dorm where she lived with other 
     Jewish women.
       sam @samlichtenstein
       We woke up to this on our door, in a dorm at @TheNewSchool, 
     where 3 Jewish women live.
       @ShaunKing @deray @parsonsdesign
       11:06 AM--12 Nov 2016
       Samantha Lichtenstein told BuzzFeed News in an email that 
     one of her roommates first saw the symbol when she was on her 
     way out of the dorm this morning. She took a photo of it and 
     sent it to her.
       ``My roommate and I walked around the rest of the floor to 
     see the symbol on 3 other doors,'' Lichtenstein wrote. ``We 
     knocked on the doors to tell them of the defamation.''
       The roommates have notified and filed reports with campus 
     security as well as the NYPD.
       ``We are extremely heartbroken. This may have been someone 
     trying to play a joke, but this is not funny. And it was not 
     just one door; 4 different doors were targeted, and only on 
     our floor,'' Lichtenstein wrote.
       NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio retweeted Lichtenstein on Saturday 
     along with a short statement.
       ``Hate speech is reprehensible, and has no place in NYC,'' 
     de Blasio said. ``To the affected, we stand with you. To the 
     perpetrators, we are better than this.''
       David E. Van Zandt, president of the New School, also 
     tweeted in support of the students, calling it ``abhorrent'' 
     and saying he was taking ``immediate and appropriate 
     action.''
       20. A woman was forced to remove her hijab on Nov. 11 by a 
     man who threatened to set her on fire with a lighter. The 
     incident took place at the University of Michigan campus in 
     Ann Arbor.
       ``As told to the Ann Arbor Police, a student was approached 
     by an unknown man, who demanded she remove her hijab or he 
     would set her on fire with a lighter,'' according to crime 
     report posted on the university's website.
       ``She complied and left the area. The Ann Arbor Police are 
     actively investigating,'' the statement read.
       The suspect has been described as a ``white male, 20-30 
     years old, average height, athletic build, bad body odor, 
     unkempt appearance, intoxicated with slurred speech,'' 
     according to the school's site.
       Ann Arbor Police Sgt. Patrick Maguire told BuzzFeed News 
     that the department is actively investigating the incident 
     and is soliciting more information.
       21. Several black UPenn students received racist and 
     threatening messages Friday, including invites to a ``daily 
     lynching.''
       Chidera @chiderasiegbu
       Black students throughout @Penn's campus, like myself, have 
     been added to this hateful GroupMe. I am petrified and all I 
     want to do is cry.
       2:30 PM--11 Nov 2016
       Several black UPenn students reported being added to a 
     GroupMe chat included pictures of lynchings, derogatory terms 
     and threats Friday.
       University officials said the FBI and university police 
     were contacted, and the messages were linked back to a 
     University of Oklahoma student more than 1,400 miles away. 
     The student has not been identified, but officials said he 
     has been suspended in connection to the incident. Read more 
     about it here.
       22. A student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio 
     reported being assaulted by three white men and called a 
     racial slur, the university said.
       A student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio 
     reported being assaulted by three white men and called a 
     racial slur, the university said.
       ``We immediately reached out to the student,'' Thomas J. 
     Gibson, the university's vice president for student affairs, 
     said in a statement. ``Today, she filed a report with the 
     Bowling Green Police Department. They are investigating.''
       23. A swastika was spray-painted on a sidewalk in New 
     York's Brooklyn Jewish neighborhood of Crown Heights.
       Mordechai Lightstone @Mottel
       BREAKING: Swastika spray painted on Montgomery St in heart 
     of Jewish Crown Heights. Note: This is not a first here (h/t 
     @HirshelTzig )
       11:35 AM--13 Nov 2016
       The Nazi symbol was painted on the comers of Montgomery St. 
     and Brooklyn Ave, Crown Heights resident Mordechai Lightstone 
     told BuzzFeed News.
       Lightstone noted this was not the first time a graffiti 
     swastika has appeared in the neighborhood.
       24. A Spanish-language sign at an Episcopal church in 
     Silver Spring, Maryland--a heavily Latino neighborhood just 
     outside Washington D.C.--was vandalized on Saturday night 
     with the words ``TRUMP NATION'' and ``WHITES ONLY.''
       Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of 
     Washington wrote on Facebook she is ``heartsick'' at the 
     vandalism at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour.
       Bishop Budde added that she ``can only imagine how the 
     people of Our Saviour, one of the most culturally diverse 
     parishes in the diocese, feel.'' Read more about it here.
       25. A Michigan police officer was suspended after flying a 
     confederate flag at an anti-Trump rally on Nov. 11.
       Traverse City officer Michael Peters has been suspended 
     with pay after he drove a pickup truck with a Confederate 
     flag to an anti-Donald Trump protest and reportedly got into 
     a confrontation with a demonstrator. Peters was off duty at 
     the time.
       Police chief Jeff O'Brien promised an internal 
     investigation to determine if Peters broke department rules. 
     Read more about the incident here.
       26. A church in Indiana was discovered vandalized with 
     slurs on Nov. 13.
       St. David's Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom, Indiana was 
     reportedly spray painted with a swastika, an anti-gay slur, 
     and ``Heil Trump.''
       Rev. Kelsey Hutto, a priest at the St. David's Episcopal 
     Church, told BuzzFeed News that she was disappointed after 
     the graffiti was discovered on the walls Sunday, but that 
     they wouldn't ``let the actions of a few damper our love of 
     Christ and the world.''
       ``We will continue to live out our beliefs and acceptance 
     of all people and respecting the dignity of every human 
     being,'' Hutto said to BuzzFeed News. ``We pray for the 
     perpetrators as well as those who the derogatory marks were 
     directed at.''
       Hutto said that they needed to respond to hateful acts with 
     love.
       ``Anyone is welcome on the sacred ground of the church,'' 
     Hutto continued. ``This act was an act of separation. 
     Separation of us from each other and a separation from God 
     which is the definition of a sin.''

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, what was just entered into the Record are 
references that are being made. They are awful. They are hateful. They 
are frightening. They are scary. I invite any of my colleagues to read 
these horrible acts, and I invite any Senator, Democrat or Republican, 
to come right down to this floor today and defend any one of them. It 
is an example of hate and prejudice. I don't believe anyone wants to 
defend hateful acts being committed in President-Elect Trump's name.
  It leads to one unavoidable conclusion. Many of our fellow Americans 
believe that Trump's election validates the kind of bullying and 
aggressive behavior Trump modeled on a daily basis. How do we teach our 
children that bragging about sexual assault is abhorrent if we rush 
into the arms of the man who dismissed it as ``locker room talk''? If 
we fail to hold Trump accountable, we all bear a measure of 
responsibility for normalizing his behavior.
  Here is a letter from a seventh grader from Rhode Island. She wrote 
the day after the election, and I will quote from the letter:

       I'm extremely scared, especially being a woman of color, 
     that the president of the country that I was born and live in 
     is making me feel unsafe when I usually don't feel unsafe. It 
     is even scarier because this man who is now the president of 
     the United States of America has said such rude, ignorant and 
     disrespectful things about women and all different types of 
     people and is now in charge of our country. I want to feel 
     safe in my country but I no longer can feel safe with someone 
     like Donald Trump leading the country.

  Our President is supposed to make people feel safe, but on Wednesday, 
a seventh grade girl awoke feeling frightened to be a woman of color in 
America because Donald Trump was President-elect. If we ignore her 
voice and other voices, this seventh grader will be left to conclude 
that we as a nation find her fear acceptable.
  How do we show her that she does not have to be afraid? The first 
step is facing reality. No matter how hard the rest of us work, the 
main responsibility lies within the man who inspired the fear. 
President-Elect Trump must act immediately to make Americans like that 
seventh grade girl feel they are welcome in his America.

[[Page 14269]]

  Healing the wounds he inflicted will take more than words. Talk is 
cheap and tweets are cheaper. Healing the wounds is going to take 
action, but so far, rather than healing these wounds, Trump's actions 
have deepened them. In one of his very first, if not his first official 
act, he appointed a man seen as a champion of White supremacy as the 
No. 1 strategist in the White House--the No. 1, everybody else under 
him.
  According to CNN, ``White nationalist leaders are praising Donald 
Trump's decision to name [Stephen Bannon] as his chief strategist.'' In 
the same article, White nationalist leaders say they see Bannon ``as an 
advocate for policies they favor.''
  According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Bannon ``was the main 
driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda 
mill.''
  When asked to comment on Bannon's hiring, KKK leader David Duke told 
CNN, ``I think that's excellent.''
  A court filing stated that Bannon said ``that he doesn't like Jews 
and that he doesn't like the way they raise their kids to be `whiny 
brats' and that he didn't want [his] girls to go to school with Jews.''
  By placing a champion of White supremacists a step away from the Oval 
Office, what message does Trump send to the young girl who woke up 
Wednesday morning in Rhode Island afraid to be a woman of color in 
America? It is certainly not a message of healing.
  If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do 
is rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon. Rescind it. Don't do it. 
Think about this. Don't do it. As long as a champion of racial division 
is a step away from the Oval Office, it will be impossible to take 
Trump's efforts to heal the Nation seriously.
  So I say to Donald Trump: Take responsibility. Rise to the dignity of 
the Office of the President of the United States instead of hiding 
behind your Twitter account and show America that racism, bullying, and 
bigotry have no place in the White House or in America.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________