Dem U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin says she’s prepared to vote to eliminate the filibuster in order to codify Roe v. Wade but would rather work to reform it instead.
“I am, but I’d rather reform it,” Baldwin said on WISN’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “I would rather reform it, and that would be what I would push for.”
During an interview in Waukesha County, Baldwin said she wouldn’t concede or negotiate with Republicans if they controlled either chamber and pushed for any type of national abortion ban.
“Republicans, if they are in control, are not going to do anything other than try to pass a national abortion ban, and I can’t compromise on those grounds,” she said. “If I had a dozen Republicans who came to me tomorrow and said, ‘We’re ready to vote for the Women’s Health Protection Act with this little tweak or that’ sure, we’d be talking. That’s not where they’re at.”
On immigration, Baldwin again criticized Republicans for failing to back the Senate immigration bill but disputed the legislation was needed to solve a problem created by Dems and the Biden administration.
“It would be a lot more secure if we had passed the bipartisan border security bill,” Baldwin said. “It’s something we need to do to deal with the southern border. Who would suggest that people fleeing violence, people fleeing hunger from other countries are a Democrat or a Republican?”
Baldwin said any undocumented immigrant “who’s committed crime should be deported” but said a “bipartisan solution” is needed for others.
“Well, look at Dreamers,” she said. “There’s a whole range of folks who don’t have any documentation. Some of them came here as babies. They have grown up here. They know no other country. They work as nurses and teachers in our communities. I think they deserve a pathway to citizenship. We need to vet everybody who is in this country. Anyone who’s committed a crime should be deported. And I think that if we look at our economy here in Wisconsin, dairy farming would collapse tomorrow if we didn’t have immigrant labor that was able to get the work visas that they needed. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. I don’t think you can do one broad brush stroke and deal with every part of this.”
Baldwin won her race six years ago by 11 points. The latest Emerson College poll shows a tied race.
“I think that people have on some issues sort of gone into their partisan camps,” she said. “Look, we’re going to push for the entire Democratic ticket from the very top to the very bottom. The presidential race is as tight as this U.S. Senate race is, and we’re just all, need all of us to just sprint to the finish line.”
Baldwin’s GOP challenger, Eric Hovde, says a Trump victory in Wisconsin would boost his chances in the razor-thin race.
“It would certainly be helpful,” Hovde told “UpFront.” “And I think he is going to win the state. Look, there’s a very small percentage of Trump voters that aren’t voting for me yet. We think we’ll close that gap. But we have a group of voters that are voting for me that don’t appear to be voting for President Trump … But obviously, if President Trump wins, it would be helpful to my campaign.”
Hovde said he “understands” Trump’s proposal for no tax on tips or overtime but added the details would be critical.
“I understand no tax on tips, and you’re talking small revenue numbers,” Hovde said.
“Look, again, I understand and the desire and trying to help those people in that position,” he added. “The issue becomes you just have to make sure that work that is truly overtime work, not people classifying you know I’m working 30 hours and then the next 10 is overtime. So it all gets tied up in the definition.”
Hovde said he backs Trump’s proposal for a “mass deportation” but doesn’t back the idea of local police or federal agents going door-to-door.
“No, I think you start by prioritizing,” Hovde said. “Where are these 50,000 military-age Chinese men that we know are largely engaging in two things, cybercrime and lacing pills and marijuana with fentanyl? Let’s go after and get these people out.”
Hovde also backed Congress having to potentially approve billions of dollars for the deportations.
“It’s going to save us enormous amounts of money, whatever it costs to get rid of them,” Hovde said. “I cannot believe we’re giving cash payments and free housing to illegal immigrants when we have veterans and people in need in this country. So, no, the savings will be significant given the amount that we spent.”
On abortion, Hovde reaffirmed he doesn’t “believe in a national abortion ban” and that “a woman should have a right to choose early on in their pregnancy.”
“I don’t think it’s, first of all, it’s not going to come before the Senate,” Hovde said. “Anybody that’s telling you that this is going to be addressed is lying unless you break the filibuster, and I don’t support breaking the filibuster because you have to have control of the White House, 60 seats in the Senate which rarely ever happened, and control of the House. So here’s where it’s going to be decided. I think it needs to be decided state by state. Each state can take their solution. We, in the state of Wisconsin, are fully capable of dealing with this in Wisconsin.”
Hovde was asked whether current law in Wisconsin, which is about 20 weeks, is considered early on in pregnancy and within his policy position.
“Yeah, look, if you look at western Europe, they resolved this a long time ago,” he said. “Germany’s 12 weeks. I think France is 14 or 15 weeks. Netherlands is 18 weeks. I think at some point at the end of the first trimester, the beginning, you know, kind of the middle of the second trimester.”
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