Sen. Coons discusses his new op-ed in The Atlantic

Sen. Coons: “Whether it comes out of our shared Christian faith, or whether it comes from a different perspective, that the wanton killing of civilians is evil, is wrong, and is something we should all stand against.”

Sen. Coons: “Opposition to Nazism and to the Klan isn’t just a Democratic Party thing. It is something all Americans can see as hateful and un-American.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees, joined Hugh Hewitt this morning to discuss the violence in Charlottesville, his recent Atlantic article on faith and bipartisanship in the Senate. 

“It’s important, I think, to say the first foundational point for those of us who are people of faith, and who also happen to be Democrats, is to speak up for how our faith informs our work so that the folks we serve alongside, the folks we represent, don’t think that it is only people of faith in one party, and only secularists in another party,” said Senator Coons. “It shouldn’t be a partisan dividing issue. In fact, at the greatest moments of American progress, our faith has helped pull us together – the differences in our faith, and the commonalities in our faith. Yesterday, last evening here in Wilmington, Delaware, a group of several hundred citizens came together for a positive, peaceful, I won’t even call it a demonstration, it was a gathering in solidarity with Heather Heyer, who lost her life in Charlottesville, to remember the two Virginia State Police officers who died in the helicopter accident, to pray for peace.”

Full audio available here.

Excerpts from the interview below:

Senator Coons on standing against evil: Yeah, I mean, Hugh, I think we can and should agree, whether it comes out of our shared Christian faith, or whether it comes from a different perspective, that the wanton killing of civilians is evil, is wrong, and is something we should all stand against.

Senator Coons on the murder in Charlottesville: Yeah, one of the shocking things about this weekend’s developments in Charlottesville, Hugh, was to see James Fields use a tactic that was recently made widely known by ISIS. That’s literally one of those moments of you know, an Islamist and a neo-Nazi following the same approach to a similarly evil end.

Senator Coons on President Trump’s Charlottesville reaction: Yes, it would have been the right moment for our President to step forward and give a clear, strong, simple denunciation just like Vice President Pence did.

Senator Coons on the Senate Prayer Breakfast: Well, that’s where I start. This piece that I wrote talks about an experience I have every Wednesday morning where a bipartisan and broad group of senators comes together for an hour just to listen to each other. It begins by trusting each other, and every week, a different senator stands up and shares from his or her faith experience or faith background. And it has been, in some ways, the most valuable, most important thing I’ve done in 7 years in the Senate, to get to understand people who have very different politics than I do. You know, one of the commitments we make to each other is to not go into the details of what anyone says. But I’ll tell you that when John Barrasso spoke one Wednesday morning, when Mike Lee spoke one Wednesday morning, I learned things about them, their families, their histories, their struggles, their faith that really helped me better understand them as people. I still disagree with them on policy matters, but I can’t feel as sharply partisan about them as people, and it’s opened up opportunities for me to work with them and talk with them and understand them, because we’ve been vulnerable to each other in this way through this weekly prayer breakfast.

Senator Coons on faith and the Democratic Party: I’m not going to give a percentage, but there are too many in our world who have seen or experienced religion or a faith community as a negative thing. And I open the piece by saying it’s striking to me, it’s troubling to me, that 44% of self-described liberal Democrats in a recent Pew poll think religious organizations have a negative impact on the United States. We could spend a whole hour on how that’s come to be. In some cases, you know, folks have had bad experiences in the faith community in which they were raised. They’ve been mistreated, or they’ve been, they’ve come to the conclusion that the church they were raised in was simply hypocritical or didn’t meet its own ambitious or lofty goals. It’s important, I think, to say the first foundational point for those of us who are people of faith, and who also happen to be Democrats, is to speak up for how our faith informs our work so that the folks we serve alongside, the folks we represent, don’t think that it is only people of faith in one party, and only secularists in another party. It shouldn’t be a partisan dividing issue. In fact, at the greatest moments of American progress, our faith has helped pull us together – the differences in our faith, and the commonalities in our faith. Yesterday, last evening here in Wilmington, Delaware, a group of several hundred citizens came together for a positive, peaceful, I won’t even call it a demonstration, it was a gathering in solidarity with Heather Heyer, who lost her life in Charlottesville, to remember the two Virginia State Police officers who died in the helicopter accident, to pray for peace. And as I looked around, the hundreds of people who gathered at a park, they seemed to me to come from every background. And I spoke briefly and said I know there are Republicans, independents and Democrats here. There’s folks who are young and old, black, white, Latino, every possible background in our city gathered in a matter of hours, a group that was as large as the group of, you know, self-described neo-Nazis and white supremacists who had months to organize this parade they did in Charlottesville. Let’s remember that people of good will and people whose faith background motivates them to try and reach across whatever divisions there are to try and see their political differences as differences with neighbors. We outnumber this very small number of hateful people who caused this tragic incident in Charlottesville. I remain convinced that America is a good nation, and that Americans are good people. And I think, you know, the things that divide our partisan politics right now cannot be so great as to deeply divide the American people.

Senator Coons on bipartisan condemnation of Neo-Nazis: One of the things I did both last night and online yesterday was to retweet or to talk about the clear and strong posts that came out promptly, the statements from some of the most senior Republican senators, Orrin Hatch, for example, whose brother, Jesse, one of his heroes, died in the Second World War, and put up a really memorable post saying, “My brother didn’t die fighting the Nazis in Europe just for that hateful ideology to reemerge here in the United States.” There were strong statements from Marco Rubio, from Cory Gardner. So one of the things I tried to emphasize yesterday is that opposition to Nazism and to the Klan isn’t just a Democratic Party thing. It is something all Americans can see as hateful and un-American. And while I was upset and disappointed by President Trump’s statement, it’s been addressed. He’s restated the point. You played the clip by the Vice President.

Senator Coons on bipartisanship and North Korea: We face a determined, aggressive, hostile enemy from North Korea. You know, you earlier in the show were talking about how China has just made an announcement that they will by the first week of September cut off huge amounts of imports from North Korea. That’s a good thing. And I don’t hesitate to say that’s a significant accomplish by the Trump administration and by their diplomatic efforts. I think we all need to be clear about the things that confront our country, whether it’s the opioid and heroin crisis, or the rise in violent crime in some cities, or the challenges we face improving our education system, or the threats we face from around the world. If we were to pull together more in facing them, I think we’d made more progress.

Senator Coons on bipartisan policy-making: I do spend time working with Republicans on public policy issues. Tom Cotton, just to pick one of the names you put out there, Tom Cotton and I, Tom’s the Senator from Arkansas, have worked hard on a bill to protect American invention, to strengthen our patent system so that small inventors, of folks who come up with new breakthrough solutions to technology challenges, can defend their inventions in court. There have been some big changes that have weakened that. Don’t get me going. I can be a real geek on this subject.

Senator Coons on the potential for a bipartisan immigration bill: Senator Cotton and I have talked about some other issues. We are pretty far apart on the ideological spectrum. But starting with small bills that maybe don’t get a lot of attention, I think, can lead to larger bills. And Senator Hatch and I have been talking about immigration issues. We’re still pretty far apart. But we are spending time meeting with each other, our staff are meeting with each other, to try and see if there is some path forward. It is one of the biggest unaddressed structural challenges for our country and our economy, figuring out how to address immigration so that what immigration there is, is legal, and the legal immigration that happens really adds to our families and to our economy.

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