'This Week' Transcript 2-25-24: White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan & Sen. Tammy Duckworth
Interview
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Yes.
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Not at all surprised, unfortunately.
I have been talking about this in 2018 when it was very clear that Republicans were working to eliminate women's reproductive rights. I said if Neil Gorsuch gets put on the Supreme Court, if Amy Coney Barrett gets put on the Supreme Court, we're going to have an erosion of Roe v. Wade, and even back in 2018, I said, IVF is next.
They said they're coming for IVF. So, unfortunately, I wasn't surprised. I'm devastated for those families that are trying to start families, but I was not at all surprised.
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Well, the decision is very clear that a fertilized egg is a child, is a human being, which means that for example in my case, when we have five fertilized eggs and three were non-viable. When my doctor discarded those with my consent, that would be considered potentially manslaughter or murder.
Basically, Republicans have put the rights of a fertilized egg over the rights of the woman, and that is not something that I think the American people agree with.
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It's been crickets since the Alabama ruling. And let's make it clear. Republicans will say whatever they need to say to try to cover themselves on this, but they have been clear and Donald Trump has been the guy leading this effort to eliminate women's reproductive rights and reproductive choice. And so, this is the next step. And by the way, not a single Republican has reached out to me on the bill. I've introduced the bill multiple times and on multiple congresses, but frankly, you know, let's see if they vote for it when we bring it to the floor.
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No. I think what we talk about, again, is that Donald Trump has been very clear about what he's doing. He's not running for president for the American people. He's not running for president to take care of working families. He's running for president for himself. That's all he cares about every single day.
President Biden, in contrast, gets up every day and works hard to protect the American people and works hard to make sure he delivers for working families across this country. The choice is very clear and we just need to continue to hammer home that message.
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Oh, no, it certainly does, but it has all along. I think it's very -- Donald Trump, this is what he has been doing. He's shown us over time who he is, and he's a guy who cares about no one but himself.
You know, I have often thought when I go into work with my colleagues, and I assumed they loved America as much as I love America, that we just look at the problem from different perspectives, but we can come to a compromise.
Donald Trump cares about one thing, Donald Trump. That is in contrast with Joe Biden who cares deeply about America, who gets up every day and does everything that he can to serve this country, and we have to hammer that home.
And, again, we bring up these things, you know, for young people, for young families, we talk about IVF, we talk about reproductive choice, we talk about the fact that Donald Trump is the guy who took away women's right to protect -- to take -- to make their own decisions about their families.
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Definitely. This is what we're going to be talking about. We're going to talk about the fact that Donald Trump is the guy and Republicans have been working literally for years to take away your reproductive choice, which includes access to IVF for people struggling to start families.
But we also remember that we also came to a compromise on border security. There's a crisis at the border. And yet when we had a compromise, when we gave Republicans what they wanted, it was Donald Trump who killed the compromise, who stuck a knife in James Lankford's back and said, you know what, I don't want -- I don't want a compromise at the border because that's not what I care about. I care about Donald Trump. That's the choice.
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I would support that because we do have cries at the border. But I also think that we need --
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Well, you know what, Donald Trump has -- has backed away from this. As part of that package, there was more money for a whole bunch of things, to include a worker program so that people could actually go to work while they're waiting for their case to be adjudicated. I think that is critically important is a work permit for folks who come here. They want to work? Well, let's put them to work.
I've got the ag industries looking for workers. Retailers looking for workers. While they're waiting for their -- let's let -- allow them to work. So they're -- in that compromise, it's exactly that. There was stuff that fixed the border problems, but also allowed us to let -- to be humane about how we take care of the migrants who are here.
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Thank you.
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