Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), a Democratic vice presidential contender, said Sunday that “of course” she does not believe a substantial percentage of President Trump’s supporters are racists.
Fox News’s Chris Wallace — noting that Duckworth has called Trump the “Racist in Chief” and has said that racism is a primary reason for opposition to immigration reform — asked the senator on “Fox News Sunday” if she believed “a sizable percentage of President Trump’s supporters are racists.”
“Of course not,” Duckworth responded. “I think President Trump is trying to divide us as a nation. We need to come together as a nation. We need to unite.”
{mosads}“I think most Americans agree that we need sensible immigration reform. We need a away for those who are here illegally to pay fines and go to the end of the line and work their way toward citizenship,” she added. “We can’t let President Trump continue to divide us.”
Wallace went on to ask Duckworth, a vocal critic of the federal presence at demonstrations in Portland, Ore., if she condemned the attacks on a federal courthouse that the Trump administration has cited as the reason for the agents’ deployment.
“I think violence is wrong. I absolutely condemn the violent protesters,” she said. “I fully support the rights of people to express their First Amendment rights peacefully.”
“There’s so much that could be done between the federal government and local law enforcement working together in order to allow people to express themselves in a peaceful way without federal troops coming in in unmarked vehicles and kidnapping peaceful protesters off the streets, throwing them into an unmarked van and driving off in the middle of the night,” Duckworth said.
Wallace also asked the Illinois senator, an Iraq War veteran and double amputee, whether presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign has vetted her as a potential running mate.
“They have their own process. I’m going to leave them to it,” Duckworth said. “All of the women whose names have been mentioned so far are just wonderful.”