MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Tammy Duckworth

Interview

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MADDOW: We need to take them to.

It is a new ad from Vote Vets featuring Iraq veteran and Illinois Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.

As I mentioned before the break, there is a bill to help these Afghan translator sponsored by congressman and army veteran, Jason Crow, just passed the House today with usually overwhelmingly support. Now that bill heads to the Senate, veterans like Senator Tammy Duckworth say that they are ready to take up the cause in the Senate.

Joining us now is Illinois Democratic senator, Iraq war veteran, Tammy Duckworth.

Senator Duckworth, it`s a real pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much.

DUCKWORTH: It`s good to be on. Thank you for shining a light on this, Rachel. It is critically important.

MADDOW: Will the legislation that`s now headed to the Senate, which Congressman Jason Crow championed in the House? Will that make a difference? It will increase the number of visas, speed up the way in which their process, will it pass and would make a difference in time?

DUCKWORTH: It will pass, I don`t know if it will make a difference in time because we have almost no time a left. We are doomed to be completely out of Afghanistan by September. Let me tell you what happened with the Iraqi translators that Abdulla, my staffer, was part of. In fact, President Clinton sent aircraft into Turkey and told those translators get across the river, get across the river, run away from Saddam, if you can get to turkey we will fly you here.

He actually flew them to Guam where they were there for three months while we figured out a visa process, we may end up having to do that and I support President Biden if he decides to do that. We will do everything we can to pass this bill, but we can`t leave these guys behind. We have to take them too.

MADDOW: Senator, "The Wall Street Journal" broke a story tonight, they said -- I`ll read you the lead: The U.S. military is preparing to house as many as 35,000 Afghan interpreters and their families at two American bases in Kuwait and Qatar, plans are underway to build temporary housing in facilities at those U.S. Army bases, they`d be designed to house the interpreters and their families for at least 18 months.

Is that plan, does that sound right to you, is that the sort of thing that is the right approach?

DUCKWORTH: Yeah, I do think that that is exactly the type of thing that needs to be done. We are leaving Afghanistan so quickly that we`ve not had a chance for the State Department to catch up, processing visas.

And so this is what we need to do. We have to physically get them in their families out of Afghanistan because they will be hunted down and retaliated against by the Taliban.

[21:55:09]

What happened in Iraq is a great example of what could happen if we don`t do right by these folks, and Iraq according to Abdulla, but you didn`t see in that ad which he left out was the fact that for months, they were in a no man`s land beef between Iraq and Turkey while Saddam hunted them down and he said, Tammy, we starved in the mountains. Every newborn child died. Every old person died, and it wasn`t until Americans started dropping MREs down to us that were able to survive. And then President Clinton sent those aircrafts and airlifted us out.

So, we can`t -- you know, I want to go straight to the airlift them out of their, and by the way, America`s word is on the line here. How are we ever going to go into any other country in the future should there be a future conflict and say to the folks there, help us, work with us, work with Americans, we will take care of you, and they will turn around and say that you didn`t take care of your Afghan translators. You know, this is about keeping our word to a group of people who upheld American values and bled - - some of them died for America, even before they`ve become Americans. We have to take them to.

MADDOW: Illinois U.S. senator, U.S. combat veteran, Tammy Duckworth -- Senator, thank you so much for your time tonight. We`ve been covering this story pretty intensively, pretty much every day. I think we will be doing until the very end. Thank you.

DUCKWORTH: Thank you.

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