Ep. 438 — Sen. Tammy Duckworth

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2021

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Senator Tammy Duckworth was shot down over Iraq while serving in the US Army, she did not notice at first that her legs were mostly gone, destroyed by the blast. After countless surgeries and hours of rehab, Sen. Duckworth eventually learned to walk on prosthetics. Her new memoir, Every Day Is a Gift, recounts her injury and recovery, as well as her childhood and rise to the US Senate. Sen. Duckworth talked with David about growing up in Southeast Asia and Hawaii and the financial struggles her family experienced, the challenges facing working mothers today, and why she refused to see then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during her recovery at Walter Reed Hospital.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Music
0:06.0	And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axfiles, with your
0:12.8	host David Axelrod.
0:18.6	Honestly, don't think there's a more compelling or heroic story in public life than that of
0:24.2	Senator Tammy Duckworth.
0:26.6	I've heard some of it here before because she's been a guest on the Axfiles, but she's
0:30.4	just written a terrific new memoir called, Every Day as a Gift, in which she writes about
0:35.7	her incredible story from her childhood in Asia to her family's struggles with poverty
0:40.9	and Hawaii, to her refusal to allow grievous war injuries to feed her.
0:46.4	I was honored to moderate a book event with Senator Duckworth last week and wanted to
0:50.7	share that conversation with you in this special episode of the Axfiles.
1:00.4	Senator Duckworth, my friend, it's great to see you again.
1:03.8	You know, I thought I knew so much about you until I read this book and I think most people
1:09.7	think of your story as one of courage and resilience and they date it back to your rendezvous
1:16.4	with an RPG and the Skies over Iraq, but your story is extraordinary from start to finish.
1:22.8	And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about your folks because this is a story
1:29.5	that began halfway across the world.
1:32.6	It did David.
1:33.6	Thanks for doing this.
1:34.6	It's so nice to see you again as well.
1:37.2	Yeah.
1:38.2	And you know, you observe some of this story yourself.
	...

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