CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Tammy Duckworth

Interview

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BURNETT: All right. Alex, thank you very much. So I want to go now to the Democratic Senator from Illinois, Tammy Duckworth, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Also, she is an Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient.

Senator, thank you for your time. So a senior administration official, three former officials telling us tonight that CIA Director Gina Haspel could be next to be fired by the President during this transition, your reaction?

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): I'm in disbelief. I'm not surprised anymore, but disbelieved that this President will continue to put his own ego and personal feelings over the well being of this country. This is a very dangerous time for our country. Transition already is not an easy process and to be firing all the people who are at the heads of our National Security agencies is really, really - it's irresponsible at best.

BURNETT: So tell me, I mean, the significance of this. You're on the Armed Services Committee, so Esper gets fired today by tweet. So in the midst of the President contesting the election, refusing to accept the results, he fires his Defense Secretary on Twitter, how disruptive is this?

DUCKWORTH: This is incredibly disruptive. If I were our adversaries, if I were our enemies, this is when I would launch an attack. This is classic military strategy. When people on the other side are actually in disarray, this is when you attack and you seize this. And it may not be conventional kinetic attack, it might be a cyber attack, but right now we don't have a secretary of defense and potentially we might not have a CIA director.

This is a very, very crucial time for our nation and it is irresponsible. I've said many, many times this President is not fit to be commander in chief and this decision that he made today to first fire Esper and now to not come out and just quash any rumors about firing the CIA Director and other members of the National Security team shows the irresponsibility of this man.

[19:25:11]

BURNETT: So Senator, Admiral James Stavridis, I know obviously you know him well, the former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, he came out and tweeted, "If Trump moves on to fire the head of the CIA and the head of the FBI, both true professionals and patriots, we are going to be in uncharted waters for the next 90 days. It all has terrible 'burn it down' on the way out feeling. It is playing with fire with our nation's security."

It sounds like similar sentiment to what you are saying, but I mean is this really sort of the three-alarm fire?

DUCKWORTH: And the President is the one who's setting the fires. I mean, he is actually the one that is setting the fires and it's undermining National Security. This man says that he is about America first, that he is for our nation and yet every action that he's taken, whether it is his failure to COVID-19 or now this destabilizes the security around nation.

He has already shown contempt for our military men and women, but to put them in harm's way - and by the way, we have men and women in harm's way right now who are facing all sorts of enemies out there and yet they can't have security here at home. And they don't have real leadership at home at this point, because our commander in chief is out setting fires and they don't even have a secretary of defense to look to.

BURNETT: So the Chair of the Armed Services Committee, your colleague, Republican Senator Inhofe, Manu Raju asked him tonight, do you support what Trump did to Esper, he refused to say that he supported it. Senator, do you feel that your Republican colleagues are on the same page as you and trying to figure out what they should say publicly or are they not on the same page and OK with what he's doing, because certainly they have not said anything.

DUCKWORTH: I have to believe that somebody as senior as the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee knows exactly the danger that we're in right now. And I would hope that he's having conversations with President Trump. But frankly, for him to not come out and say anything is irresponsible. It's a dereliction of duty on his part as well.

We have to send a clear message that we are united for the security of this nation and that we will not stand for the President to destabilize this nation by firing these three leaders of our National Security. And frankly, I'm very disappointed with my Republican colleagues because they know better and I know they know better.

BURNETT: Sen. Duckworth, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

DUCKWORTH: Thank you.

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