Sen. Tammy Baldwin visits Fort McCoy

By Natalie Sopyla

(WAOW) -- Tuesday was Senator Tammy Baldwin's turn to visit Fort McCoy, along with Congressman Ron Kind, State Representative Katrina Shankland, and other Democratic lawmakers.

"Just as they have supported our mission and helped keep our troops safe, we have a moral obligation to protect and keep them safe," Baldwin said.

Like Senator Ron Johnson, who visited Fort McCoy just two weeks ago, she did not meet with any of the refugees and did not say whether she had any plans to.

Unlike her Republican counterpart though, who questioned the security of the vetting process for refugees, Baldwin said she had no reason to believe there were any safety concerns.

She said the refugees were processed multiple times at different locations before arriving at Fort McCoy, and that none had any red flags.

"We should not be distracted by those bad faith claims and instead need to focus our energy on making sure the personnel at Fort McCoy have everything they need to do their jobs," Baldwin said.

Rep. Kind emphasizing that the mission at Fort McCoy was the right thing to do for Wisconsin.

"As representative of this base, I had all the confidence in the world that they could stand up quickly overnight and do the job that we saw them doing today very proficiently, efficiently, and ethically," he said.

Lawmakers saying they learned nearly 100% of the refugees had chosen to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

The goal is to have the refugees processed within three weeks.

Watch the full press conference below.

[Link HERE]