On the recordNovember 17, 2016
I rise today to address the President- elect's selection of Stephen Bannon, a divisive figure and former head of the alt-right Web site Breitbart to serve as Chief Strategist and Senior Counsel to the President. In the early hours of November 9, after it became clear that he had officially won the race for the White House, President-Elect Trump appeared before his supporters to deliver a victory speech. He said, ``Now it's time for America to bind the wounds of division. . . . To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this Nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.'' After a long and contentious campaign, it seemed to me that the President-elect implicitly acknowledged that some of the rhetoric he had used during the race had alienated and offended many of our communities. He said, ``I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be the President for all Americans.'' It is no secret that I did not support President-Elect Trump during the campaign, but despite the fact that I disagreed passionately with our President-elect about the best way to approach many if not most of the challenges facing our Nation, I truly believe that there are places where we can find some common ground. We both understand the need to rebuild our Nation's crumbling infrastructure and to send Americans back to work repairing our roads, bridges, and schools.…
