Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Live,” 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said American no longer believes in treating others the way you want to be treated as dictated by the “Golden Rule” under the administration of President Donald Trump.
Ruhle asked Gillibrand to comment on acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli changing the words of the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus at the base of the Statue of Liberty to, “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge,” during an interview with NPR.
Gillibrand said, “I think it’s outrageous and deeply troubling. The Statue of Liberty to a lot of people stands for this beacon of light and hope, this greatness of America that allows people to come here who need our help. Send us your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. That’s what the Statue of Liberty means, and it’s not come here if you’re wealthy. It’s not come here if you’re going to help Trump’s budget. Like, honestly, it’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.”
She added, “So what we want to do is restore what this country stands for. We used to believe that you should treat others the way you want to be treated. We should care about the least of us. We used to believe in the Golden Rule, but not with Trump. Trump is dividing us on every racial and socioeconomic line. He’s a president who actually punches down. I believe we need a president who is brave, someone who stands up to do things for the right reasons. We could be helping refugees who need our help. We could have a humanitarian process at our border. w\We should never be separating children from their parents. We can have community-based systems to actually deal with these challenges in a humanitarian way. So President Trump is making us a smaller country, a weaker country, and he’s doing it because he’s small-minded.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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