Sen. Tammy Duckworth questioned President Trump’s military leadership given his response to intelligence that Russia may have been placing bounties on the heads of U.S. troops.
The Illinois Democrat, who lost her legs while deployed in Iraq, wrote a Tuesday opinion piece for USA Today in which she claimed that Trump did not respond to intelligence that Russia offered bounties for Taliban fighters to kill U.S. troops because he was either “incompetent” and did not read his intelligence briefings or afraid to anger Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“Neither option absolves him. Both reinforce the grave threat Trump poses to our nation’s security,” she wrote. “Even if one swallows the pill that Trump never knew, it still wouldn’t explain his response now that he has been told. Not once since the story broke has the president expressed his sorrow for those who lost a loved one or expressed awe at the bravery of the service members who were in harm’s way because they loved their country so much, they were willing to go to a war zone for her.”
As Duckworth noted, Trump and members of his administration have denied that he was briefed on the intelligence about Russia. The president also claimed that the intelligence community deemed the information to be not credible. Duckworth argued that Trump should have condemned Russia anyway because the information has now become public, though its credibility has not been publicly verified by the intelligence community.
“Trump should be outraged — and we, the American people, should be outraged that he’s not,” she wrote, later adding: “By refusing to call out this wrong then decrying the reports as fake news — by being incompetent in matters ranging from foreign policy to common decency — Trump has made it more likely that other hostile powers will work with other terrorist networks to exchange other American lives for stacks of cash.”
The senator accused Trump of being so fearful of Putin that he allowed U.S. troops to be harmed out of “cowardice.” She questioned his ability to lead the military as commander in chief.
“How dare he let his own personal cowardice — his inability, or worse, his disinterest in standing up to Putin — lead to a reality where those Americans actually brave enough to serve are put at greater risk? How dare he let his own personal insecurities endanger our national security? In the face of all he has done and all he refuses to do, how dare he still call himself our commander in chief?” she asked.
Duckworth is one of several Democratic women reported to be in the running to be Joe Biden’s 2020 vice presidential pick.
