By Lindsey Harrison/WMBD
BLOOMNGTON – During separate stops in Bloomington-Normal Wednesday, Democratic U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin weighed in on the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump’s statements which spread the blame for the recent violent in Charlottesville, Va.
“You can’t split the difference when it comes to bigotry and hatred,”Durbin said. “You can’t find a way to maybe make David Duke think you’re okay and appeal to the mainstream in America. You can’t make excuses for people who are flying a Nazi banner and want to march down the street talking about white supremacy.”
“I know who exactly is on the side of America and who is not and Nazis and white supremacists are not on the side of this country,” Duckworth said. “If you truly love this country, you cannot reject the very basic values that are enshrined in the constitution of the united states. it’s that simple.”
Former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush issued a joint statement without mentioning Trump by name saying “America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-semitism, and hatred in all forms.”
Duckworth on NAFTA renegotiations
Duckworth during a stop at the Illinois Farm Bureau in Bloomington said she wants to make sure NAFTA renegotiations don’t go the same way as the Trans Pacific Partnership.
“My focus will be to protect trade and not allow agriculture to get caught up in the fights that happen when it comes to the manufacturing sector,” Duckworth said. “That’s the problem that happened with TPP, for example. TPP failed largely because of the failures within the manufacturing side comes with Chinese made products, not with agriculture, as an example of the difficulties we ran into.”
Duckworth added America is the gold standard when it comes to agriculture and she intends to remind her colleagues of that as budget negotiations pick up when lawmakers return to Washington following August recess.
Durbin on opioid epidemic
Durbin visited Chestnut Health System on Wednesday to highlight National Health Center Week and discuss the role community health care centers plays in the fight against the opioid addiction epidemic.
“Community health centers like Chestnut are on the front lines of our fight against the opioid epidemic. In 2015, there were 1,835 overdose deaths in Illinois – more than the number of traffic deaths and homicides combined. And today, only 12 percent of Illinoisans who need substance abuse treatment actually receive it,” said Durbin. “Chestnut is a state leader in providing medication-based treatments to those struggling with addiction. But we must do more to help. Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act would have cut off access to addiction treatment and thrown millions of Americans off their health insurance. I was relieved that the Senate rejected these repeal bills on a bipartisan basis. Now we must come together and improve our health care system so that our great community health centers, like Chestnut, can do what they do best-provide the right care at the right time to those in need.”
