Kamlager-Dove Discusses NDAA, Affirmative Action, Detained Americans, Ukraine on SiriusXM's 'P.O.T.U.S. with Laura Coates'

To listen to her remarks on her detained constituent Eyvin Hernandez, click here.

ON REP. CRANE'S COMMENTS

"... We were already having tense debates about Ukraine and funding for Ukraine and Putin and Russia and then DEI and the LGBTQ community. All of these poison pill amendments that the Republicans had put into this National Defense Authorization Act, really turning this NDAA into a piñata that they were able to bash with all of these culture war poison pill amendments. And so I think it just got good to them. And then all of a sudden, this Republican started complaining about 'you colored people.' You heard a gasp on the Floor, and then Representative Beatty asked for it to be stricken. But this man was not ashamed. He had no remorse. He did not apologize. And it just goes to show you that that is really how they think about us.

ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

"...Well, [I'm] speechless. I mean, not surprised given the makeup of this very activist Court. It speaks to the discussion we were just having. You know, the fact of the matter is that this Supreme Court is a sham in my mind. It's a hot mess, and it is facing a legitimacy crisis... So this ruling on affirmative action was really about Harvard and North Carolina. Those are elite institutions. Elite institutions are still the gateway for access to high- powered government jobs, to high-powered jobs in industry. And in fact, eight of the nine current Supreme Court Justices either attended Harvard or Yale, and three of the nine Justices on the bench, the African-American and Latino judges, you know, have said and acknowledge that they actually got into school because of affirmative action, and they actually got appointed to this bench because of affirmative action because those Republican and Democratic presidents thought about race when they considered those three for nomination to the Highest Court. So when you have Justice Roberts opining that we should be a colorblind country – that's an aspirational state of mind. It's not a reality. And in fact, race is thought about every single time, every single moment of the day. In fact, race was used to single out race in the ruling. And then just last night, you have somebody talking about colored people. So what makes you think that this is a colorblind country?

"...Well, so, for the states that have had affirmative action banned, they have seen a 20% drop in applicants and admissions by Black and Brown students. So we're just going to see that happen across the country. You know, this decision, I think, was purely political and not analytical. Of course, you are going to have colleges trying to figure out a way to maintain some diversity on their campus because, you know, colleges and universities aren't stupid. They know that diversity is important for the hiring of faculty, for being able to do research, for getting grants, for raising money, for having a strong alumni base. You know, they also know, and I've talked to many admissions counselors that say we don't want a homogenous campus. That doesn't help anybody. You know, nothing can thrive in a homogenous environment, not people, not species, not animals. Nothing. So, so they are going to have to continue to be as creative as possible. You've heard some states say we're going to offer tuition free admissions to some, you know, others... HBCUs are hoping that they will benefit from this, unfortunately. But colleges and universities are going to have to be and get as innovative on this ruling as they had to when Roe v. Wade was overturned because that also impacted students, especially women students who were making decisions about where they wanted to go to school and now have to think, hey, you know, is this state going to prosecute me if I get pregnant and need an abortion? So, a lot of extra stressors on young people trying to get into college now because of the Supreme Court.

ON EYVIN HERNANDEZ

"...Well, this issue is personal to me. I have a constituent, Eyvin Hernandez, who has been wrongfully detained in Venezuela for over a year. He was actually in Colombia on vacation and essentially was snatched by the Venezuelan government, taken over the border, and has been held. It's incredibly important that we talk about our constituents, these folks who have been unlawfully detained, that we say their name, humanize them, and put pressure on the Administration and the State Department to do all that it can to bring home these Americans. There are hundreds of them across the world who need to be released. It's not something that we talk about. I think, you know, we're probably ashamed. I mean, no one wants to say, hey, I've lost, you know, a citizen. But the, you know, the President has a lot of tools in his tool kit. And I'm just asking that he use them all to bring Evan Gershkovich home, obviously, and to bring Eyvin Hernandez home. He's a 40+ year-old public defender who really spent his life fighting for the least of these, the most vulnerable, those who didn't have a voice. And now he's in a position where he doesn't have a voice, and we have to fight for him. 

ON NATO AND CLUSTER MUNITIONS

"... Well, I certainly agree with that. A few things. First, I am very excited that Erdoğan from Turkey made an about-face and realized that it was important for Sweden to see accession into NATO. You know, Finland and Sweden had been invited, and Finland got in, and they were holding up Sweden for really a number of xenophobic reasons I think. Certainly grateful that Biden is re-engaging with the international community. You know, Trump threw grenades everywhere he went. He torpedoed so many relationships with countries around the world. And so Biden really getting in and saying, 'how can I rebuild?' is incredibly important, and I think what's behind the push to have Erdoğan make an about-face. I think it's incredibly important that we support Ukraine. Last night, a lot of the debate was about not supporting Ukraine coming from these very extreme, ignorant Republicans. I don't think they're ready to be invited into NATO because they have to win this war, and they have to rebuild. You have to go through a lot of steps to show that you're ready to even be invited to NATO before you get the invitation. You know, around the cluster munitions – Russia has them. We need them. You know, my mother told me two wrongs don't make a right. I, I know that Biden has to make incredibly tough decisions. It was certainly his decision to make. We also know that 10-40% of those cluster munitions fail to detonate. These are like you know, clusters of tiny, tiny, you know, bombs. Then you throw them out and they go off, and the shrapnel is supposed to impact, you know, metal and tanks and infrastructure, but oftentimes, it impacts innocent civilians. And so there's a 10 to 40%, you know, fail rate. They don't go off now, you know, maybe 10-15 years later they do, you know, when you're walking over them, going to buy some ice cream. There's a dud rate that we don't have confirmation on. And so my question is, you know, are these the only things that we could have given them? And can't we sort of have different discussions about appropriate artillery? What kind of war is this that they're fighting? So those were my concerns around cluster munitions. But at the end of the day, it's the President's decision to make."

# # #