Senator and combat veteran Tammy Duckworth had strong words for Pete Hegseth while appearing on CNN to discuss Donald Trump‘s pick for Defense Secretary.
Duckworth, who lost both legs after being shot down in a helicopter while serving with the Illinois Army National Guard in Iraq, spoke with anchor Kaitlan Collins about Hegseth’s comments on female combatants, calling him “out of touch,” and lacking in experience.
The Democratic Illinois senator was speaking out in response to a viral clip of Pete Hegseth, who said on a podcast: “I’m straight up saying we should not have women in combat roles.”
Former Fox & Friends host Hegseth made the comments last week on the podcast The Shawn Ryan Show, to promote his new book The War on Warriors.
Pete Hegseth at Trump Tower in New York, Dec. 15, 2016 and Senator Tammy Duckworth at a press conference in the Capitol. Duckworth called Hegseth “out of touch” because of his statements on women in combat roles.
Right: Evan Vucci, Left: Bill Clark/Associated Press
Duckworth, a Purple Heart recipient, told Collins: “This is not the Revolutionary War where there’s some sort of a line in the sand, and combat is on one side, and the rest of us can stay behind the side and that’s not combat.”
She then joked with Collins, saying: “I would ask [Hegseth] ‘Where do you think I lost my legs? In a bar fight?’ I’m pretty sure I was in combat when that happened.”
Duckworth, who retired as a National Guard lieutenant colonel after 23 years of service, was co-piloting the Blackhawk chopper when it was downed by Iraqi insurgents in 2004.
She went on to say: “It just shows how out of touch he is with the nature of modern warfare, if he thinks we can keep women behind some sort of imaginary line, which is not the way warfare is today.”
Hegseth and the Trump administration have been contacted via email for comment outside of working hours.
Duckworth also told Collins that Hegseth’s comments about women serving in combat have “shown his lack of experience and his lack of suitability for the job.”
She added that “anybody that truly knows the military knows that we cannot go to war without over 225,000 thousand women who are serving in active duty right now.”
According to her Senate website: “Duckworth was among the first handful of Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom.” She had flown 120 combat hours over eight months in Iraq when the rocket-propelled grenade hit her helicopter, according to the Stars and Stripes website.
Hegseth served three tours of Iraq and Afghanistan as a platoon leader and civil-military operations officer with the Minnesota National Guard, before becoming one of the hosts of Fox & Friends, a weekend show on Fox News.
In order to serve as Defense Secretary, Hegseth will have to be approved by the Senate, meaning that Duckworth will have some say in whether he is appointed to the position.
Hegseth has become a controversial pick, not only because of his comments about women, but also because military experts have called him the ” the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history.”
Tammy Duckworth on stage at the 2024 Democratic National Convention held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois on August 20, 2024. Duckworth lost both of her legs while serving in Iraq.
Nathan Howard/Sipa via AP Images
It has also been revealed that Hegseth may not be a fan of washing his hands. Per another clip of Hegseth that went viral following the news of his nomination, Hegseth is seen telling his Fox & Friends co-host Jedediah Bila: “I don’t really wash my hands ever. I inoculate myself. Germs are not a real thing. I can’t see them; therefore, they are not real.”
Hegseth later said on Twitter that the comment was a joke.
In an additional statement reacting to the President-elect’s decision to tap Hegseth as defense secretary, Duckworth said: “This pick is dangerous, plain and simple. Being Secretary of Defense is a very serious job, and putting someone as dangerously unqualified as Pete Hegseth into that role is something that should scare all of us.
“By choosing to put a TV personality with little experience running much of anything in charge of the Defense Department’s almost 3 million troops and civilian employees, Donald Trump is once again proving he cares more about his MAGA base than keeping our nation safe—and our troops, our military families and our national security will pay the price.
“Our troops and our country deserve better. In this moment, my Republican colleagues must recognize the danger that confirming a wholly unqualified Secretary of Defense nominee would put our country in, stop rolling over for Donald Trump and oppose this nomination.”
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