Sen. Doug Jones hopes Trump will "reach across the aisle" in State of the Union speech
Sen. Doug Jones, D-Alabama, said he hopes to hear President Trump "reach across the aisle" to both Republicans and Democrats as he steps up to the dais for his first State of the Union address Tuesday evening. "I think he's going to be talking about unity, I think that's the best way to advance the agenda," said Jones on "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday.
Jones, who spoke to CBS in his first network interview since being sworn in as senator earlier this month, said his election was "somewhat of a wakeup call for America" in that "we need to really get together to try to reach across the aisle, have a bipartisan agreement on these things and get the country moving."
"I think a tone is going to be very important for him to try to reach out to Democrats and Republicans alike to try make sure that we are working together, and this is not a just a fight, it's not a battle between one faction or another, but something we can do as Americans," he added.
But Jones says it's important for the president to deliver a "presidential address" instead of campaign speech in which he "lays out not only his accomplishments this past year but also his goals for the future."
According to a background call with senior administration officials ahead of the president's speech, Mr. Trump is set to touch on topics like trade, infrastructure, the economy and current immigrations negotiations playing out on Capitol Hill.
Jones says the issue of immigration is one that the president wants to "move forward" on in a manner "Democrats and Republicans alike will embrace."
The White House has since laid out its framework for an immigration policy the administration would support which includes securing the border, ending extended-family chain migration, cancelling the visa lottery program and providing a permanent solution on DACA.
While Jones said he would "look at" the White House's proposals, the exact specifications of what border security looks like and costs "is going to be the details we haven't seen from the government."
"Twenty-five billion dollars is a lot of money," he said. "During the camping he talked about building the wall and Mexico paying for it, well now we know it's going to be the American public that's going to pay for it, so we have to be careful we have to be smart with out money."
He noted, however, that he was "optimistic about an immigration plan moving forward."
"I don't think it's a question of doing a deal with this president, I don't think you're going to see that at all, I think they want to get an immigration deal done, obviously DACA and the Dreamers are very, very important but border security is also important to Democrats," he said.
Jones added, "What I'm hoping we can do is focus on the two most important pillars of immigration which is the DACA issue as well as border security, I think there can be broad consensus on those two pillars."
