Tammy Duckworth: Rhetoric like Cruz's creates people 'like the guy that shot me down'

WASHINGTON -- Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran who lost her legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq, warned Tuesday that "harmful" and "dangerous" rhetoric about Muslims like Ted Cruz's puts American soldiers in harm's way.

Duckworth told Mashable that Cruz's Tuesday call for police to "patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods" and other comments like it help terror groups recruit new members and put soldiers like her at risk.

"When we say this kind of thing we promote the divisive rhetoric, the propaganda that ISIS is selling, which will create the next insurgent that’s going to shoot down an American helicopter like the guy that shot me down," Duckworth, a House Armed Services Committee member and Senate candidate, said outside the House floor Tuesday afternoon.

"I don’t ever want to let that happen," she added. "We should be leading from strength, not from fear."

Duckworth was one of the first female helicopter pilots to fly combat missions in Iraq, and lost both her legs when her helicopter was shot down by an insurgent in 2004. After stints running the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs and as  Assistant U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs she won a House seat in 2012. She's now running against Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, another veteran, for the Senate seat once held by President Obama.

Duckworth said that both Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told her during a committee hearing Tuesday that "greater participation and leadership from the United States in transnational efforts" was key to preventing future terrorist attacks, not increased monitoring of American Muslims.

"It’s not about targeting a particular group of people in this country based their religion. We don’t have a litmus test in this country that’s based on religion. That’s not what our founders meant," she said when asked about the presidential candidate's comments. "It is harmful to us to say that kind of stuff because that’s the message ISIS wants to send to the Muslim world: America hates Muslims, they’re going to round Muslims up. When people say that kind of stuff they’re playing into ISIS’s hands."

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