It’s become clear in the months since Donald Trump took office that millions of Americans can no longer look to the White House for a leader to represent their concerns. Numerous lower level leaders across the country, many of them Democrats, have taken on that role in the president’s place.
One of those leaders to do so is Illinois Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, who earlier this month slammed the president for his approach to dealing with the government shutdown that began on the one year anniversary of his inauguration.
Trump criticized Democrats for supposedly proving themselves indifferent towards the military because of their unwillingness to fund the military while ignoring other needs, such as the need to protect the large numbers of young people who the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program is meant to provide for.
Duckworth made it clear that the president was in no position to criticize the Democrats in such a manner, and now she’s done so again during an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation.
She told host Nancy Cordes:
‘I don’t think that [Trump] has the right to question other people’s support for our military, especially those of us who have served.’
Earlier this month, at the time of the government shutdown, Duckworth ripped the president for his claims that, as mentioned, Democrats supposedly didn’t support the military after all since they weren’t willing to ignore other concerns.
Trump expressed this view, among other instances, on January 20 on Twitter, writing:
‘Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Can’t let that happen!’
Besides the issue over Trump acting as though he’s in some position to speak about support of the military when he’s gone from evading the draft through questionable means in the Vietnam era to threatening the lives of troops via bringing us closer and closer to war, there’s another issue here, too. Democrats, quite simply, do not want “unchecked illegal immigration.” Democrats want to take care of the immigrants that are already here and not blindly close our doors to any more immigrants.
Vice President Mike Pence was among the allies of the president to parrot his view about Democrats and the military, politicizing a speech to troops overseas and using it to try and drum up support for the Democrats he claimed to be unfairly obstructing military bill by refusing to support a government spending bill that didn’t address their other concerns.
In response to this line of reasoning from the president, Duckworth spoke on the Senate floor as follows:
‘I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible. Sadly, this is something that the current occupant of the Oval Office does not seem to care to do — and I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger.’
Besides the topic of the president, Duckworth also discussed the fact that she will be the first sitting U.S. Senator to give birth, communicating that she is taken aback by it having taken this long for someone to earn that title.
Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video
