Leading Democrats have begun their fightback against President-elect Donald Trump, accusing him of unleashing the “forces of hate and bigotry” and warning that America’s enemies were exultant at his election win.
As tens of thousands of Americans plan further protests and acts of dissent against the new president’s election, Democratic politicians have begun to echo the defiance seen on the streets of major cities from New York to Oakland that has sparked dozens of arrests.
Thousands were on the streets on Thursday in Denver, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Portland, Oakland and dozens more US cities, and although the protests were smaller and more muted, there were scattered acts of civil disobedience and damage to property.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been measured in their language, in keeping with the traditions of the post-election period of transition between administrations.
But Harry Reid, departing as the most senior Democrat in the Senate, issued a blistering statement on Friday, warning that adversaries at home and abroad were jubilant and calling on Trump to take responsibility for healing the nation.
“The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America,” the veteran Nevada senator said. “White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and Isis are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are racked with fear.”
This was particularly true for black, Hispanic, Muslim, LGBT and Asian Americans, Reid added. “Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.”
Trump, the outsider Republican candidate, swept to power on Tuesday after a fiercely divisive election campaign that included attacks on Mexicans and Muslims and saw him accused of sexual assault or harassment by a dozen women. There has been a subsequent spike in reports of hate crimes against minorities.
The election outcome is also reverberating in America’s intelligence community. The Guardian has learned that some officials, wary of Trump’s authoritarian inclinations including a proposal to revive the use of torture, are debating whether to quit in protest or remain at their post in the hope of checking impulses they consider dangerous.
Democrats, meanwhile, are seeking to regroup in the wake of Clinton’s shattering defeat and their failure to regain control of the House or Senate. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a lodestar for liberal Americans, urged supporters to resist Trump. “You can either lie down, you can whimper, you can pull up in a ball, you can decide to move to Canada, or you can stand your ground and fight back and that’s what it’s about,” she said on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show.
“We do fight back. We will stand with those who are here who were told, come out of the shadows, we welcome you. We will stand with them. And we will stand with them every day. That’s what we have to do.”
Her clarion call came hours before Reid’s statement, and left no doubt about the anxiety gripping some communities. “I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics,” he wrote. “Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them and feeling afraid to walk down the street holding hands.
“American children waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away. Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president. We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows. Their fear is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them.”
During a rancourous buildup to election day, Obama led warnings that Trump posed an existential threat to American democracy and that fundamental values such as tolerance were on the ballot. But once the votes were in, Obama began the traditional process of welcoming Trump to the White House, cordially describing their meeting as “excellent” and wishing for his success.
Reid, however, pushed back against efforts by politicians and media outlets to co-opt Trump into the mainstream. “Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.”
Trump owes it to the nation to try to “roll back the tide of hate he unleashed”, Reid added.
Warren, a potential future leftwing standard bearer for the party, has clashed with Trump on Twitter; on the eve of the election he recycled his description of her as “Pocahontas”, mocking her disputed Native American heritage, and a “terrible human being”.
She set out a clear manifesto for the progressive left, urging people: “Get out there and volunteer.” She cited Planned Parenthood, the reproductive health organization, adding: “Give a couple hours a week to them or to any other organization that really matters to you, an environmental organization, an immigrants’ rights organization, somebody who is working on economic justice, someone who is working on financial reform, get out there and volunteer because volunteering is a way to say we’re making these groups stronger.
“This is one way our voice will be heard. It’s not all going to be heard in Washington. This is how we’re going to have our voice heard … We are going to fight back. We are not turning this country over to what Donald Trump has sold. We are just not.”
The fallout from Trump’s shocking win has served to highlight the depth of division in America and the scale of the challenge of healing it. It mortified millions of people in major liberal cities on the coasts such as New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Legislative leaders in California, a Democratic stronghold that is home to Hollywood and Silicon Valley, issued a joint statement that said: “Today, we woke up feeling like strangers in a foreign land, because yesterday Americans expressed their views on a pluralistic and democratic society that are clearly inconsistent with the values of the people of California.
“We have never been more proud to be Californians. By a margin in the millions, Californians overwhelmingly rejected politics fueled by resentment, bigotry, and misogyny. The largest state of the union and the strongest driver of our nation’s economy has shown it has its surest conscience as well.”
Thousands gathered in major cities across the US to protest about Trump’s victory for a second night. Motorways were blocked, shop windows smashed and fires ignited. In Portland, Oregon, police began pushing back against the crowd that threw objects at them, making 26 arrests and using pepper spray and rubber bullets. In Oakland, California, protesters hurled molotov cocktails, rocks and fireworks at police. About 5,000 people, including the singer Lady Gaga, gathered outside Trump Tower in New York.
The celebrity businessman seemed to change his mind about the demonstrations. Late on Thursday he tweeted that “professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!”
But early on Friday, he wrote: “Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!”
Trump was in Trump Tower in New York on Friday morning meeting with senior staff members. He tweeted that he had a “busy day planned in New York” and “will soon be making some very important decisions on the people who will be running our government!”