MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Tammy Duckworth

Interview

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SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH, (D) ILLINOIS: There is no real mission for the  troops there. And this is at the cost of I`m hearing figures as high as  $200 million.

You know, this president has done everything he can to politicize our  military, and that`s completely wrong. So we have got 5,000 troops under  title 10, by the way, which means that under posse comitatus, they`re not  allowed to do any law enforcement functions. So they`re basically sitting  out in the desert building fences and latrines for each other, eating MREs  with no real mission.

It is a waste of resources and it is a real misuse of our brave men and  women in uniform. And they`re going to be there over Thanksgiving away  from their families.

HAYES: You were tweeting yesterday, if I`m not mistaken, on the day that  folks were observing Veteran`s Day about the anniversary of what you called  your alive day, the day that you`re helicopter was shot down. Tell me  about what it was like to sort of recollect about that day?

DUCKWORTH: Well, yesterday was the 14-year anniversary of my alive day.  It`s a tradition taught to us by the Vietnam veterans. I could look at the  day I was shot down as a very sad day or as a second birthday, and I choose  to celebrate it.

And so for me every year, it`s my gut check. It`s my moral compass. I  don`t ever want to live my life in a way in any day of my life that the men  who saved me would ever be ashamed of what I  do. And it`s really my moral compass here in congress. Every day that I`m  in the Senate, I think, you know, I don`t want them to regret, ever, ever  regret saving my life and try to do everything I can  to support our troops, to support our veterans, to live by the ideals that  they lived by when they saved me that day in that dusty field in Iraq.

HAYES: In terms of supporting veterans, there is this story that I really  am still scratching my  head about -- 82,000 beneficiaries of the VA GI Bill are waiting on delayed  housing payments. And this appears to be the cause of a technical glitch  that was known for quite some time. Why is this not fixed?

DUCKWORTH: Incompetence. Incompetence from this Trump administration.

There is still not a chief information officer for the VA. Two years in,  the second largest agency in the United States government with 300,000  employees that are serving tens of millions of veterans, they do not have a  CIO.

So their computer system crashed, basically, and now 80,000 young men and  women who are going to school on the GI Bill that they earned thanks to  their military service protecting and defending us are not going to get  money for their housing allowance. Many of them have gotten too little  money, some of them have been paid as little as $800 less than they should  have been paid. They`re going to get kicked out of their apartments, their  dormitories at a time when they`re trying to move on with their lives.

And this president can`t -- he is spending $200 million on sending 5,000  troops to the boarder where they have nothing to do, and yet he is going to  leave 80,000 veterans who have already done their job, who have already  performed their missions out there with no place to live because they`re not getting the housing allowance. It is shameful.

HAYES: You worked in the Veteran`s Administration. In some ways, it`s one  of the most sprawling, complicated bureaucracies in the federal government,  and also vital and important. I mean, the president hammered on the VA in  his campaign. What grade do you give the performance of that agency under  his stewardship?

DUCKWORTH: Well, you know, I think that he`s done an F. I give him an F  rating when it  comes to the VA. Many of the folks in the VA are trying as hard as they  can, but when you don`t have a CIO, you can`t overhaul that computer  system.

HAYES: Let me ask you -- one sec. So they just haven`t -- is that a  senate confirmed position, or is that just a political appointment?

DUCKWORTH: It`s a senate confirmed political appointment.

HAYES: And so they just haven`t nominated someone?

DUCKWORTH: They haven`t nominated anyone.

HAYES: For two years?

DUCKWORTH: Yeah, yeah, to be the chief information officer for the VA at a  time when they`re trying to integrate the VA and DOD`s electronic medical  record system, and they`ve left these 80,000 veterans throughout with no  forms of payment.

You know, something similar happened when we first put in the GI Bill,  post- 9/11 GI Bill when I was at VA myself during the Obama administration  under Secretary Shinseki, and the computer system, there was a glitch then.  But Secretary Shinseki just basically blew up at the CIO at the time and  said you know what I don`t care. We`re going fix it and we`re going to cut  checks tomorrow.

And so he went out and we cut checks to all those veterans who were not  getting their payments. This president is just leaving these guys to get  thrown out on to the streets. They can fix this. They can do emergency  payments to all these veterans to make sure that they get the money to pay  their rent and their housing bills for their dormitories and they`re not  doing it.

HAYES: Let me ask you, final question about the representation in this  congress. You`re someone who comes from a different background than a lot  of your fellow senators. Obviously, you`re a veteran. You`re a woman of  color. You have a seven-month-old daughter who you are mothering right  now as you are in the Capitol. There is a whole wave of new folks who are  going to be taking office, two new women who will be joining you as  Democratic colleagues in the Senate, dozens of women who have been elected  in the house.
How does that change the atmosphere and the leadership structures and  representation on Capitol Hill?

DUCKWORTH: Well, we need more women in leadership positions all across  this nation, not just here in Capitol Hill, but in boardrooms as well, all  across America.

Remember, we also lost two women. Well lost Claire McCaskill and Heidi  Heitkamp. So, in the senate, at least on the Democratic side, we haven`t  gained any more women.

And, you recall Afghanistan, their parliament has 25 percent female  representation, and we`re  sitting at 22 in the United States. So we`re not doing as well as  Afghanistan is. And that says something about how much more we have to do  and how much longer were have to go until we get 50 percent of the Senate  occupied by women, we`re not at true and equal representation of the  American people.

HAYES: All right. Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, thank you so much for  making some time.

DUCKWORTH: Thank you.

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