Rep. Tammy Duckworth. | AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File Duckworth calls Mark Kirk 'unhinged' after Obama comments

CHICAGO — Rep. Tammy Duckworth on Tuesday called Sen. Mark Kirk “unhinged,” saying the senator “lacks the ability to control what he’s saying,” after Kirk referred to President Barack Obama as the “drug dealer in chief.”

The criticism, Duckworth said, was not a reference to Kirk’s capabilities following a debilitating stroke.


Duckworth is attempting to unseat Kirk in November and hoping to capitalize on what her campaign perceives as unforced errors by a Republican who is considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the nation.

“If you look at all of the things that he said, I think that he lacks the ability to control what he’s saying. If you look at the numerous gaffes he’s had over the years,” Duckworth said Tuesday after she addressed the City Club of Chicago. “I do think he is unhinged. To call the commander in chief, basically comparing him to a drug dealer? I think that is a significant thing for a state Senator to say. This is a man who called one of his colleagues 'a bro with no ho.' It’s not befitting of a United States Senator.”

Duckworth said she wasn’t telling voters they should judge Kirk based on the ill effects of a 2012 stroke, but consider him on his record.

“I think that is the furthest thing that people should look at. People should look at that he’s been ineffective as a senator,” she said. “I’m traveling the state. He’s not even traveling the state.”

In her remarks to the City Club, Duckworth called on Kirk to “immediately apologize” to Obama for his comments, made in front of the editorial board of the Springfield State-Journal Register, in the wake of the administration's acknowledgement that it initially withheld a $400 million cash payment owed to Iran from a 1970s agreement as it negotiated the release of hostages.

Made public in a column on Sunday, the remark was the latest in a series of controversial statements by Kirk, bringing another round of tongue lashings from editorial boards and elected officials.

On Tuesday, however, Kirk didn’t apologize for the comment, blaming Duckworth for supporting Obama’s policies with Iran.

“The actions of the Administration, including the use of unmarked cargo planes, pallets full of clean packs of foreign cash and an agreement with Iran that they only get the cash once the hostages are released, seems more representative of nefarious deals than the conduct of the world's greatest democracy," Kirk campaign spokesman Kevin Artl said. "Sen. Kirk believes the Administration's actions, which Tammy Duckworth has supported, were reckless in the extreme and will ultimately endanger more Americans abroad and is almost certain to fund terrorism"

Kirk's campaign called Duckworth's unhinged remark "a cheap shot from Duckworth who is running one of the nastiest campaigns in the nation right now."

This story has been updated to clarify the circumstances by which the Obama administration transferred $400 million to Iran.