Sanders and Rubio Address ISIS and Immigration
A second press conference was held between the two candidates for the 2016 Presidential Election on Monday, November 16. Democrat Rebecca Sanders and Republican Jordan Rubio faced off on a number of topics including the recent acts of terrorism in Paris, immigration in regards to Syrian refugees, wealth inequality, the widespread racial issues on college campuses, and more.
Sanders opened by immediately expressing her horror about the attacks in Paris, and shared that she personally knew a friend that was affected by the attacks and is currently hospitalized due to injuries.
Despite being previously opposed to the war in Iraq and opposed to the impending war in the Middle East, Sanders believes that we must come together with other European world powers and Muslim nations to fight and defeat ISIS. She also warns against stereotyping the entire religion of Islam as violent, when in fact it is actually a peaceful religion at the core.
“This is a group of extremists and we must make sure that the American public knows that we cannot condemn all Muslims throughout the world for these heinous acts,” said Sanders.
She referred to the fact that Paris has declared the attacks an “act of war”, which will change the way we move forward. Sanders believes that we must hold ISIS responsible by meeting with French government about our participation in the war we must wage against ISIS.
Despite her beliefs that war is a last resort, Sanders did acknowledge that she knows that war may be imminent. She doesn’t agree with the fact that the military is spending a whooping 600 billion dollars, therefore she believes that we must change the distribution of military spending.
Immigration wise, Sanders wants to sign the Dream Act into law because she believes that immigration creates jobs.
Jordan Rubio addressed the problems with ISIS and the Middle East by stating that he plans on being aggressive towards ISIS due to the clear acts of terror overseas in Paris and the threats other locations have received. He supports France’s decision to bomb Raqqa and would like to provide France with as many resources as possible.
In regards to immigration, Rubio wants to modernize it. He plans on opening job opportunities for people who are legally but denying actual citizenship for people who are here illegally. He drew on his experiences of his immigrant parents and the “American Dream” throughout the press conference.
“The illegal immigration system that is currently in place needs to be reformed.” Rubio said, “We need to find a way to incorporate them into American life in a reasonable and responsible way.”
Throughout the press conference, Rubio stuck to answering his questions with typically vague responses, whereas Sanders appeared to have more straight forward, concise, and direct answers to the media’s questions. Both candidates however, successfully addressed the topics of the press conference in a respectful and reasonable manner, despite their opposing viewpoints.
