Duckworth says Trump’s Mt. Rushmore speech showed ‘his priorities are all wrong’

by Justine Coleman - 07/05/20 10:55 AM ET

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said Sunday that President Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore’s Fourth of July celebration demonstrated that “his priorities are all wrong.”

The Illinois Democrat told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the president’s Friday speech in South Dakota “spent more time worried about honoring dead Confederates” than discussing the number of Americans who died from COVID-19.

{mosads}She also criticized the president for not spending as much time discussing the intelligence that Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. military members in Afghanistan.

“I mean his priorities are all wrong here,” she said. “He should be talking about what we’re gonna do to overcome this pandemic. What are we going to do to push Russia back?”

“Instead, he had no time for that,” she added. “He spent all his time talking about dead traitors.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth on President Trump’s Mt. Rushmore speech where he defended Confederate monuments: “His priorities are wrong. What are we going to do to push Russia back? Instead, he had no time for that. He spent all his time talking about dead traitors” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/Qs6bzdGGY3

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 5, 2020

CNN’s Dana Bash had asked the senator about Trump’s speech defending Confederate monuments and movements to take down statues of some Founding Fathers, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves.

“I’m more worried about 130,000, who have lost their lives recently and the thousands and thousands of Americans who are currently sick than I am about our historical past,” Duckworth said.

“We need to talk about what we’re doing now to bring this country off of the brink of chaos at its end,” she added.

Trump blasted demonstrators who are requesting the removal of statues, saying they want to “overthrow the American Revolution” at Mount Rushmore’s Fourth of July event.

In the meantime, the U.S. has confirmed more than 2.8 million cases of COVID-19, leading to at least 129,676 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.