Duckworth Rips Trump for Firing More Veterans Than Any Other President, Uplifts Impacted Veterans’ Personal Stories During National VoteVets Town Hall
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today at an emergency national town hall hosted by VoteVets, combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC) who still receives her own health care services through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)—called out Donald Trump and Elon Musk for inflicting needless pain and chaos on our nation’s Veterans. During the town hall, Veterans who have been fired by Elon Musk’s DOGE bravely came forward—for the first time—to share how Trump’s cuts and layoffs have uprooted their lives. Duckworth pledged to continue advocating for our nation’s heroes and pushing back against the Trump Administration’s harmful policies and employee purges that are leaving Veterans jobless and jeopardizing their access to critical VA care and benefits. Full video of Duckworth’s remarks and Veterans’ testimonies during the town hall can be found on YouTube.
“Donald Trump is firing more Veterans than any other President in recent history and jeopardizing access to the care and benefits our heroes have earned through their service,” said Duckworth. “How dare a five-time draft dodging coward turn his back on the men and women who, unlike him, actually were brave enough to serve our nation in uniform. Let’s call Trump and Musk’s DOGE cuts what they are: They’re a middle finger to our Veterans, and they’re a slap in the face to the sacrifices they’ve made. Trump and unelected billionaire Elon Musk may not know the first thing about sacrifice and service, but our Veterans sure as hell do. We will not be quiet, and I will never stop working to honor the commitment we’ve made to our nation’s heroes.”
During the town hall, Veterans courageously came forward to share their stories and detail the real damage Trump and Musk have had on their lives:
Dustin Conklin—a Veteran from Caseyville, Illinois—said in part: “I’m a Veteran of the United States Navy. This fall, I took a job with the Natural Resources Conservation Service for the USDA. The USDA moved me out here to Illinois. I left where I was secure, I left my support network… On February 13th in the middle of the night, I open up my email and I get a blank email with an attachment saying I was fired… I’m going to lose my health insurance that covers me and my daughter. My health insurance is important because I have regular therapy appointments and access to medication that I’m about to lose… And through this whole time, I see on the internet Elon Musk playing with chainsaws and the President posting things laughing about making people cry. It’s been defeating.”
Frances Greenley—a Veteran from Lake Stevens, Washington—said in part: “During my time in the Coast Guard, I was a Naval Engineering Officer which meant I ran all of the maintenance contracts on the ships. It was very important for the people managing the contracts to make sure there was no waste, fraud and abuse. When I got out of my service, I went to work for the federal acquisition service—we are on the front lines of fighting waste, fraud and abuse… Like Dustin, my supervisors didn’t know I was terminated, I forwarded them my termination letter… I was fired by a political appointee in a form letter… If [Trump and Elon] want to increase the transparency and best use of the dollar, you would increase personnel who are project management specialists and contracting officers–but they terminated me instead.”
Kyle Lewis—a Veteran from Columbia, Maryland—said in part: “I joined the Navy back in the 1990s. I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in January 2020. I was given 6 weeks to live, my doctor said if you don’t start this experimental and aggressive treatment now, you’re not going to be here much longer. I was fortunate to get into a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins, which was funded by the NIH—I say was funded because it’s not anymore. The cuts that DOGE has made to cancer research as well as other lifesaving medical research has put my cancer research at risk, as well as millions of Americans including Veterans and children who are in far worse situations than I am… I just find this absolutely disgusting as an American. This is not how we take care of our family, our friends and our communities.”
In the wake of Trump and Musk’s mass federal layoffs, Duckworth has repeatedly expressed her outrage that many Veterans suddenly found themselves jobless. After the first VA purge laid off workers with the Veterans Crisis Line—including several Veterans—Duckworth successfully pushed the Trump Administration to reinstate these devoted public servants that work to support our Veterans in their darkest moments.
Additionally, Duckworth joined U.S. Senator and SVAC Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and a group of 34 Democratic Senators calling on VA Secretary Collins to immediately reinstate the more than 1,000 VA employees terminated earlier this month who serve Veterans and their families nationwide.
Duckworth’s full remarks as prepared for the town hall can be read below:
Hello everyone, thank you for being here today.
I actually invited President Musk—I mean Elon Musk—to join us as well. But I’m not shocked that he didn’t have the courage necessary to show up—after all, he and Trump never actually show up for the Veterans they claim to care about.
They never actually have our backs.
But the good news is that my Democratic colleagues do, including Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and Baltimore County Councilmember Pat Young, who are both here with me this afternoon.
Look, on the campaign trail, Trump promised to look out for Veterans and servicemembers. Obviously, this was a lie.
Obviously, a man who claims to “know more” than our generals who have served honorably for decades… A man who calls our fallen servicemembers “suckers and losers”… A man who cried “bone spurs” when his nation needed him the most…
Obviously someone as ignorant as this wouldn’t mind executing the most craven political move imaginable: Using our heroes as political pawns to get elected, then abandoning them once he takes office.
To give a quick summary of the past few weeks:
Trump and Musk have slashed roughly 2,400 VA jobs…A decision that won’t make things more efficient, like they claimed, but will actually lead to longer wait times, more backlog and more chaos for Veterans.
They’ve also launched a wider purge of federal workers—firing, in total, an estimated 6,000 Veterans, including the folks behind the Veterans Crisis Line.
The only reason they are doing this is to try to find enough loose change behind the couch cushions so that they can give even bigger tax breaks to the rich guys they pal around with on the golf course.
Let me say that another way: They care more about making sure Mar-a-Lago billionaires can buy yet another private jet than ensuring our Veterans have access to the benefits and care they have earned.
So let’s call this what it is: It’s a middle finger to our heroes. It’s a slap in the face to the sacrifices they’ve made. It’s BS, frankly. And every one of us who has served should feel insulted.
Donald Trump has fired more Veterans than any other President in recent history.
How dare a five-time draft dodging coward turn his back on the men and women who, unlike him, actually were brave enough to serve our nation in uniform?
How dare he call himself king, and act like servicemembers are his subjects—as if they are not the reason America is already great?
How dare he and Elon Musk sit in their ivory towers and use their power to stomp on those feeling powerless?
Listen, I heard Secretary Collins’ lie last week that not one Veterans Crisis Line worker was fired in this purge.
But the thing is, I’ve also heard directly from Veterans nationwide who’ve proven that this is untrue—who’ve reached out and personally shared with me their actual letters of termination.
I fought to get these folks reinstated, and I’m grateful that after such a loud outcry, we were able to get them their jobs back.
But there are so many others still left out in the cold, unsure how they’ll be able to put food on the table for their families next week…
Veterans who’ve been abandoned by the VA Secretary who is supposed to have their backs.
Secretary Collins has either been lied to about these firings or is knowingly, repeatedly lying to the American people.
If it’s the former, then all he has to do is check his casework inbox. If it’s the latter… then, well, shame on you, Secretary. Shame. On. You.
Think about it: The Crisis Line is where Veterans turn when they are considering suicide or self-harm.
The public servants working there are doing some of the toughest work imaginable to support our heroes in their absolute darkest hour.
These are the people Trump and Musk are happy to throw by the wayside. That should tell you everything you need to know about how this Administration actually feels about our Veterans. That should tell you how patriotic they really are. Trump may like to wrap himself in the flag with one hand, but with the other, he’s signing off on the orders that sell out our heroes to line his own pockets.
There are countless tragic examples of how DOGE’s purge has already caused havoc. To name just a few: A health care appointments have been cancelled due to staffing shortages…The number of beds and operating rooms at VA facilities have been cut down… And suicide prevention training sessions have been postponed or canceled. These jobs should’ve never been threatened in the first place.
And for Secretary Collins to say that no damage was done here is a straight-up betrayal of the people he is supposed to be serving.
It’s an insult to Americans like Chelsea Milburn… A Navy reservist who, after being fired from her job in the Department of Education, said, quote: “I feel like I have served my country admirably, and now it has betrayed me.”
It’s an insult to folks like Francis Greenley, who you’ll hear from shortly: Francis is a Coast Guard Veteran whose decades-long job was quite literally putting out fires on military ships as well as fighting waste and fraud in the military budget.
I guess Musk didn’t see the irony behind firing someone that—unlike DOGE—was actually making our government more efficient.
And it’s an insult to people like Jacob Adam Bushno…A disabled Veteran and a constituent of mine who joined the Army his junior year, right after 9/11.
Jacob served two tours in Iraq. Then, when he came home, despite suffering from PTSD, he dedicated his life to continuing his service, this time for the federal government—working as a wildland firefighter and forest technician among other jobs.
Jacob was part of this month’s purge. As he told my team this week: “I’ve always served this country. In some way, shape or form, I’ve always served. I’ve either tried to protect our country from terrorism or bad guys or Mother Nature.
“So this has been a gut-shot—a pretty bad one—and it’s taken its toll on me. If [Trump and Musk] actually cared about Veterans, they wouldn’t be treating any of us like this… They aren’t making our country better. They’re making it worse.”
Jacob is right.
So let me just close with this: Everyone on this call today knows how much our Veterans have done for our nation.
Trump and Musk may not know the first thing about sacrifice and service. But our Veterans sure as hell do.
So please know that I will never stop fighting for our heroes, no matter who’s in the White House.
But I’m counting on each of you to be my partners in this work.
After all, we’ve already seen proof that our collective pressure campaign is working: Trump’s VA was ready to cut hundreds of contracts that would’ve even further hurt Veterans health services from providing cancer care to assessing toxic exposure.
But they were forced to backtrack—because we spoke out. Because we made noise. So we can’t stop there.
Look, I get how in this moment, it’d be easy to feel defeated… to want to tune out rather than turn on the news.
But now more than ever, we can’t let ourselves become disengaged. We have to channel our outrage into action. Because there’s too much at stake to get discouraged.
There will always be people in hallowed halls who try to use their power to only look out for themselves. But here’s what I know: the power of the people is always greater than the people in power.
And if we want tomorrow to be better than yesterday, we have to come together…We have to recognize that our voices DO matter… Then we have to use those voices to speak out… even if—especially when—anyone tries to silence us.
You have my word that I am with you. That I am listening to you. That I am one of you. And that I will never abandon you.
It’s an absolute honor to call myself part of this team… and to have you all as my partners on the front lines of this fight.
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