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Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Army National Guard veteran, shut down Donald Trump ’s defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth on Wednesday over his remarks that women shouldn’t serve in military combat roles.
“I would ask him, you know, ’Where do you think I lost my legs? In a bar fight?′ I’m pretty sure I was in combat when that happened,” said Duckworth in an interview with CNN ’s Kaitlan Collins . Duckworth — who lost both her legs when her Black Hawk helicopter was attacked during the Iraq War in 2004 — has referred to Trump’s pick, a Fox News anchor who has also served in the Army National Guard, as “dangerous” and a “wholly unqualified” in a statement earlier in the day . Hegseth, just days before the president-elect announced he was up for the defense secretary position, told the “Shawn Ryan Show” that women in combat roles “hasn’t made us more effective” and has “made fighting more complicated.
” He then noted that his comments were tied to women in “physical, labor-intense” military roles. “I’m talking about stuff that would need strength as a differentiator. Pilots? Give me a female pilot all day long, I got no issues with that,” said the Fox News anchor, whose nomination has shocked critics including Trump’s allies .
Duckworth told Collins that Hegseth has shown an “absolute lack of experience” and has a “lack of suitability for the job.” “Our military can not go to war without our female service members,” she said. “This is not the Revolutionary War where there’s some sort of line in the sand and, you know, combat is one side and the rest of us can stay behind and that’s not combat.
” Duckworth added that the comments show just how “out of touch” Hegseth is toward modern warfare. Veteran Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Pete Hegseth saying women shouldn’t serve in combat: “I would ask him, ‘Where do you think I lost my legs? In a bar fight?’ I’m pretty sure I was in combat when that happened.
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