The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 24, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, of the state of Illinois. She sits on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Good morning, thanks for having me on.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, former Congressman Matt Gaetz took himself out of the running this week to become Attorney General. This was after he had met with senators, and CBS has reported that as many as 15 Republicans opposed him. Does that suggest to you that your Republican colleagues in the Senate will hold the line, or are you still concerned they will just green light anyone Trump nominates?
SEN. DUCKWORTH: Well, I’m deeply concerned that they will green light. I’m glad that they held the line on him. I’m also glad that they voted the way they did for the Republican leader, but that was in the secret ballot when they elected Senator Thune. And you know, Mr. Trump’s main choice for that position was not selected. But from what I’m hearing from my Republican colleagues on everything from defense secretary to other posts, it sounds like they are ready to roll over for Mr. Trump.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, on that point of defense, since you sit in this advisory role on armed services, I don’t have to tell you, but for our audience, there are over 200,000 American women who serve in active duty service right now. Thousands of them in front line combat roles. You were one of them in 2004 when your Black Hawk helicopter you were piloting was shot at by an RPG and you sustained severe injuries. Here is what Mr. Trump’s pick for defense secretary said about women serving.
[ PETE HEGSETH SOT ]
PETE HEGSETH: I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.
[ END SOT ]
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do your colleagues who sit with you on armed services believe that Mr. Hegseth’s statement there is an issue that he needs to perhaps retract?
SEN. DUCKWORTH: Well, I think they need to, because he’s wrong. Our military could not go to war without the 220,000 plus women who serve in uniform. The women in our military does make us more effective, does make us more lethal. And let me just make one thing clear, the women who are in those very particular roles, whether it’s in special forces or the COs or the infantry, they meet the same standards as the men. And so he’s been out there saying that, you know, women are not as strong. We don’t. The ones who are in those roles have met the same standards as the men and have passed the very rigorous testing. And so he’s just flat out wrong. Our military could not go to war without the women who wear this uniform. And frankly, America’s daughters are just as capable of defending liberty and freedom as her sons.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Having served in combat yourself, what do you think of the idea that women make fighting more complicated? That was specifically what he focused on.
SEN. DUCKWORTH: Well, it just shows his lack of understanding of where our military is. He was a pretty low ranking guy in the military, and he never had a command position. He was a platoon leader, I think, once or twice, but he never even commanded a company. And so this is a man who is inordinately, unqualified for the position. Remember that the Pentagon is 3 million servicemen and women and civilians. It is over a $900 billion budget. He’s never, you know, run anything anywhere near to that size. And frankly, women actually make our military more effective. And I’ve personally found that I brought many insights to my job. When I was a company commander, when I was a logistics officer, that came from my own personal background, that made things better. I took better care of my men, for example, in my unit. I was often the only woman in an all male unit, and my gender didn’t have- wasn’t a problem. I just adapted, and we continue to perform the mission.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The question of character has also come up in regard to this leadership role. Mr. Hegseth has acknowledged that he paid a woman back in 2017 to quiet her accusations of sexual assault. He claims it was consensual sex. I’m sure you read that Monterey police report, as we did here. It refers to the offense code as, “rape: victim unconscious of the nature of the act.” It details both the accuser’s and Hegseth’s version of events. Here’s what Senator Markwayne Mullen said it shows: “two people flirting with each other.” Is the committee going to speak with the victim to ask if this was a misunderstanding?
SEN. DUCKWORTH
Well, that’s- that will be the decision of the Republican chairman of the committee next year. I hope that we will, but I suspect that they, again, will roll over for Mr. Trump. Frankly, I will raise those questions. Remember that we’ve just fought over a decade of fights and- and overhauled the military and its treatment of military sexual trauma. It’s frankly an insult and really troubling that Mr. Trump would nominate someone who has admitted that he’s paid off a victim who has claimed rape allegations against him. This is not the kind of person you want to lead the Department of Defense.
MARGARET BRENNAN
This past week, your committee did review a number of military promotions, nearly 1000 of them, and one name that seems to have been left off the list, despite the Pentagon’s recommendation, was Lieutenant General Christopher Donahue. He was- he became known as the last U.S. service person to leave Afghanistan back in 2021, a key role there. Sources tell CBS that it is your Republican senator colleague, Senator Mullen, who stood in the way of this. I’m told it’s out of a desire to hold those accountable for Afghanistan. What do you make of this? And is there a chance it could move?
SEN. DUCKWORTH
Well, if he is fully qualified for the move and for the promotion, he should come before the committee, the whole committee, not one member of the committee, and we should consider him. Remember that I wrote the legislation that created the Afghan War Commission. So we are actually undergoing, right now, an active, multi-year review of what happened in Afghanistan. And that was a bipartisan commission. We passed that law in a bipartisan way, and I hope the committee will be allowed to move forward with reviewing what happened to- in Afghanistan. It’s, you know, you’re not going to get a full picture by holding one person’s promotion up. Frankly, he needs to come before the full committee, and we need to decide, and it’s not Markwayne Mullen’s decision whether or not one promotion comes before the committee.
MARGARET BRENNAN
Well, I ask because there are concerns about whether there will be generals held to account by Mr. Trump, as he said, he thinks others should be fired for Afghanistan. But to move to a vote you took this past week, you said you have disgust at the brutal tactics used by the Netanyahu government in Gaza, but you voted against all three resolutions of disapproval this past week that would have paused very specific offensive weapons shipments to Israel. Your colleague, Senator Van Hollen, said, it’s just about getting Israel to comply with U.S. law. How do you respond to that? Why shouldn’t they be held to the same standards as other recipients of U.S. aid?
SEN. DUCKWORTH: Well, I respect Senator Van Hollen’s position, and in fact, I have co-signed many of the letters that he’s led that has called on Israel to comply with humanitarian standards across the world. My decision comes from my military experience, the fact that many of these rounds were not going to be delivered for a couple of years, the fact that, you know, these are resolutions, they don’t actually have binding effect. And frankly, for me, my decision came from the fact that we have tens of thousands of US troops in harm’s way right now, and I am deeply concerned that resolution, that doesn’t actually do anything, might embolden the Houthis and the Iranian regime and Hamas to further target and American troops abroad. So I respect Chris. He and I are good friends. We were freshmen in the Senate together, but we come at this from slightly different angles, mine from 23 years of military experience, but I do share his concern about the brutal way that Israel has acted in Gaza, and you know, I’ve co-signed many of his letters.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Our polling shows that there is a desire among the American people to see Democrats and Republicans work together in this future Trump administration. With that in mind, I’m looking at some of these nominees, including Trump’s pick for labor secretary, former Congresswoman Lori Chavez DeRemer. She is drawing praise from unions because she is perceived as- as pro- union. Could you see yourself supporting her or any of the other nominees?
SEN. DUCKWORTH: Absolutely, I- you know, what I would need to do is have a chance to sit down and talk with each one of these nominees, and listen to them and hear what they have to say. I think Congressman Collins, over at VA, he’s the nominee for VA, is another person I can talk with. In fact, I worked with him when I was in the House a few years back. I am going to evaluate each one of these candidates based on their ability to do the job and their willingness to put the needs of the American people first and not be on a retribution campaign for Mr. Trump. So it’s about were they willing to be independent and do the job that they are being nominated to do, and are they competent and qualified for the position?
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Duckworth, we appreciate your time this morning.
SEN. DUCKWORTH: Thank you
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’ll be right back with a lot more “Face the Nation.” Stay with us.
