Democratic Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth corrected MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough on Tuesday after he inferred she was an immigrant and not born in the U.S.
Duckworth was discussing with Scarborough her military background and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot when he made the error by asking her to talk about her experience as an immigrant and why she “sacrificed so much for this country.” (RELATED: ‘F*ck Tucker Carlson’: Sen. Tammy Duckworth Says ‘Happy Belated International Women’s Day’ To Almost Everyone)
The topic began when Duckworth was detailing how upset she was over the storming of the Capitol building after spending part of her childhood in Cambodia. She explained how she remembered seeing people flee that country and how respected America was, which made her mad when she saw what was happening to the Capitol.
“A couple of days ago it was Mika’s father’s birthday and she put up an Instagram post and talked with her mother a great deal about it, and their story is a story of immigrants who were fleeing the horrors of Hitler,” Scarborough said of his co-host Mika Brzezinski’s family once Duckworth finished. “Your story is equally inspiring. Your family coming to America to flee the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and the genocide that followed that.”
He went on to say that the Brzezinski’s were often concerned about “America’s direction and path,” and that it hurt them sometimes because they knew how special the country was because they “saw the other side” as immigrants. He added that it was the “same exact thing” with Duckworth and that her book laid all of that out “beautifully.”
“Could you talk about … what America has meant to you, why you’ve sacrificed so much for this country as an immigrant, and what message other Americans who may have been born here need to hear, but they may be missing. Because a lot of people that were born here, I’ve found, don’t have the love for this country as much as many who immigrated here,” Scarborough said.
“Right. Well I’m not an immigrant. I’m a daughter of the American Revolution. My family is — on my dad’s side has been here since before even we were a country,” Duckworth responded. “We fought in the Revolutionary War, but we also fought in the French and Indian wars. On my mother’s side — my mother is Thai. We were in Cambodia because my dad’s job with the United Nations refugee programs and humanitarian service, and we stayed there rendering aid as long as we possibly could before we left.”
Duckworth went on to discuss her book, military service, and what she thought was special about America. Once she finished, Scarborough apologized for “not hearing the story correctly.”