Stacey Abrams urges Trump to 'tell the truth' and 'respect his duties'

Stacey Abrams.
(Image credit: AP Photo/John Amis)

In the Democratic response to the State of the Union, Stacey Abrams said that while she is "very disappointed" in the way President Trump approaches problems, she doesn't want "him to fail," but rather to "tell the truth, and to respect his duties and the extraordinary diversity that defines America."

Abrams was the Democratic nominee for governor in Georgia, and she narrowly lost the race in November. On Tuesday night she touched on everything from the recent government shutdown, which she called "a stunt engineered by the president of the United States," to immigration.

"The administration chooses to cage children and tear families apart," she said. "Compassionate treatment at the border is not the same as open borders. President Reagan understood this. President Obama understood this. Americans understand this. And Democrats stand ready to effectively secure our ports and borders. But we must all embrace that from agriculture to health care to entrepreneurship, America is made stronger by the presence of immigrants — not walls."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Action needs to be taken on many things, Abrams said, including climate change, gun safety, expanding Medicare, voter suppression, and racism. Both sides need to come together to enact change, she added, because she's learned that "our constituents don't care about our political parties. They care about their lives."

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.