The Washington Post tells us that Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth has "quietly emerged as a serious contender," for vice president, which is good news. She's a tough, center-left Democrat, with an incredible story of military service and sacrifice.
The bad news is what happened Sunday morning. Appearing on CNN, she was given a chance to make an easy lay-up on the question of monuments.
DANA BASH: "Senator, I know that you support change in the name of military bases named after Confederate leaders, but there are leaders like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson who were slave owners. And some people are demanding their monuments come down, too. In your view, where does it end? Should statues, for example, of George Washington come down?"DUCKWORTH: "Well, let me just say we should start off by having a national dialogue on it at some point. But right now we're in the middle of a global pandemic. And one of our countries that are opposed to us, Russia, has put a bounty on American troops' heads. What really struck me about this speech that the president gave at Mount Rushmore was that he spent more time worried about honoring dead Confederates than he did talking about the lives of our 130,000 Americans who lost their lives to COVID-19, or by warning Russia off of the bounties they're putting on Americans' heads. His priorities are all wrong here. He should be talking about what we're going to do to overcome this pandemic. What are we going to do to push Russia back? Instead, he had no time for that. He spent all his time talking about dead traitors."
Ok, but, surely, she didn't mean taking down statues of George Washington? Could she push back on the Trumpian talking point?
BASH: "That may be true, but George Washington, I don't think anybody would call him a traitor and there are moves by some to remove statues of him. Is that a good idea?"DUCKWORTH: "I think we should listen to everybody. I think we should listen to the argument there, but remember that the president at Mount Rushmore was standing on ground that was stolen from Native Americans who had actually been given that land during a treaty."
As Alexander Hamilton once said, "Oooooof."
This was worse than a gaffe. It was political malpractice, because it threw Trump a lifeline at time when even Republicans are rattled by Trump's dark and divisive message. Confederate statues are one thing, but George Washington? Mount Rushmore? Seriously?
But, but, (I'm told on social media) Duckworth was simply saying we should "listen to everybody," and what's wrong with that?
Nothing, if this was a graduate seminar in performative wokeness. But we are in the midst of a presidential campaign and Duckworth just gave an answer that could launch a thousand Trump TV ads.
Ah, but the standard-bearer for the opposing team also took his dumbass pill today:
Has
apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!
Mr. Tone-Deaf apparently doesn't realize that Wallace was not the one who reported it to NASCAR and that after the details became clear, Wallace issued a gracious statement about it and moved on.
Pretty bad timing, Mr. President.
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