Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran who lost her legs fighting overseas, sharply criticized former President Trump for denigrating the Medal of Honor in recent remarks.
“Donald Trump is despicable. He doesn’t deserve to be commander in chief. And certainly those remarks are consistent with where he’s always been. He thinks that we’re suckers and losers and, frankly, he’s – he’s not fit to be commander in chief,” Duckworth, a Purple Heart recipient, said on ABC News’s “This Week” in a Sunday interview.
Duckworth painted a stark contrast between the Republican ticket, led by Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), and the Democratic ticket, led by Vice President Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).
“American voters have a chance to choose. Do they want a five-time draft dodger who denigrates military men and women and our veterans and calls us suckers and losers, who doesn’t want to have his picture taken with amputee veterans of various conflicts to be the next commander in chief?” Duckworth said.
“Or are you going to have Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, who care deeply about veterans? Tim Walz has been out there leading on so many issues for veterans, especially burn pits,” she continued.
The interview comes as the former president faces fierce criticism for comparing a civilian award favorably to the Medal of Honor at an event Thursday, which GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson attended.
During his remarks, Trump spoke about giving Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2018, saying, “That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version.”
“It’s actually much better, because everyone who gets the congressional Medal of Honor, that’s soldiers, they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead. She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman,” Trump said with a chuckle, eliciting applause from the crowd. “And they’re rated equal.”
A clip of Trump’s comments quickly ricocheted around social media, with Democrats and Harris quickly seizing on the remarks to attack the former president’s views on veterans and wounded Americans.
“For him to insult Medal of Honor recipients, just as he has previously attacked Gold Star families, mocked prisoners of war, and referred to those who lost their lives in service to our country as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers,’ should remind all Americans that we owe it to our service members, our country, and our future to make sure Donald Trump is never our nation’s commander in chief again,” Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
Brett Samuels contributed.
