This Letter From a 7th-Grade Girl Shows Why Trump's Chief Strategist Has No Place in the White House

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid addressed the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon to decry President-elect Donald Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon as his chief strategist. Bannon, who formerly ran the conservative news website Breitbart until he joined Trump's campaign as an adviser, has close ties to the white nationalist movement and has been accused of being an antisemitic. In calling for Trump to rescind Bannon's position, Reid read aloud a letter he received from a seventh grader about her fears of living in Trump's America as a person of color.

While the middle schooler's identity remains anonymous, Reid let her letter serve as evidence for his case against Bannon. Most distressingly, she wrote, "I want to feel safe in my country, but I no longer can feel safe with someone like Donald Trump leading this country."

"By placing a champion of white supremacists a step away from the Oval Office," Reid said about Bannon, "what message does Trump send to the young girl who woke up Wednesday afraid to be a woman of color in America?"

Reid also encouraged Trump to promote inclusiveness across the country, saying, "President-elect Trump must act immediately to make Americans — like that seventh-grade girl — feel like they are welcomed in his America."

Despite the widespread backlash against Bannon's appointment, Trump has not rescinded his title, nor has he commented on the criticism.