Sen. Jeanne Shaheen: Trump Jr.’s refugees tweet was ‘totally inappropriate and undermines’ U.S. values
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said Tuesday that Donald Trump Jr.’s tweet comparing Syrian refugees to Skittles was “totally inappropriate and undermines the values that this country was built on.”
The younger Trump, a campaign adviser and surrogate for GOP nominee Donald Trump, had sparked widespread outrage the day before when he shared an image asking people if they would eat Skittles if some of them were poisonous. “That’s our Syrian refugee problem,” his image concluded.
In her interview with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric, Shaheen pointed to the statement by Wrigley Americas, which produces Skittles, criticizing Trump Jr.’s comparison.
“We have a very robust, careful process where we review people who want to get visas, who want to get into this country,” the senator said. “And as [Wrigley Americas parent company] Mars pointed out: Refugees are people. If we look at what made this country strong, it has been refugees and immigrants.”
Shaheen addressed a number of other topics in the interview. She dismissed the elder Trump’s fitness to be commander in chief. She said last weekend’s bombings in New Jersey and New York highlighted why Democrat Hillary Clinton should be president. If Trump were to win in November, Shaheen said, he could have difficulty working with Congress.
“The question is, how will a President Trump work with Congress?” she replied when Couric asked how she’d work with a President Trump. “He has indicated a tremendous amount of disdain for members of Congress, even members of his own party. So hopefully we’ll see a change of heart if he becomes president.”
And she highlighted two of her legislative efforts in the Senate. First, she said it was crucial to renew a program giving special visas to Afghans who have worked with the U.S. government and military during the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. She said the special visa program is in danger of expiring. “I think it has a lot to do with the immigration debate that’s been happening in this country,” Shaheen lamented.
“If we do nothing, so many of those men and women who served us are in real danger. Their lives are threatened. Their families are threatened,” she said.
She was much more optimistic about congressional support about another one of her initiatives: the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act. The legislation would give basic rights, like the automatic preservation of rape kits without charge, to victims of sexual assault.
“I think that it’s a tremendous step forward,” Shaheen said, noting versions of the bill had passed both the Senate and the House.
Watch the full interview:
