WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Anderson Cooper last night to discuss the Russia investigation and the upcoming public hearing with Donald Trump Jr.
“The thing I most want to ask [Donald Trump Jr.] in an open hearing: ‘How is it possible that you received news from someone you know by e-mail that the Putin regime is attempting to help your father win the American presidency and your response is, ‘Great, let’s have the meeting,’ rather than, ‘What the heck are you talking about?’ or ‘I need to refer this to law enforcement,’ or at the very least, ‘I need to warn my father there’s something completely inappropriate going on here,’” said Senator Coons.
Senator Coons on the upcoming public hearing with Donald Trump Jr.: Well, Anderson, what I’m really looking forward to is an upcoming public hearing where I’ll get the opportunity to question Donald Trump Jr. under oath, in front of the full Judiciary Committee. This week, what’s happening is a staff interview where I believe Donald Trump Jr. has voluntarily come in and is open to being asked virtually any question by staff that is relevant to the ongoing investigation.
Senator Coons on whether the staff interview is on the record: Yes. It will produce a transcript that will be accessible to members of the Committee and to others who are investigating the potential concerns about the conduct of the Trump campaign. Anyone who testifies in front of a Senate committee is under the restrictions of a statute that says if they attempt to mislead Congress, there are legal consequences.
Senator Coons on what he would like to ask Donald Trump Jr.: That is exactly the thing I most want to ask him in an open hearing is: ‘How is it possible that you received news, from someone you know, by e-mail, that the Putin regime is attempting to help your father win the American presidency and your response is, ‘Great, let’s have the meeting,’ rather than, ‘What the heck are you talking about?’ or ‘I need to refer this to law enforcement,’ or at the very least, ‘I need to warn my father there’s something completely inappropriate going on here.’
Senator Coons on potential obstruction of justice by President Trump: Anderson, part of what the Judiciary focus is obstruction of justice, which is distinct from what the Special Counsel or even the Intelligence Committee are focusing on. They’re focusing on broader areas. It would go directly to that question. Whether the President himself was involved in trying to cover the tracks of those who were involved in efforts on behalf of his campaign. Obstruction of justice is a fancy way of saying that he tried to get in the way of any ongoing investigation. He tried to cover their tracks. So that’s what we’d be getting at in questioning what role he had in crafting and helping issue a misleading initial statement about the participants and the purpose of that meeting in Trump Tower in the summer of 2016.
Senator Coons on the Intelligence Committee’s timeline: Given that it’s September and given how many other things we’ve got on our plate as the Senate, I would agree- I think it’s unlikely we’ll conclude this before the end of this calendar year.
Senator Coons on Congress’ coordination with the Mueller investigation: I think it is absolutely critical that we coordinate closely with Robert Mueller and the Special Counsel so that we do not inappropriately interfere in his investigation or inadvertently prevent it from reaching a legal conclusion. I think there was a dustup a few days ago or maybe weeks ago now that was largely rooted in a misunderstanding about the release of transcripts of the work product of Senate Committees and I’m hopeful that that’s getting resolved.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) today released the following statement in support of the bipartisan HELP Committee hearings to improve the Affordable Care Act (ACA):
“Today marks the first of many bipartisan hearings in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) focused on improving the ACA. I have said for years that the ACA isn’t perfect, and I’m excited to see my colleagues working across the aisle to find solutions for some of the legislation’s most pressing issues. As senators on the committee hear testimony from governors, insurance commissioners, and other health care stakeholders, I hope they can begin to find a path toward stabilizing premiums in the individual insurance market, expanding coverage, and lowering health care costs.
“I believe these hearings will provide the opportunity for lawmakers to take a broader look at what’s driving up health care costs in the United States. Crafting a health care system that works for all Americans is no easy task. But the ACA provides a solid foundation from which Republicans and Democrats should be able to find common ground, and these hearings are a platform for debating and passing health care legislation that works for us all. I am optimistic that, together, we can find a bipartisan solution for fixing the ACA.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced today that his bill to extend temporary bankruptcy judgeships has passed the Senate. The bill calls for a five-year extension for 14 temporary bankruptcy judgeships and will create four new bankruptcy judgeships. With this bill, Delaware will retain its one permanent bankruptcy judge, will receive extensions of its five temporary bankruptcy judges and will receive an additional two temporary bankruptcy judgeships for five years to handle the heavy caseload for the district, which is one of the busiest in the country.
“A well-functioning bankruptcy court system is critical for ensuring that individuals and corporations can go through bankruptcy efficiently,” said Sen. Coons. “When a corporation is restructuring, delays can mean lost jobs and lost revenue.”
“I am pleased that we were able to pass this bipartisan bill to give our bankruptcy courts the judges they need to manage pressing caseloads,” Sen. Coons continued. “Delaware has rightly earned its reputation for having one of the most highly regarded bankruptcy courts in the country. This bill ensures that our court has the additional judgeships it needs to administer justice efficiently. It will benefit the parties, the Delaware economy, and our nation as a whole.”
Senator Coons is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts.
Sen. Coons: “This is a moment for the Trump administration to focus”
Sen. Coons on DACA: “This is a direct challenge to Congress and it’s my hope in a bipartisan and responsible way we will take this up and pass the DREAM Act promptly”
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Morning Joe this morning to discuss North Korea and President Trump’s recent decision to end the DACA program.
“This is a moment for the Trump administration to focus, to communicate closely with our allies, not to stoke needless divisions between the United States and South Korea over trade issues, or with China over other issues,”said Senator Coons.“We need to really focus. We’ve got the cleanup from Hurricane Harvey ongoing in Texas. We’ve got Hurricane Irma bearing down on Florida. We got a dozen other important issues in front of us here in the Senate. So this is a time for unified, clear, national leadership, for Congress to consult closely with the Trump administration, for all of us to be communicating in a measured and thoughtful way, we need our allies.”
Senator Coons on the best option in North Korea: Later today, we’re going to get a briefing for all Senators with the Secretaries of Defense and State, and the Director of National Intelligence, and I’m hoping to hear in more detail what the Trump administration’s strategy is. I do think even though there is some reasonable question whether or not sanctions will ultimately deter Kim Jong-un of North Korea. I think we have to try, as hard as we can, all diplomatic actions while at the same time strengthening the anti-missile defenses of our vital allies South Korea and Japan and preparing to deploy stronger and more effective anti-missile defenses for the United States, for Guam, and the Homeland, and frankly after today’s consultation. I think Congress and the Administration need to prepare for what would happen if we were required by increased threats- that were increasingly credible- from North Korea, to prepare for escalation of conflict.
More on North Korea: China hasn’t really applied the complete economic pressure on North Korea that it could, and the challenge for us is to decide whether or not we want to provide the sort of pressure on the Chinese economy that might compel them to take have the pressure on economy that might compel them to tack actions against North Korea. I’ll remind you that this is the sort of work the Obama Administration did to finally isolate Iran and bring them to the table to negotiate about their nuclear weapons program- not just indirect sanctions, not just UN sanctions or EU sanctions, but secondary sanctions that blocked access to the American financial system for any country that was buying oil from Iran. We’ve got one major trading partner from North Korea, a very isolated country, and that’s China. Given complex web of economic ties between China and the United States, we’d have to hesitate to really tighten the screws on China because it would have consequences for us, but China is not yet fully pulling everything that they could to affect North Korea.
Senator Coons on diplomacy: I am more concerned than I’ve been in the past. This is a moment for the Trump administration to focus, to communicate closely with our allies, not to stoke needless divisions between the United States and South Korea over trade issues, or with China over other issues. We need to really focus. We’ve got the cleanup from Hurricane Harvey ongoing in Texas. We’ve got Hurricane Irma bearing down on Florida. We got a dozen other important issues in front of us here in the Senate. So this is a time for unified, clear, national leadership, for Congress to consult closely with the Trump administration, for all of us to be communicating in a measured and thoughtful way, we need our allies. This is the sort of moment that I hope will make clear to President Trump why a strong and robust diplomatic toolkit is important. I’ll remind you that President Trump’s budget proposed a more than 30% cut to our State Department. We’ll have a vote on the Appropriations Committee on whether or not the Senate will cut that deep, to the very department that’s responsible for helping us bridge differences with our allies and be fully prepared for the sort of confrontation we’re beginning to have now with North Korea.
Senator Coons on DACA: That’s exactly why this announcement by the President is so troubling to me. When you get to know individual DREAMers as I have, I’ve had a chance to mam with DREAMers who are university students, or who are hard-working, contributing members of our community, or who have served in the American armed forces or, as this young man is, are currently serving. It changes your views, perhaps, I would hope for most, about these young Americans who were brought here illegally by their parents but through no fault of their own. The vast majority of the American people would like to see them stay here and would like to see them have a path towards continuing to contributing to our economy, to our country, to our security. Taken to its logical extreme, the President’s position announced by Attorney General Sessions yesterday would mean that that young man would face deportation and that he and his family would face the uncertainty that at any time he might lose his currently legal status here because of DACA. This is a direct challenge to Congress and it’s my hope in a bipartisan and responsible way we will take this up and pass the DREAM Act promptly.
Senator Coons on Donald Trump Jr.: The Senate Judiciary Committee staff have been quite busy. Over the summer, they’ve gathered over I think 20,000 pages of documents. They’ve conducted thousands of interviews. And I haven’t seen that Washington Post story this morning, forgive me, and I’m not sure exactly what day there’s going to be a staff interview. What I’m most looking forward to is the chance to ask questions in an open hearing. I do expect that at some point this month the Judiciary Committee will have an open hearing where Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort and perhaps Glenn Simpson will be testifying in front of us. That’s more important, frankly, than the staff interview that will be conducted soon because that gives us the opportunity to have on-the-record questioning of these principles who were actively involved in the meeting with folks who claimed they were bringing information about Hillary Clinton to the a core group of the Trump Campaign team members in the summer of 2016.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) today released the following statement in response to President Trump’s decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA):
“I am deeply disappointed by the President’s decision today to end the DACA program. Since 2012, DACA has allowed immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children to defer removal and apply for work visas. DACA has helped over 750,000 DREAMers work, study and contribute to our society free of the constant fear of being forced to leave the only home they have ever known. Those who come to our country as children, without authorization but through no fault of their own, deserve the opportunity to live their lives out of the shadows. Not only will ending DACA hurt the thousands of immigrant families whose loved ones may be forced to leave the United States, but I believe our federal immigration enforcement resources are much better focused on those who are actively a threat to our community. DREAMers are overwhelmingly hard working and tax paying, many have served in our armed forces or graduated near the top of their schools and should be allowed to continue to contribute to our nation. President Trump has gone back on his promise to ‘treat DACA with heart,’ and Congress now has the urgent responsibility to fix our broken immigration system in a bipartisan way that protects DREAMers. I was proud to be an active part of the legislative process that delivered bipartisan immigration reform that passed the Senate in 2013, and I intend to work hard to do so again.”
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement in response to North Korea’s latest weapons test.
“North Korea’s isolated and dangerous regime has once again defied the UN, its closest ally China and the rest of the world in testing another, even larger nuclear device. Just last week, North Korea also launched a ballistic missile over northern Japan. These actions are a serious escalation of Kim Jong Un’s campaign to develop an ICBM capable of hitting the US and pose a serious threat to our national security.”
“I urge President Trump to consult closely with Congress, to rely on his national security and diplomatic team and to continue working with the UN and China to increase pressure on North Korea through tougher sanctions, while also strengthening our defensive anti-missile capabilities. It is urgent that we speed up deployment and development of systems that can defend our homeland and our vital allies South Korea and Japan.”
“Kim Jong Un is paranoid, unpredictable and aggressive, and will likely only respond to a unified and strong US and international response. We must make every effort at diplomacy while also preparing for the strong possibility of escalating confrontation.”
LAGOS, NIGERIA – In case you missed it, Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke in Lagos about the United States’ commitment to a deep and lasting relationship with Africa.
“Across presidents, Democrat, Republican and then Democrat, we work together to sustain our partnership with Africa. And so, don’t expect some sudden change in our direction, don’t expect that suddenly with a new president, there will be a new priority, and it will not be Africa,” said Senator Coons. “Know that all of us served before our current president, and hope to serve after our current president, and that the relationship between the United States and Africa has been strengthened by those who have visited a dozen times, and those who are visiting for the first time. Know that you have in the United States, and those who are before you today, a deep and enduring friendships.”
“We have challenges of governance, of transparency, of making sure we continue to hold our elected officials accountable, to make sure that we make the chairman processes and elections more fair and predictable, less corrupt and more positive,” said Senator Coons. “This is a challenge we face together. Ours is a young democracy, not a perfect democracy, and as we had a powerful conversation earlier today, many of you, I hope, will learn about the challenges we face and have faced, and how we can face them together.”
Thank you to our host this evening, to the Ambassador. Thank you to everyone who is a part of the United States Foreign Service, everyone who is in our Armed Forces, our intelligence community, who is in our Foreign Service who we’ve had the honor to meet with here, and the humanitarian volunteers with whom we met up in Borno State. We are just blessed to have wonderful Americans working and representing and a part of our relationship with Nigeria. I’ll take just a few minutes if I might to talk about just three basic things.
First, what is it that we’re trying to say by being here, a delegation of eight Americans from Congress? A delegation that is both Democrats and Republicans, from both the Senate and the House, from all over our great country, from Florida to Colorado, from California to Mizzou. We are committed to a deep and lasting relationship with Africa. There are some things that have happened in our politics, our elections, that might make people question whether there will be a big change in our future, in our relationships with Africa, and we just wanted to remind you that some of the greatest things in the American partnership with the 54 countries of the amazing continent of Africa have endured from president to president. President Clinton launched AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which is still vibrant and active today, a number of us helped to reauthorize it, and gives access to the American market. President Bush, a Republican, started PEPFAR, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which shows the heart of the American people in partnership with the people of Nigeria in caring for those with HIV Aids and creating long-term development partnerships. And President Obama, a member of my own party, launched something important, Power Africa, and something I’m excited about, Young African Leaders Initiative, or YALI. What’s the theme here? That across presidents, Democrat, Republican and then Democrat, we work together to sustain our partnership with Africa. And so, don’t expect some sudden change in our direction, don’t expect that suddenly with a new president, there will be a new priority, and it will not be Africa. Know that all of us served before our current president, and hope to serve after our current president, and that the relationship between the United States and Africa has been strengthened by those who have visited a dozen times, and those who are visiting for the first time. Know that you have in the United States, and those who are before you today, a deep and enduring friendships.
Second, know that we spend time here, and I’ll be brief on this because the Ambassador touched on it, making sure that we really got to see and hear from a full range of opportunities and challenges in Africa. We had great meetings with leaders of country, both elected, the Vice President and Ministers of the Cabinet, the leaders of the Senate and House, the leaders of the military community in Abuja. We also we to Borno State. Thank you for recognizing that this is the first Congressional delegation that has been to Borno State. Let’s address the challenges we face together. Terrorism is a challenge that confronts the American people in the United States, something that we have wrestled with since 9/11 and before, something that we know our friends and partners in Nigeria also wrestle with. We had the opportunity to meet with the brave Nigerian military leaders who are confronting the challenge of Boko Haram, and with some of our advisors from the American Special Forces. We got a chance to meet with a whole range of the nonprofit organization from around this country and the world, who are addressing famine and challenges. We net with the deputy government, and addressed Borno State government, and we had a chance to visit a refugee camp. It is heartbreaking to see the challenges faced by the people of Borno State, but know that they do not face those challenges alone. We are passionate about the Chibok girls, no one as much as Congresswoman Wilson, and we had a chance to meet with them in Abuja, and to tell those who have been returned that members of the American Congress have been praying for them, working for them, and hoping for them, but we know there is much more hard work to do, and know that we intend to do that together, and that the US intends to be a good and strong and close ally as we confront them together.
Last, we have some things deeply in common. We are both federal republics. We are both multi-faith, multi-party, multi-lingual robust democracies with vibrant media and a great history of tradition of entrepreneurship and creativity. As I was trying to describe to my sons what it’s like going to Lagos, I said it’s like going to Los Angeles and Miami and New York all in one visit. And to Tony and Unko who hosted a fascinated, positive meeting with business leaders earlier today, thank you my friend. We had a great meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce to see all the good that American companies are doing and how much more we hope to do together. We started the day with a great conversation with a small group of YALI fellows and Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship fellows to hear about the amazing solutions young Nigerians are coming forward with. When you find the solution to challenges facing Nigeria, you find solutions not just to the problems facing Africa, but the challenges facing the entire world. So know that we recognize the vibrancy, the creativity, the entrepreneurship as you confront the very real challenges facing Nigeria and America. Climate change is a very real problem that is affecting this city and our cities. We are confronting tragic flooding in at home Houston, and many of us are from coastal states with coastal cities. There is no more coastal city than Lagos. And as we went across the Lagoon today to see the power plant and to think about the future of addressing power generation and how it can be done more cleanly and more sustainably, we also noticed marine debris, the plastic trash that floats up on our shores all over the world, another challenge we must face together.
We have challenges of governance, of transparency, of making sure we continue to hold our elected officials accountable, to make sure that we make the chairman processes and elections more fair and predictable, less corrupt and more positive. This is a challenge we face together. Ours is a young democracy, not a perfect democracy, and as we had a powerful conversation earlier today, many of you, I hope, will learn about the challenges we face and have faced, and how we can face them together.
The market is Nigeria is astonishing. There’s a reason that there are companies here from all over the world. But the opportunities here are even more remarkable. Perhaps you’ve hear about generation bump. As a recent analysis shows the number of banked, urban and plugged in professionals here in Lagos alone is nearly 30 million. This is an incredibly desirable and creative route within the much larger community of Nigeria. But we came here not just to see and to talk with great titans of industry that manufacture cement, and sugar, and salt, who build infrastructure and who build banking institutions, but also the creative leaders of Nollywood, those who are making films that are watched all over the world, and that are demonstrating that Nigeria has a film culture and a film industry that rivals the greatest in the world.
We also know that the young leaders of Nigeria have creativity, have solutions, have insights to how we will confront the most challenging things together. What you might not know is just how much Nigeria has already touched the United States. We are a country made up of people from all over the world, and the Nigerian diaspora is the largest, the best educated and the most successful. And just to be a human testament to that, my dear friend Victor Udo flew up here to join us this afternoon. Victor spent 20 years in my home state of Delaware, where he was a power engineer, and where I appointed him to the local planning board. And like so many talented Nigerians, he’s returned home to help with the power sector and with planning. There are so many Nigerians who have bene successful in the United States, we know that we are of each other, that we have similar values, similar dreams and similar challenges. As you heard from Tony earlier, I host an annual conference in Delaware, it has an intentional title: Opportunity Africa. Sometimes the media focuses only on negative things in the United States when we look at Africa. Sometimes it focuses only on Borno State. And the challenges there are real. But we conclude our visit to Nigeria and I conclude my remarks with a focus on the amazing audience I see before me- the vibrant media, the creative and hopeful young people, the energy that is the Nigerian people, and the enormous heart with which you’ve welcomed us on this great trip to your great nation. We look forward to your partnership. We look forward to return visits. And we look forward to the creative solutions we will find to the problems of our world. Thank you.
“Since President Trump took office, I’ve urged him and his administration to develop a detailed plan for our path forward in Afghanistan. Last night’s announcement reflects serious deliberation informed by Secretary Mattis, General Dunford, Lieutenant General McMaster and other key members of the President’s national security team with deep experience in Afghanistan.
“For almost 16 years, Americans and our allies have been fighting and dying in Afghanistan, now the longest war in our history. I have visited Afghanistan twice as a U.S. Senator, and the brave women and men who have served in Afghanistan exemplify the best of patriotism. We need to work to ensure that their sacrifices have not been in vain. Their mission to support the Afghan government in its fight against the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and ISIS, has been noble and necessary, and they deserve the full support of Congress.
“President Trump’s speech offered a few clear changes in strategy: moving from a timeline-based strategy to a conditions-based strategy with a commitment to preventing the Taliban and other terrorist groups from retaking control of Afghanistan, and using a regional approach to challenge Pakistan’s deeply troubling practice of harboring extremist groups. Essentially, without committing to troop levels or timelines, President Trump has said our strategy is to outlast the Taliban and other terrorist groups, and to only leave Afghanistan once the Afghan government and its armed forces can maintain control of the country. This strategy would commit us and our allies to a very long and likely very costly war for many years to come, and deserves to be fully debated and developed now that President Trump has presented its broad outlines.
“We all must think critically in the weeks ahead about whether the President’s strategy will turn the tide of America’s longest war at a cost we can accept. I have a number of important questions. Among them: How will we pressure Pakistan to shut down Taliban sanctuaries and also approach expanding Russian and Iranian influence in Afghanistan? How will our mission in Afghanistan affect the availability of forces in the event of a crisis somewhere else in the world? Will our NATO allies agree to this strategy and provide additional forces?
“I look forward to debating this strategy with colleagues of both parties in Congress. We should review the Authorization for the Use of Military Force against the Taliban, ISIS, and Al Qaeda; the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes funding for all of the Department of Defense; and funding for all national security agencies, including the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, to make sure those serving on the front lines of this conflict have what is required to be successful in advancing our interests and values using all the tools of American power.
“Despite our country’s political divisions, we must work together to advance our values and our national security, and to support the men and women of our military. Our military’s success is our country’s success, and we must face the challenges ahead together.”
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Erin Burnett last night to discuss threats from North Korea.
“I’m hopeful we’ll see a repeat of the historic pattern of North Korea, where they are initially very belligerent, quite aggressive, and threaten attacks, and then when confronted, they stand down. This has gone off and on for many years. What makes the current situation with North Korea much more dangerous than previous confrontations with the West is that they have both nuclear weapons and ICBMs and they are closing in on the capability to marry the two and threatening to use them against the continental United States,” said Senator Coons.
Senator Coons on the potential of a North Korean missile launch: I’m very concerned, Erin, given the heated rhetoric, the very belligerent rhetoric from Kim Jong-un, the dictator of North Korea. I think it’s appropriate we make preparations, that we defend our vital allies in South Korea and Japan, and we continue to bring online the missile defense system, the THAAD system, and we make it clear that any attack on American territory, any attack on American troops or on our close allies, will be met forcefully.
Senator Coons on recent statements from Kim Jong-un that seem to suggest he isn’t ready to strike yet: I’m hopeful we’ll see a repeat of the historic pattern of North Korea, where they are initially very belligerent, quite aggressive, and threaten attacks, and then when confronted, they stand down. This has gone off and on for many years. What makes the current situation with North Korea much more dangerous than previous confrontations with the West is that they have both nuclear weapons and ICBMs and they are closing in on the capability to marry the two and threatening to use them against the continental United States. So this is a more dangerous situation than we’ve faced in the recent past.
Senator Coons on whether the US should continue its annual military drills with allies in the region: Yes, we should continue to conduct drills and exercises with our allies, South Korea and Japan. Secretary Tillerson and Secretary Mattis had a joint editorial in The Wall Street Journal today where they very appropriately laid out that we have no intention of trying to overthrow the North Korean regime, of trying to invade or occupy North Korea, and that we are open to negotiations, and in those negotiations we may be willing to make compromises, but not in the face of threats and not in the face of ongoing missile tests, missile launches and nuclear detonations. So I felt like they took the right tone in that editorial.
Senator Coons on a potential missile test off the coast of Guam: I think if a missile is launched at Guam, and we have the capability, which I believe we do, we should knock down the missile. While a missile is in the air launched by North Korea and en-route to Guam, if we mistake the trajectory by a small amount, it could hit Guam rather than in the waters off of Guam. I think it is completely appropriate for us to use a defensive missile system to disable an incoming, aggressive North Korean ballistic missile, because we won’t know whether it’s a dummy missile or armed missile until it hits, and we won’t know exactly where it’s targeted- the waters off of Guam, or hitting Guam itself- until it comes down.
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 Atlanticarticle 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.”
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.