[Updated at 6:05 p.m. ET] An Illinois congressman has stuck to his guns – including during a testy interview with CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield this week – in a flap over his assertions that his double-amputee election opponent talks too much about her military service and war injuries.
Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Illinois, has said that the story has been blown out of proportion, arguing that it has been manufactured by liberal opponents who recorded his comments at a campaign event Sunday and then posted them on the Internet, with liberal website ThinkProgress.org starting the coverage.
But he’s defended his stance, arguing that Democrat Tammy Duckworth – a Black Hawk helicopter pilot who lost both legs when her crew was shot down in Iraq in 2004 – rarely makes campaign appearances in her bid to defeat him in Illinois’ 8th Congressional District. When she does, he said, she talks mostly about her background fighting overseas.
We’d like to hear what you think about the issue. First, here’s how it played out this week.
In a Sunday campaign event in a Chicago suburb, Walsh was recalling the 2008 presidential campaign of Republican Sen. John McCain, saying McCain was modest about his background as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. Walsh said McCain was reluctant to make that story a focus of his campaign, despite pressure from advisers to do otherwise.
“That's what's so noble about our heroes. Now I'm running against a woman who, my God, that's all she talks about," Walsh said. "Our true heroes, it's the last thing in the world they talk about. That's why we're so indebted and in awe of what they've done."
The comments spread online, and several groups, including VoteVets.org and Emily’s List, condemned Walsh’s remarks.
Walsh, elected in 2010 with support from the tea party, told CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blizter” on Wednesday that he believes Duckworth is a hero, but she gives voters a narrow window into her positions on political issues.
“She is a hero, and that demands our respect, but it doesn’t demand our vote. All she does, guys, is talk about her service,” Walsh said.
On Thursday, Walsh got into a heated back-and-forth with Banfield during an interview on CNN. After Banfield attempted to contradict Walsh’s allegation that Duckworth doesn’t talk about issues – she read a list of moments when Duckworth commented on things other than military service – Walsh responded:
“She spends a lot of time talking about her war service. I’ve asked her to debate me monthly. She won’t. I’ve asked her to get directly in front of voters with me. She won’t. She will not get in front of voters and take questions directly from voters. Because she’s a war hero, Ashleigh, that demands our respect. But that doesn’t demand our vote.”
While Walsh and Duckworth might not have debated frequently, they did debate on May 11. According to a Chicago Sun-Times account, Duckworth criticized the GOP’s federal budget proposal, accused Walsh of wanting to end Medicare and backed President Obama’s support of gay marriage, but she declined to answer a question about whether she would have supported the bank bailout of a few years ago.
Duckworth’s stances on issues, according to her campaign website
Duckworth hasn't hidden her war service or injuries. She highlights them on her campaign website. After last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the health care reform act, she referenced her injuries when discussing the act, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Walsh’s criticism of Duckworth isn’t new. Politico, on March 28, reported that he said this during a 30-minute interview: “I have so much respect for what she did in the fact that she sacrificed her body for this country. Ehhh. Now let’s move on.”
“What else has she done?” Walsh said, according to the March 28 Politico article. “Female, wounded veteran … ehhh. She is nothing more than a handpicked Washington bureaucrat. David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel just picked her up and dropped her into this district.”
He later backtracked on the “dropped her into this district” comment in an interview with Chicago Magazine.
Hitting back on Friday, Duckworth told CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" that she discusses the issues "a majority of the time" and argued that Walsh was trying to "distract" voters away from his record in Congress.
"It's very irresponsible for Mr. Walsh, as a sitting congressman, to try to muzzle war veterans and keep them from talking about their service," Duckworth said.
Duckworth said during a Tuesday interview with MSNBC that Walsh had disrespected veterans and called him an "extremist loudmouth for the tea party." On Wednesday, she told CNN affiliate WLS that Walsh’s comments were “not even worth mentioning.”
This election year marks Duckworth's second run for Congress. The Iraq War veteran made an unsuccessful House bid in 2006, before being tapped by President Barack Obama in 2009 to become an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She is a lieutenant colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard.
The two candidates are fighting for a seat representing the new 8th Congressional District outside Chicago and created by the state's recent redistricting process.
– CNN's Ashley Killough contributed to this report.
What do you think of Walsh's stance? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Those who wage wars against civilians are not war heroes. They are war criminals. So are the politicians that vote to fund and wage those wars, and the voters who vote for them after their war politics are made public, and the war supporters in the media.
Looney tunes on Tv when you wrote that?
John McCain's story in Vietnam is one of a man who got shot down in his fighter and then was tortured by the enemy. Who would want to talk about THAT?
Walsh is a male appendage – and not a very good one at that!
Anyway, I thought Joe Walsh played lead guitar for Eagles. The new kid in town.
George W. Bush is a shining example of how you can screw up EVERYTHING you do in life and STILL be elected president of the United States. And then you can screw THAT up and still have people admire you. There truly are a WHOLE lot of dumb people in this country.
But he’s defended his stance, arguing that Democrat Tammy Duckworth – a Black Hawk helicopter pilot who lost both legs when her crew was shot down in Iraq in 2004
Go for it Ashley! Tear down these Tea Party sycophants!
The guy was never a vet and he thinks he can speak for them and how they think.
If his point is that she doesn't talk about what she's done/doing/will do as an elected politician, he ought to talk about that. If he dwells on rolling his eyes over her service to her country he's a doomed man. Debate the issues, don't attack the person. But then again, we have forgotten all about that in today's politics.
But attacking peoples character is what the gop does best
Katie:
Are you kidding me? She always talks about jobs, and many other issues. Did you listen to this at all? Didn't think so.
Joe Walsh who didn't pay a child support, owes his wife close to 200,000 is a disgrace fool.
This guy is such a creep, such a jerk, it constantly annoys me how he interrupts Ashleigh, and he's obviously avoiding the questions by shouting over her because a larger portion of the Conservatives believe that CNN is the "gay", "Liberal", "enemy", "socialist" news outlet. He's rude, he's nasty, and he's not honorable for the way he constantly treats her as though she's someone unimportant which just shows me that he has a problem with strong women.
As a veteran I think its ludricous Joe Walsh is able to go around and talk about her service especially when he has not walked a mile in her shoes,(excuse the pun). Secondly, as an Illinoisan, it makes me sad that he would stoop so low. I thought the education in Illinois was second to none...guess I was wrong.
Do the american populace, and as a Nation, have a civilian based form of government or is it a military led nation, and to what purpose are we electing our representatives supposed to be performing while representing us?
Do we vote for a commander in Chief "First" and a President secondly?
A public that places military service as a priority in order to assume positions of both elected and appointed, and that demands that military be honored over civilian needs, is what to all purposes and intents can no longer no longer be determined as a Democracy, big D, but as an authoritarian police state.
Let's see, military service . . .George Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Ulysses Grant, James Garfield, Rutherford Hayes, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush. It looks pretty convincing to me. While it isn't the be all and end all of qualifying, it appears to be significant at least part of the time. In fact, going a bit off the line here, I think one of the greatest disincentives to more people taking ownership in this country, is the end of the draft. I doubt we would have invaded Iraq or Afghanistan with a conscripted Army. In fact, it might have blown some of the cobwebs out of Joe Walsh's head. What's his military service?
Didn't Bill Clinton serve in Canada and you still voted for him? Or did you miss this smallsih detail while taking in everything obese Monica Lewinsky.
Bill Clinton was in school in England. He managed to get an exemption, which he talks about in his autobiography. He didn't go to Canada. That is total BS. However, if you want to continue to believe it, I can't stop you. But, do try to check it out from some neutral source . . . .
Just more vitriolic trash from another of the GOP's finest.
Yeah. It is kind of odd how democrat leaders perpetuate republicanism. It's like an episode of the Twilight Zone featuring the pigs of Orwell's Animal Farm, united.
What are you even talking about? Care to explain your thought processes that caused you to post that message?
Who can spot the difference between these two creatures...
...One has a tinty little Donkey head seeming to lead an Elephant with a fat ass and a sh/tload of donkey dung.
The other having a big fat Elephant head dragging an overly obese donkey's ass around.
hint: both resemble an overly obese-mentally challenged 12 year old armed with an old 10 ga. shotgun, and wearing a plastic police badge made in China. (to everyone but US)