Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh came under fire on the 4th of July after he accused opponent Tammy Duckworth of talking too much about her service in Iraq. Duckworth, who lost both of her legs while serving overseas has spent a considerable amount of time talking about her military service and the service of her fellow veterans.
In a video that began circulating on Tuesday (shown below) the GOP rep notied that John McCain had been reluctant to discuss his time as a POW. In the video Walsh proclaims:
“Now I’m running against a woman who—I mean, my God, that’s all she talks about. Our true heroes … that’s the last thing in the world they talk about.”
Joe Walsh realizing how his remarks were taken released a statement on Wednesday, stating:
“Of course Tammy Duckworth is a hero. However, unlike most veterans … who rarely if ever talk about their service or the combat they’ve seen, that is darn near all of what Tammy Duckworth talks about.”
In response to the attacks Duckworth appeared on MSNBC where she called Joe Walsh an “extremist loud mouth for the team party” who had “disrespected 23 million veterans.
Joe Walsh in the meantime hasn’t exactly been the most upstanding citizen, having missed $117K in back child support payments .
In a filing against Walsh his ex-wife’s attorney wrote:
“The apparent availability of large sums of money from either his employment, his family or his campaign has allowed him to live quite a comfortable lifestyle, while at the same time, due to his failure to pay child support or any of his share of the education costs or medical expenses, Laura and his children were denied any of these advantages.”
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