Rep. Tammy Duckworth is challenging Sen. Mark Kirk for his U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, and the incumbent unleashed an incredible comment about her mixed-race heritage during tonight’s debate in Springfield.


Duckworth, a U.S. Army veteran who lost both legs in the Iraq war, was born to a U.S. Marine father and a Thai-Chinese mother. Her father’s family has been in the U.S. since before it was a country; she is a member of the D.A.R. Her opponent, Senator Kirk, responded to her citing this background as evidence of her reasoned decision-making on issues of defense by scoffing at how her Thai ancestors could have fought alongside George Washington.

Mark Kirk, we’ll remind you, has been busted multiple times for claiming military honors he did not earn or receive.