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Few people in public life have given as much for her country as Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).
Her Senate biography matter-of-factly states: “In 2004, Duckworth was deployed to Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the Illinois Army National Guard. On November 12, 2004, her helicopter was hit by an RPG and she lost her legs and partial use of her right arm.” She thereupon became an advocate for veterans, then Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, and in 2009, Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Currently in her second term, she exhibits a level voice of clarity in a cacophonous Senate, exhibiting a steel spine amidst a government body of wet noodles.
Unlike Minority Leader Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and her fellow Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, she refused to cave on the continuing resolution. This week she told a local TV station: “I was furious with Leader Schumer, and I told him we needed to go and fight. I could not disagree with Leader Schumer more.”
She continued: “We should have stood up to the Republicans. It was a minority of Democrats who voted for it. I am appalled that we basically gave Donald Trump permission to continue to raid government.” Now there is a leader.
I refuse to vote for Republicans’ slush fund bill that grants Trump and Elon Musk permission to continue rigging our government and our economy against the middle class. It would greenlight even more chaos and more cuts to critical programs. Hell no, I cannot support that.
This week she slammed the Signal chat delinquents. “The protocol when there’s a security breach like this is very clear across government and especially clear in the Department of Defense,” Duckworth said. “Every single official on that Signal chain needs to hand over their electronic device so that it can be investigated.”
She did not buy Republican toadies’ nothing-to-see-here response. “Frankly, this is an egregious breach of national security that put our servicemen and women’s lives on the line in danger,” she explained. “Those pilots flying there with that mission that he has shared the sequencing data and the timing of when that mission was going to happen, those lives were put into danger when he did that.”
Indisputably, no one in the Senate has more authority to speak on behalf of pilots risking their lives. (In an appearance on MSNBC, she bluntly said, “Pete Hegseth and every single other official on that Signal chain should lose their jobs. They must answer for this egregious national security breach.”)
Beyond the immediate debacle, Duckworth insisted that “Putin owns Donald Trump.” She went on to decry Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine and accuse him of “putting American service members further on the line because we will be called into action if Russia steps beyond Ukraine.”
Her outspokenness is something we have come to expect, crave, and appreciate. Ever since Trump assumed office, Duckworth has been sounding the alarm and regularly blasting the Musk-Trump serial disasters. Holding a virtual town hall for veterans, she declared, “Donald Trump is firing more Veterans than any other President in recent history and jeopardizing access to the care and benefits our heroes have earned through their service.” She was just getting warmed up:
How dare a five-time draft dodging coward turn his back on the men and women who, unlike him, actually were brave enough to serve our nation in uniform. Let’s call Trump and Musk’s DOGE cuts what they are: They’re a middle finger to our Veterans, and they’re a slap in the face to the sacrifices they’ve made. Trump and unelected billionaire Elon Musk may not know the first thing about sacrifice and service, but our Veterans sure as hell do.
On Wednesday, after additional parts of the Signal transcript were released, she posted: “Pete Hegseth is a f*cking liar. This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed. He needs to resign in disgrace immediately.”
Do not mess with this woman.
When focusing on domestic policy, she has no difficulty explaining what the oligarchs are up to. She routinely hammers home the message that out-of-touch billionaires are slashing benefits for everyone—from veterans to children covered by Medicaid to research scientists—so that Musk-Trump can dole out trillions more in tax cuts for them and their super-rich cronies. Just days ago, Duckworth posted on social media: “Donald Trump is illegally firing FTC commissioners whose jobs are to protect American consumers from corporate greed… Trump is making it easier for his billionaire pals to skirt the law, screw you over and get away with it.” She concluded:
“A wannabe king acts this way.”
Pro-democracy voters and activists understandably have expressed frustration with many Democratic politicians’ lack of fire in the belly, especially those in official leadership positions in Congress. They need real leaders—figures like Duckworth, who refuse to mince words. If Americans want legislators who reject capitulation and channel the fury of democracy defenders, they need look no further than the junior senator (in longevity only) from Illinois.
As Duckworth has done throughout her life, she consistently demonstrates courage, focus, determination, and unapologetic devotion to wresting our government back from authoritarian and incompetent bullies.
We salute her undaunted leadership in the battle to preserve democracy.
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