Subject: APPROVE: Indiana script
From: "Helmstetter, TJ" <[email-masked]>
To: RR2 <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 08:33:49 -0700

Research - pls double check this, you sent me the facts yesterday. Thanks

CHAIRMAN JOHN ZODY:

Good afternoon, everyone. And for members of the media who have been following Donald Trump this whole election year - welcome to the Hoosier State. I highly recommend you come back once Donald Trump's candidacy is a distant memory.

It can't come soon enough. As Trump brings his divisive rhetoric and dangerous brand of politics to Indiana, I'm truly afraid of the effect it's having on our great state.

Already this year, some of Trump's irrational and reckless statements have set off new tensions among Hoosiers.

Some Trump supporters here have even threatened party leaders with death threats solely because they chose not to support Trump.

We're just hoping it doesn't get worse from here.

But let's be clear - Donald Trump did not hijack the Republican Party. He is the natural result of years of extreme ideology and dangerous, divisive rhetoric coming from the Republican Party.

We've already suffered from the out-of-touch agenda of our own version of Trump in the state - Governor Mike Pence.

Like Trump, Governor Pence wants to redefine birthright citizenship rules in the U.S. Constitution.

Just yesterday, Trump's immigration policy expert testified in favor of anti-immigrant legislation in Indiana and a measure that would bring another wave of RFRA-like economic panic to the state.

While Trump has said women should be "punished" for having abortions, Mike Pence signed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation - second only to North Dakota. Under this law, women no longer have the privacy and confidentiality of consulting with their doctors about their own well-being.

And finally, Donald Trump supports policies similar to the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act - essentially a license to discriminate, which Mike Pence has championed.

Not only did this dash his chances to run for president, but his destructive ideology threw the state into a $250 million economic panic while putting our coveted "Hoosier Hospitality" reputation in jeopardy.

So Mike Pence is Indiana's Donald Trump. And I can tell you, we don't need another one.

And tomorrow, the governor will share the stage with Ted Cruz, another divisive ideologue. While Cruz may not have a clear path to the Republican nomination anymore, he is still just every bit as dangerous as Trump.

After the past four disastrous years of his leadership, Hoosiers are ready to fire Mike Pence this fall. But I remain worried about the hateful rhetoric that Trump and Cruz will spread across Indiana in the meantime.

After November, Indiana will be recovering from one out-of-touch ideologue, we definitely can't afford another one in the presidency.

Now, it's my pleasure to introduce a member of Congress and a great leader in our Indiana delegation  - Congressman Andre Carson.

CONGRESSMAN CARSON:

Thank you, Chairman Zody. Very glad to be with you, and thank you for the hard work you do as chairman of my home state.

As most know -- three years ago, after their 2012 election loss, the Republican Party put out an autopsy report that was supposed to help them connect with a more diverse electorate.

Instead of heeding the warnings, the party paved the way for a divisive demagogue at the top of the ticket: Donald Trump.

I want to go over a couple of specifics in that report.

Among the finding in the GOP's much-hyped autopsy that most struck me was the line that, "many minorities wrongly think that Republicans don't like them or want them in the country." As one of those minorities, let me say, Republicans wrongly think we want them lecturing us about inclusivity.

But even more shocking is that the Republican Party has done nothing in the three years since it released its autopsy to build relationships with people of color or to make us feel welcome. In fact, it's barely done anything in the last fifty years to bridge the gap. Division has been a deliberate part the strategy employed by Republicans for years.

So we shouldn't be surprised that Donald Trump's vicious campaign tactics put him at the top of the Republican primary field. By inciting violence at his rallies, encouraging the crowd to beat up a Black Lives Matter protester, and waffling on whether or not to denounce the KKK, Trump knows exactly what he's doing, and it's shameful.

I don't want to see another article suggesting that Trump is engaging in a hostile takeover of his party. He's not. He is a product of years and years of racial appeals by generations of Republicans. Trump is the GOP without the wrapping paper.

The truth is, the other Republican candidates running for president are not much different.

Kasich and Cruz have attempted to distance themselves from Trump's extremism, but in reality they do not provide a reasonable alternative to the divisive rhetoric perpetuated by the Republican party.

Cruz has doubled down on his extreme positions, vowing to take away funding Planned Parenthood and repeal the Affordable Care Act. Similarly, Kasich is the most anti-choice governor in Ohio's history and half of his state's abortion providers have shuttered their doors because of draconian anti-women laws that he's signed.

Cruz cost taxpayers $24 billion in forcing a government shutdown over Obamacare, which has allowed the rate of uninsured Hoosiers to drop by 7.1 percent and has given 20 million Americans insurance they didn't have before.

We have to make sure we don't let other Republicans off of the hook, simply because of how terrible Trump has been. Our country can't afford to be taken backwards by the disastrous policies of John Kasich or Ted Cruz either. The Republican candidates are running campaigns that cut against the values that make America strong.

There's another point I'd like to touch on:

Trump's call for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S." promotes prejudice of and discrimination against Muslims. Trump's remarks were so toxic that I even received a death threat for simply being Muslim.

Our nation is not at war with Islam, or any other religion. Our nation is at war with those who seek to harm us.

I am a proud Hoosier. And I am a proud Muslim American who has served my country as a member of the law enforcement community, the intelligence committee, and now as the Representative from Indiana's 7th Congressional District.

There are millions of Muslim American citizens - hardworking families and patriots who contribute and serve our nation in many ways - from education, to law enforcement, to medicine, including some right here in Indiana.

Our country is better than the division and hatred we're being sold by Republicans.

If the GOP is truly interested in broadening its appeal, then it needs to abandon divisive leaders like Donald Trump and commit to changing its priorities, policies, and practices in order to win over minority voters. Enough of the dog whistles. People of color hear them too.

With that, we can open the call for questions.

###

TJ Helmstetter
Deputy Director of Regional and Specialty Media
Democratic National Committee
202.863.8022 - desk
973.464.9224 - cell
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>