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

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."

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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."