MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers says Republican concerns over the screening process for thousands of Afghan refugees who stood side by side with Americans and are now being processed through Fort McCoy are unfounded “dog whistle crap.”
“When I hear a Republican talk about that, either they’re vastly uninformed, or they like to raise the specter of ‘maybe some of those cute little kids that I saw at Fort McCoy are terrorists. Or ‘maybe those adults that I saw at Fort McCoy, who were working hand-in-hand with our soldiers and airmen in Afghanistan, somehow they are terrorists - even though they’ve been vetted, four, five, six times, even before they left Afghanistan," Evers said at a "Build Back Better" bus tour stop Monday.
"To me it’s dog-whistle crap, and we don’t need any of that," he added.
Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have criticized the vetting process and warned about terrorists being allowed into the country.
Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson last week asked whether the refugees at Fort McCoy have been fully vetted and said White House assurances about the process are “lipstick on a pig.”
