Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Tom Perez dodged the question of whether or not the the U.S. should abolish ICE Friday on MSNBC.

WATCH:

“There’s been calls to end, obviously the family separation policy,” said host Chris Hayes. “There have also been calls to abolish ICE. There’s legislation that’s been introduced by members of Congress, some Democratic Senators have endorsed that position as others, do you think we should abolish ICE?”

Perez did not directly answer and instead deflected the question by saying, “We should defeat Donald Trump.”

“Wait, did you just say we should abolish Donald Trump?” Hayes responded.

Perez did not acknowledge the comment and went on to say Trump has a “tolerance for total ethical lapses,” focusing on the EPA and HHS.

“The administration has set the tone,” Perez said. “We need a change in leadership at the top levels of this country, we need to elect Democrats so that we make sure that our values of inclusion and opportunity are values that are now holding score, holding sway in the United States.”

The DNC chair also added that Democrats need to win elections in November “so that we can reform ICE, so that we can reform the EPA, so that we can change this culture of corruption that has infected the federal government.”

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