DNC Talking Points

Feb. 6, 2017
Contents:
Overview
Muslim Ban
Nominees
Russia

Overview:
After just 2 weeks the Trump administration is flailing on multiple fronts. Trump looks
weak, incompetent and out of touch with reality.
o His Muslim ban is not just illegal and cruel, it makes us all less safe
o Many of his cabinet nominees turn out to have unethical or illegal conflicts of
interest just like Trump himself
o And his unyielding support for Russia makes it look more and more like our
President is taking his marching orders from Vladimir Putin.

This administration is so desperate to save its flailing policies it is filling the airwaves
with alternative facts
o Kellyanne Conway told her fabricated Bowling Green Massacre lie several
times to try and make Americans afraid of our Muslim neighbors.
o Trump recently tweeted that all the negative polls are fake. Between that and
him imagining he won the popular vote, he is sounding more and more unhinged

Thats why hes losing support fast, even from the leaders and voters of his own Party.
o He set the record for lowest job approval rating when he took office and has only
sunk lower since
o Now hes the least popular president this early in his term in at least 60
years.
o Americans are making their voices heard in the streets and at town halls
across the country.

Nominees the Swamp Cabinet

Senator Schumer is leading the charge on nominees messaging. We want to amplify their
Talking Points below:

Background: The Senate continued debating Betsy DeVos nomination for Secretary of
Education today. A vote on DeVos is anticipated tomorrow, followed by consideration of and
votes on Sen. Jeff Sessions (US Attorney General Nominee), Rep. Tom Price (US Secretary of
Health and Human Services) and Steve Mnuchin (Director of OMB Nominee) spread out
through the rest of the week.
Topline Message: All of these nominees exemplify the broken promises that Trump made to
the American people on the campaign trail. These cabinet secretaries will be charged with
carrying out and enforcing the laws written by Congress, and we need to make certain they are
qualified, capable and without conflict to lead the departments for which they have been
nominated.

In the last few weeks, these nominees have received more scrutiny, as Democrats have
successfully pushed back hearings and boycotted committee votes due to these nominees
conflicts of interest and misleading statements as reported on here:

Nomination DeVos for Education

It is hard to imagine a worse person for this job:
She didnt know basic facts about education during her hearing, such as a law
intended to look out for students with disabilities
She actually plagiarized answers on her Senate questionnaire, an especially poor
example for our children in the digital age
Worse, her only education background is trying to weaken public schools. Shes never
worked in a public school, nor does she hold a degree in education. She would be the
first Secretary of Education who has never been a public school parent or student.
An organization she founded and directed still owes Ohio more than $5 million in
fines for illegally financing anti-public-school politicians years ago
She is just a Trump crony and well-connected Republican out to undermine public
education.
Now her nomination is on the brink of being rejected by the Senate.
Even several Republican Senators are refusing to vote for her, along with all Democrats
If Mike Pence breaks a Senate tie, Trump may still be able to ram through this crony

Muslim Ban:
Main Message: Trumps anti-muslim ban makes us all less safe. It also violates our
values and our constitution thats why its facing a massive public backlash, and thats
why a federal judge has issued a stay to halt it. The Trump administration is so desperate
to shift public opinion, they shamefully invented a terrorist attack the Bowling Green
Massacre to scare the American people into supporting the ban.

Less Safe
People who actually know how to keep Americans safe agree that the ban does
much more to help terrorists recruit new people including people already here in the
U.S. than it does to stop terrorists from coming here.
Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said this executive order is a
self-inflicted wound that will do more to help terrorist recruitment than improve our
security.
Former CIA Director General David Petraeus has said banning Muslims would be
totally counterproductive and play directly into the hands of terrorist groups.
Trumps own current Secretary of Homeland Security Retired Marine General John
Kelly opposed a Muslim ban in his recent confirmation hearings.
And his predecessor, Republican former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge
said banning Muslims would just feed into the ISIS narrative.

Backlash:
 The American people oppose the ban by large majorities and are marching in the
streets;
key security experts have been vocal about how the ban makes us less safe by acting
as a propaganda tool for terrorist recruiters;
a growing number of U.S. businesses like Disney and Uber are worried about the
economic impact, especially on tourism;
598 college and university presidents sent a letter to the President voicing concerns
about its impact on students;
a growing number of Republican Members of Congress have voiced their concerns;
the legal community including Republican appointed judges -- are worried about how
it not only breaks the law but violates our constitution.

Illegality
A federal judge appointed by George W. Bush issued an emergency stay on the executive
order based on a lawsuit that:
Said the Muslim ban violated due process for those who had their visas stripped;
Said the Muslim ban was, in fact, an unconstitutional and un-American religious test;
Was supported by Amazon and Expedia who said the Muslim ban hurt their business.

The Trump administration must comply fully with this court order immediately and they
must be monitored very closely.

There are some very disturbing reports emerging that Trump officials previously defied
federal court orders and slow walked providing illegally detained individuals access to
lawyers. That is illegal. This is not a dictatorship: the executive branch cannot ignore court
orders.

There needs to be an immediate investigation into these unconstitutional actions by the

Trump Administration.

Violating our Values - Targeting the Wrong People

Trumps anti-Muslim ban is targeting the wrong people: those who have already gone through
extensive vetting that takes more than two full years to complete before a visa is granted and
entry is allowed.

Treating our friends like enemies:

The five-year-old detained at Dulles Airport and kept from his mother does not pose a
threat to our safety.
Nor does the doctor banned from entering the U.S. who was going to work at a
Cleveland health clinic.
Nor does the 88 year old blind man who was detained and had his medicine withheld in
Virginia.

Pushback Points:

1. Trumps anti-Muslim ban would not have stopped previous attacks.

 This executive order would not have stopped any attack on U.S. soil. None of the
perpetrators of the Orlando, San Bernardino and Boston marathon attacks were from or
had traveled to any of the countries covered by Trump's executive order.
There have been no fatal terror attacks in the US by immigrants from the seven banned
Muslim countries.

2. This is an anti-Muslim ban. It is about religion. Period.

Rudy Giuliani, the architect of the executive order, confirmed its intended to be a
Muslim ban. Giuliani: Trump asked me how to legally implement 'Muslim ban'
A ban on people from specific Majority-Muslim countries while making exceptions for
non-Muslims is a religious test and a ban on Muslims.

3. Refugees already go through an extensive vetting process

Washington Post Fact Checker: Trump also falsely claims there is no way to screen
refugees. The process actually takes two more years, after vetting that starts with the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and then continues with checks by U.S.
intelligence and security agencies.
Vox Fact Check: Trump is wrong: There is an extensive, onerous screening process
for refugees who come to America.

4. Trumps anti-Muslim ban is NOT comparable to anything President Obama has done.

Multiple fact checkers have debunked this claim. The Obama security team responded
to a specific threat detected by the intelligence community by going back and thoroughly
double-checking thousands of prior applicants, which delayed new applicants.
The Trump administration is issuing a blanket ban based on religion. Its simply a pretext
for religious discrimination, its illegal, and it makes us all less safe, not more.

5. The seven countries named in Trumps anti-Muslim ban cannot be justified by

previous actions by President Obama or Congress.

President Obama and Congress identified countries that shouldnt be allowed to

participate in a visa waiver program, to make sure everyone getting a visa from those
countries would be thoroughly vetted, which they already are.
Neither President Obama nor Congress advocated for a blanket travel ban from those
countries.

Russia
Background
Donald Trump defended murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin by drawing a moral
equivalence to the United States, saying were not so innocent.
Republican Congressional leaders including Mitch McConnell and Marco Rubio have
condemned the Presidents statement.
Nancy Pelosi has renewed her call for a full independent investigation into the ties
between Putin and Trump.

Message: The Presidents comment comparing us to Russia was chilling. There is no moral
equivalence between America and Russia. We do not assassinate opposition leaders and
journalists for criticizing the President. (As Marco Rubio said) in America we criticize each other
we do not poison each other.
Trump never misses a chance to defend murderous dictator Vladimir Putin.
There are 2 possible reasons for that (and its hard to say which is more disturbing).
Either (1), our President actually thinks it would be fine to run America the way
Putin runs Russia
Or (2) Putin really does have something on Trump, and our President really is a
puppet of the Kremlin.

(Nancy Pelosi is right) It is long past time for Trump to come clean about his connections to
Russia and submit to an independent, bipartisan investigation to get to the bottom of whats
going on. Thats the only way we can know Russias not running the whole show. But we
also need to understand his finances to know who and what hes tied to. Thats why its all the
more important for Trump to release his tax returns to the American public as every
president has done for the last 40 years.

What makes America great is that we are not run like Russia. We are free people who
respect each other. If our President doesnt understand that, thats a huge problem.
If our President cant tell the good guys from the bad guys, thats a problem. Did he sleep
through the Cold War? Did he not see Rocky IV?

---
The entire U.S. intelligence community agrees that the Russian government attacked our
democracy to help Donald Trump get elected.

And now Trump is paying Russia back by:

defending Putins regime on TV, as he did this weekend;
attacking Putin adversaries and U.S. allies like NATO and the European Union, as he
did within his first days in office;
lifting U.S. imposed sanctions on a Russian spy agency, as he did on Friday;
Not personally criticizing Russian renewed Russian aggression in Ukraine, leaving it to
U.S. diplomats

Donald Trumps pro-Russian rhetoric and actions are too strange and too concerning to be
ignored. They raise serious questions about our President, including whether hes being
blackmailed by the Kremlin as many have suggested.

Its time for an independent, bipartisan investigation into the Russian attacks to investigate
President Trumps personal and financial ties to Russia, determine both what happened in
our election and determine specific steps to stop it from ever happening again. House
Democrats are unanimously cosponsoring the Swalwell-Cummings Russia Hacking Bill to
achieve that goal. Republicans should do the same.

The current investigations are nowhere near enough.

The U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies that sought wiretaps on members of
the Trump team and are investigating whether the Kremlin funneled money into the
Trump campaign are now under the White Houses control.
The Senate and House intelligence committee investigations are being run by
Republicans who have shown no interest in holding Trump accountable.
Regardless of how he got the job of President, Trump now needs to do the job of
President. For Americans to have confidence in his leadership, he needs to come clean about
all of his past Russian ties and stand up for America in the face of Russian aggression, not
play Putins puppet. We won the Cold War almost 30 years ago. We cannot afford to lose it
now.

Putin and Russia are Incredibly Dangerous

Putin is a murderous dictator and former KGB operative.
Journalists critical of Putin get murdered at a staggering rate at least 34 have been
killed since 2000 and the few of the killers see justice.
Russia is a hostile, expansionist petro-state that is attacking its neighbors and our
democracy.
Putin wants a weak American President who will look the other way as he invades
neighbors like Ukraine and Belarus using brutal, deadly force and killing thousands of civilians