Veteran Sen. Drags ‘Cadet Bone Spurs’ After Trump Calls Dems ‘Treasonous’

on November 7, 2017 in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 07: Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) (C) talks to reporters with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) (L) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) following the weekly Democratic policy luncheon at... WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 07: Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) (C) talks to reporters with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) (L) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) following the weekly Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol November 7, 2017 in Washington, DC. The Democratic leaders were critical of the proposed Republican tax cut and reform legislation that is now working its way the House. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a veteran Army helicopter pilot who lost both her legs while serving in Iraq, was one of several Democrats who had some choice words for President Trump after he told a crowd in Ohio on Monday that Democrats should be considered “treasonous” for not clapping during his State of the Union address.

“We don’t live in a dictatorship or a monarchy,” she tweeted Monday evening. “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 whim of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when he demands I clap.”

She then tweeted a quote from former President Theodore Roosevelt — “a Republican who earned the applause he received,” she said — who called it “morally treasonable” to say that the President shouldn’t be criticized.

During a visit to a manufacturing plant in Cincinnati on Monday, Trump lamented Democrats’ response to his first State of the Union speech, saying “they were like death” and “un-American” for not applauding him. 

“Somebody said treasonous and I mean, yeah, I guess. Why not?” he said. “Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”

Duckworth wasn’t the only Democrat effectively outraged by the remarks.

A White House spokesperson told NBC News Tuesday that Trump was being “tongue-in-cheek” with his comments on Monday.

While Democrats were criticized for their apathetic response to Trump’s State of the Union address, a lukewarm response from the opposing party during a State of the Union has become expected and normal in joint addresses to Congress. When former President President Barack Obama delivered a joint address to Congress in 2009, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) did more than just sport an unenthused facial expression — he heckled the President, shouting “You lie!” in response to Obama’s remarks about how his health care reforms wouldn’t insure undocumented immigrants.

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