MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript Interview with Tammy Duckworth

Interview

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Joining us now is Senator Duckworth of Illinois, a member of the Senate

Armed Service Committee, veteran of the Iraq war, a Purple Heart recipient,

former assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Senator Duckworth, I really appreciate you taking the time to be here

tonight. Thanks for being here.

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Well, thanks for covering this issue, Rachel.

It`s so important for our military.

MADDOW: Let me -- let me hear just from you directly why you think it is so

important and how you decided to approach it in this way that you are.

DUCKWORTH: Well, the military is supposedly an apolitical organization. It

should not be politicized. And I watched under this president that he

continues to politicize the military, and most recently by using (AUDIO

GAP) helicopters to suppress peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square.

In this case, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, if he is on the list, has earned

his way to the list. In order to get on the promotion list, you have to

have been recommended to be on there by your rater, your intermediate

rater, and your senior rater. So, three officers above you have to concur

that you should get on the list.

All I`m saying is that if his name is on the list, his name should not be

taken off by the DOD and that it should be allowed to go forward with his

name still on the list.

I`m afraid that the White House is pressuring the DOD to take Lieutenant

Colonel Vindman`s name off the list after he`s earned his way on to it

based on his job performance, as he was evaluated by his supervisors.

MADDOW: Do you have any response in hand as of yet from either Defense

Secretary Esper`s office or more broadly from the Defense Department? And

what are you expecting them to do in terms of responding to what you`ve

announced today?

DUCKWORTH: So all we`re asking them to do, Rachel, is very simple. All I`m

ask them to do (AUDIO GAP) certify by letter that if his name is on the

list they will not take it off the list before they send it to the White

House. That`s simple.

Basically, I`m telling them don`t politicize promotions of military

officers. Don`t let this White House politicize this process.

Their response was promptly to politicize it by, you know, accusing me of

holding up the promotions of thousands of officers and all of this stuff.

They immediately responded by being political about it.

And all I was saying is, just send me a letter and confirm that you will

not take his name off the list if he`s on it. That is pretty simple to do.

MADDOW: Senator, let me ask you about another right now just jaw-dropping

divide between the president -- what appeared to be the president`s

interests and the interests of the U.S. military. I know that you`ve been

briefed, along with other senators about what`s -- these intelligence

reports that Russia was apparently paying bounties for American bodies,

paying bounties to Taliban fighters and others in Afghanistan to kill U.S.

troops. There`s been open source reporting in "The Washington Post" and

elsewhere that the intelligence community believes that, in fact, those

bounties were paid because some American soldier`s deaths were initiated

because of that Russian program.

The White House apparently believes, the president apparently believes that

there`s no response that is necessary to this. I just have to ask your take

on this and how you think this will ultimately resolve.

DUCKWORTH: Well, the way it will resolve is if the administration actually

starts conducting an investigation into whether or not bounties were paid

for the death of American servicemen and women. The briefing that I

received just the other day from the Department of Defense was by people

who were not the ones that could answer my questions or any of the

questions from the senators in the Armed Services Committee that were in

the room.

We asked them some simple things, just, do you know if the president was

briefed on February 27th as the open source reporting says he was on these

bounties? And they have no information on that.

The folks that they sent to talk to us were not people who could answer any

of our questions. They did not send Gina Haspel to talk with the Armed

Services Committee. They did not send -- allow us to talk to General

Miller, who is a U.S. forces commander in Afghanistan. We didn`t get to

talk to anyone who would actually shed light on this.

But I think it`s very telling, Rachel. The fact of the matter is that, the

president cares more about the naming of U.S. bases and of keeping the

names of dead Confederates than he does about whether or not Americans were

killed with bounties placed on their heads by the Russians.

He`s not done anything about it. He hasn`t even bothered to come out and

comfort the families of fallen heroes by saying he`s going to look into it.

If anything, all he`s done is deny, deny, deny and plead ignorance.

And we know that he was briefed. I mean, reports have shown that he was in

his presidential daily brief as early as February. If he did not pay

attention (AUDIO GAP) and has done nothing about it, that is dereliction of

duty as Vice President Biden has said.

MADDOW: Speaking of Vice President Biden, I`d be remiss if I didn`t ask you

about these reports that you are being seriously considered as a running

mate for Vice President Biden. I know you`re not going to answer me, but

I`m just going to ask you anyway if you can tell me whether or not you are

-- you are in these discussions, and if this is a job that you`d like to do

if Vice President Biden asked you to join the ticket.

DUCKWORTH: Rachel, I`m all about serving my country. And whether it was in

the cockpit of my Black Hawk or in the House, and now in the Senate, our

country is facing some really dire crises right now, and we need to be able

to dig our way out of it. I believe that Joe Biden is the best person.

He has the empathy, the understanding and the ability to bounce back and

help this nation to bind our wounds and to (AUDIO GAP) and to come back

from them and to lead us out of the mess the Trump administration has put

us in, whether with COVID-19, our economy, with our military overseas.

And so, whatever it is that I can get Joe Biden into the White House, I

will do that. They have their process for the vice presidential selection

and vetting committee, whatever that is. I`m going to leave them to it.

I`m just going to focus on doing everything I can to get Joe Biden elected

because he has the kind of person with the resiliency and the (AUDIO GAP)

empathy for the suffering of the American people that we need right now.

MADDOW: Senator Tammy Duckworth of the great state of Illinois -- Senator,

I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us about all these

things tonight. I know your time is precious. Thanks for being here.

DUCKWORTH: Thank you.

MADDOW: All right. We`ll be right back. Stay with us.

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