Transcript: Sen. Tammy Duckworth on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Sept. 7, 2025

The following is the transcript of an interview with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 7, 2025.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And we're joined now by Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth. She joins us this morning from Schaumburg, Illinois. Good morning to you, Senator.

SENATOR TAMMY DUCKWORTH: Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you attended, as I understand, a demonstration yesterday in Chicago where thousands of people were out on the street protesting President Trump's vow to send in immigration agents. I know he's also posted on social media suggesting troops will go in. Quote, "Chicago is about to find out why it is called the Department of War." Vice President Vance says there aren't plans to send in troops. Do you have concrete indication, now, that there are plans to do so?

SEN. DUCKWORTH: Let's make it clear the president of the United States essentially just declared war on a major city in his own nation. This is not normal, Margaret. This is not acceptable behavior. No, we don't have any indications of them getting ready to send troops into Chicago. In fact, I was out at Great Lakes base yesterday, naval training base, and they were able to confirm that the only assistance they've been requested to provide is just office space for ICE, but that no barracks, no detention facilities, none of that is being requested or prepared in order to support troops into Chicago.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, so then is this just, you know, social media trash talk? When you say he's declaring war, is this tongue in cheek?

SEN. DUCKWORTH: I think he's renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War, and did he not just say that Chicago will find out what it means to be at war? I don't- I take what the President of the United States says very seriously, because that is the respect you have to give to the office. And if that's what he's declaring, then let me make it clear, it would be an illegal order to declare war on a major city, any city within the United States, by the President of the United States.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, I know you just mentioned you went out to the Great Lakes Naval training session- station, I should say, and you said the military leadership said they'll only get office space, ICE cannot bring in lethal munitions, and the resources will not be diverted from military training. So all of that together, did you breathe a sigh of relief and say this won't have a real impact on the military?

SEN. DUCKWORTH: Well, we're going to make sure that there's not an impact on the military. We need to make sure that- as, you know, Great Lakes naval training base is where every single recruit in the United States Navy goes through to get that basic training, and then later on, some advanced training. We need to make sure that not a single dollar, not a single penny of the resources that they have that should be- that should be directed towards training our nation's sailors and making them ready to dare- do their jobs, none of that money needs to be diverted in order to support ICE or any of Donald Trump's political, you know, theater efforts. We need to focus on making sure we turn out the very best sailors we possibly can out of the base.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So in terms of how Democrats are responding to this, this rhetoric, the Chicago Tribune faulted Governor Pritzker for his threats, to quote, "not stand idly by" if the guard went in. They wrote, "what does that threat actually mean? How about a conversation before the action or the response? Because it's all potentially harmful to collective health." It sounds like there's a lot of tension here. Is there an opportunity to work with the administration to avoid making this worse?

SEN. DUCKWORTH: Well, they've not- they've not responded to any of our requests. I mean, I'll give you a very concrete example. Senator Durbin, myself, Senator Schneider- Congressman Schneider, sent requests into DHS to ask them to explain what exactly are you going to be doing at Great Lakes? And can we come look at your facility so we have a better understanding of what your operations are? And they replied, no, you can't. And in fact, gave their staff the day off on the day that we went to go look at the facilities, and locked the doors and left the base. Basically, they fled the base. This is not the action of someone that's doing something legal or that they're- that they're proud of. They literally gave the people the day off, locked the doors and left. Now the Navy allowed us onto the post. They allowed us to tour the outside of the facility and also where they would be storing the non-lethal munitions. But DHS did not show up. And we certainly have sent the administration multiple inquiries about what they are planning on doing. Who are they bringing into Chicago? Are they planning to bring the National Guard in? They've- none, none of that. They've not even reached out to local law enforcement to try to coordinate. You know, if they were truly, truly interested in fighting crime, then they would work with local law enforcement and ask them, what do you need? What help do you need? And we've not gotten any- any communications or feedback from the administration, whatsoever.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you in your armed services role about what is a significant geopolitical meeting this past week. You had a lot of America's adversaries gathering together. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un of North Korea, all of them in Beijing. And China and Russia seem to be deepening their work together. What do you think the signal to the United States here is?

SEN. DUCKWORTH: The signal to the United States is exactly what, you know, these authoritarian regimes want to send, which is that they are the new world power, that America is losing its ground, and that they have utter disrespect for the United States. I think it was very, very clear, and it, you know, it doesn't escape me, the fact that once this meeting happened, which was humiliating to Donald Trump, he immediately responds by saying, well, then I'm going to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War and declare war on Chicago. This is what Donald Trump does when something bad happens to him in the news cycle, or when the Epstein victims come together and have a very emotional press conference, he changes the topic and distracts us by saying things like, I'm going to send ICE into Chicago, I'm going to do this or do that. The American people cannot be fooled. We cannot be allowing him to distract us from what is truly happening, which is, this is a man who has driven our economy to a point where now there are more unemployed people than there are jobs. You know, we're not selling our agricultural products overseas. Our adversaries are united against us.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the unemployment rate is still low, but I hear you on a weaker than expected jobs number. Just very quickly, there was military action taken in America's backyard by the Trump administration. Vice President Vance says "killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military." He was talking about a strike on a drug boat- alleged drug boat, off the coast of Venezuela. What do you make of that show of force?

SEN. DUCKWORTH: It was an illegal- it was an illegal move by the Trump administration. There's a thing called due process in this country, and that needed to have happened. And the fact that it happened in international order- in international waters actually opens Americans to a similar action by our adversaries. You just- we were just talking about Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and getting together and showing us- showing a show of force against the United States. Well, there's nothing now to stop them from doing something like that against Americans in international waters. And it could be civilians, and they could say, you know what? Those were drug boats. We're just going to go ahead and blow them out of the water. You're- he's setting a precedence here that puts Americans in danger.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Duckworth, thank you for your time this morning. We'll be right back.

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