Iraq War veteran and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) criticized President Donald Trump for calling Democrats who did not clap during his State of the Union address “treasonous” on Monday.
“We don’t live in a dictatorship or a monarchy,” Duckworth tweeted soon after he made the comment. “I swore an oath ― in the military and in the Senate ― to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when he demands I clap.”
This is not the first time Duckworth, a Black Hawk helicopter pilot who received the Purple Heart after she lost both her legs in Iraq when her helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade, has referred to Trump as “Cadet Bone Spurs,” a reference to Trump’s stated reason for not being drafted during the Vietnam War.
During a floor speech last month, she also called Trump a “five-deferment draft dodger” as she slammed the president for criticizing Democrats’ support for the military.
“I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible,” she said. “I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger.”