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Andy’s two themes for 2020 are “surviving” and “remembering,” so Andy reflected on the year with the ultimate survivor: Senator Tammy Duckworth. He caught up with her in her D.C. office before she leaves for the holiday recess. They review the job Congress did in 2020, the low points many Americans have faced, and the promising notes for the future. As a wounded warrior and a Senator, her approach to life and her parting message is powerful.

 

Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.

 

Follow Tammy Duckworth on Twitter @SenDuckworth.

 

In the Bubble is supported in part by listeners like you. Become a member, get exclusive bonus content, ask Andy questions, and get discounted merch at https://lemonadamedia.com/inthebubble/

 

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• Livinguard masks have the potential to deactivate COVID-19 based on the testing they have conducted from leading universities such as the University of Arizona and the Free University in Berlin, Germany. Go to shop.livinguard.com and use the code BUBBLE10 for 10% off.

 

Check out these resources from today’s episode: 

• Learn more about the legislation Senator Duckworth has proposed to help people with disabilities and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/news/press-releases/duckworth-helps-introduce-bill-to-provide-desperately-needed-funding-for-home-and-community-based-services-hazard-pay
• Check out this study looking at the many benefits of hiring people with disabilities, including reliability and punctuality: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29392591/
• Read more about why 71% of 17-to-24-year-old Americans are ineligible for military service: https://www.wsj.com/articles/recruits-ineligibility-tests-the-military-1403909945?mod=e2tw
• Check out Colorado Senator Michael Bennet’s book, The Land of Flickering Lights: Restoring America in An Age of Broken Politics, that Senator Duckworth mentions in the episode: https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-land-of-flickering-lights-2/
• Pre-order Andy’s book, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response, here: www.preventablebook.com

 

To follow along with a transcript and/or take notes for friends and family, go to www.lemonadamedia.com/show/in-the-bubble shortly after the air date.

 

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com.

Transcription

SPEAKERS

Andy Slavitt, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Kryssy

Andy Slavitt

Welcome IN THE BUBBLE with Andy Slavitt. This is, in fact, Andy Slavitt. And we have an episode today that’s going to hit on what of what I think are my two themes for the year at least, surviving, surviving is an art form not to be underestimated. And if you’re listening to this show, you know, you’ve gotten through a lot. we’ve all gotten through a lot. It is been one of the most challenging periods of your life, I would guess, in many ways, whether that’s been challenge to your health, challenges in your family, challenges to your income, challenges to your outlook for the future, just challenges what to do every day.

This has been a rocking year. So to fulfill that theme, I wanted to bring on the show someone who knows just a little bit about surviving. Her name is senator Tammy Duckworth. You don’t know her. She’s a double amputee from Battlefield wounds sustained in Iraq. She’s gone on to become a US senator. She’s one of the jewels of this country, quite honestly. And she’s inspiring she is so positive force. I have to tell you just one quick anecdote before we roll into this. Lana saw her speaking at something in Minnesota. And you know, when she gets up on stage, you know, she refuses to be not moving around, like, and so she gets around, she’s on crutches, she’s on her prosthetics.

And, you know, she just looks absolutely, like 100% and Lana ran into her backstage and I’m gonna get the story down exactly right. But when you see her backstage and you see it when the cameras on her, it’s pretty clear how exhausting and challenging life with a disability is. I think people got a small flavor this year. But this is all been temporary. For us. This is somebody who has fought and fought and fought and been very, very positive. And I loved this conversation. So I’m pleased to bring it to you. Let’s roll with Senator Tammy Duckworth.

Andy Slavitt  02:35

Hi, there.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

Hello.

Andy Slavitt 

How are you?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

I’m fine. Thank you.

Andy Slavitt 

Great. It’s nice to see.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

Thank you. There we are. I just turned my camera back. I was like fiddling around with my computer here. Okay.

Andy Slavitt 

You and me both, Wi Fi problems this morning.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth 

No worries.

Andy Slavitt 

How’ve you been?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

Very good, thank you.

Andy Slavitt 

Kryssy, are we ready to go?

Kryssy 

We are and just letting you know that Senator Duckworth does have a hard stop at the top of the hour. So we will be cognizant of that.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth 

Thank you.

Andy Slavitt 

And Senator, Kryssy usually smacks me right around that time. So

Sen. Tammy Duckworth 

Yeah, my team just disconnects me.

Andy Slavitt 

So if I ask you a question, and you don’t answer, we’ll know what happened.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth 

Yeah, yeah, they actually, when pre COVID times, I love that I’m in a wheelchair because they just roll me out of the room. Just like she’s leaving now. And I’m still talking and they’re just like, rolling me out. That’s my team, kind of sick but funny.

Andy Slavitt

Yeah. Welcome to our team as well, you know, the, you know, the public is going through something on a temporary basis, that inconveniences not being able to live their full life really like things are more challenging than they would otherwise be, that are a minor minor glimpse into the life of Americans with disabilities. And as I talk to the disability advocates in my life, the common refrain I get is.

Andy Slavitt  04:15

Can we get some more empathy for people to understand that people think they’re dealing with for a matter of weeks or months, is really just a minor glimpse of how challenging life is every day for people like us. And you, you put forward legislation around COVID and people disabilities, I’m wondering if you can reflect, either personally or from a policy standpoint?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth 

Well, I mean, COVID has been devastating for folks around the world and for so many of the families here. I mean, if you are part of the 300,000, who have lost a loved one, it’s been especially devastating folks who’ve lost their jobs or businesses. So it’s, it’s I would say it’s more than a minor glitch. But for people with disabilities, it especially has been hard hit the loss of the support network that they used to have in order to just survive, you know, they were not able to many of them get their home health aides in to help.

All the children who have special learning needs or special needs, when it comes to school, or whether it’s a physical need, or a mental need a learning need, are devastated. Because, you know, I know how hard it was for me to try to be the person that helped my daughter do distance education, and it was so hard. And my daughter doesn’t have any, you know, special needs and to imagine, for all of those families out there with children, it’s devastating. And so it’s why when I put forward on my portion included additional funds for persons with disabilities.

To make sure that we extend the support network that’s there, you know, when your work closes in, and a lot of Americans worlds closed in on them, because they can’t leave their house, you can’t go shopping, you can’t go to the restaurants, all of this. For someone with a disability, it’s even more closed, because the few bits of help that you use to get to help you even get out the house or any direction, that’s also not as well. And so we can and should do better.

Andy Slavitt  06:19

You know, I’ve noticed this kind of lens that people have on policy, whether it’s for people with disabilities, or for people with preexisting conditions, or otherwise, certain people have a lens, which says, hey, if we give them access to care of some sort, then what are people complaining about? And what I think people don’t take into account is that that’s, they expect more than that, when it comes to their own families, they expect to be able to live a fulfilling life.

Andy Slavitt

So you know, if you have a child with a disability, being able to have your child play in the park and experience joy, is what you want, you don’t just need them to have medical care. You want them to have the ability to lead a fulfilling life as anybody else and as possible for them. And I feel like policies without empathy, are really what sometimes this country.

Yet, when I look at the US Congress, I see a party that really gets it and believes in not just the safety net, but empathy. And I see another party, where by and large, you know that’s feeling more and more absent? Do you feel that? Or do you feel like, because it used to be the disability policy was something that was not part partisan.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

It did not used to be partisan. I mean, it was, after all, President Bush, the senior President Bush was signed to ADA into law. So it was a republican president that supported it and help us get it across the finish line. And so it did not use to be partisan. I will say, though, even for those who feel like hey, you got health care, that’s more than enough. Why do you want joy? Why do you want to be able to work and do and all of that? My answer is because it’s cheaper. If you care, if you have no empathy, and you care about nothing else, it is cheaper for our society in the long run.

08:04

To have systems in place so that people with disabilities can live the most fulfilling productive lives possible, because then they are less a drain, they don’t take as much resources and they’re working and contributing to society. Studies have shown time and time again, that a person with a disability is a far more loyal employee, and far less likely to turn over and churn through jobs than someone else. They are the most productive people once they are finally able to land a job, and they stick with that job, and there are highly productive in that job.

And so it’s actually helpful to American society, to our nation’s economy to make sure that we fully support persons with disabilities, a mom, with a child with a disability who has full support, she can go back to work, and she can pay taxes, and she can do all of those things. Whereas if she were forced to be at home, she couldn’t do that. So let’s just be clear that it’s a humanity empathy issue. But it’s also if you care about nothing else, it’s also good for the economy. It’s good for the bottom line as well.

Andy Slavitt

You’re absolutely right. There’s no question about it. It’s just a shame that you have to make that argument that it’s not enough to say, we’re all Americans, we’re all part of this country. We all have our needs. So let’s just accept those. But you’re forced to make this economic argument. And I think people do that with mental health as well and with other things. And my concern is, what if that argument wasn’t true? We should still be there. And I know that you’ve been a champion of that.

And I wish that there were there were things where we had broad consensus, like we did on disability policy, back when it passed, and this is the anniversary, that consensus. It feels like it’s fraying. Does it feel like to you in the Senate, that there are areas of consensus any longer, more than the public sees? Or does it feel like it’s getting harder and harder.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

It’s getting harder and harder and you have to work to find it and I find myself because I’m a moderate democrat from the middle of the country, I find myself almost as a translator sometimes as a to find arguments that makes sense to those who don’t come from the same place that I do. And so I’ll give you an example I talk about the need to invest in education and need to invest in health care, the need to invest in criminal justice reform. Those are all very democratic issues, right? People sort of say, well, Democrats always want to spend money and all that stuff.

10:31

But I’ve been talking to my Republicans about the fact that the Department of Defense, for the last several years now I’ve been saying that they can only recruit from 29% of the population of 18 to 24 year old’s in this country, because 71% of that population can’t pass the basic entrance qualifications to serve in the army, or the Navy, or the Marines, they can’t serve in the military because, and the top things that keep them from serving, one, they can’t pass the basic math and English tests, all military manuals are written at the eighth grade level, most of them at the sixth grade level, somewhere at the eighth grade level.

So I find myself talking to Republicans not appealing to them about. hey, we should all have good education, we should all be able to have health care, we should all we should care about, you know, systemic racism in our criminal justice system. But what that appeal that I make to them is, do you care about nothing else, but the strength of this country, what’s the point of buying $100 billion, you know, a fleet of fighter jets, you got no one who can fix them or fly them because our kids can’t pass an eighth-grade level test.

So even if you had a GED or high school diploma, they’re still not able to pass the test. Two, there’s some sort of an untreated medical condition, usually from childhood that went untreated, like asthma, or ADHD, and that and that, or obesity, which now disqualifies them from service, or three, they have some sort of a felony conviction, usually tied to the opioid epidemic, or something like that. And so those three things kick out 71% of the eligible 18-to-24-year old’s.

So I do find that, you know, part of what I do, is to try to talk about these issues in ways that are that addressed, you know, concerns of my Republican colleagues Now, not all of them, I thought like that, but I find more and more that I have to do that.

Andy Slavitt  12:15

You know, it’s actually great. That’s one of the things that this show IN THE BUBBLE , which talks about kind of the bubbles we live in, really tries to speak to is you try to understand each other. You know, people often come from reasonable places, and we just, you know, if you start out by assuming that they don’t want the right things, you’ll never understand them, and you’ll never get anywhere and the senate used to be about, okay, what do you want? Let me help you understand your needs and let you understand my needs.

And, you know, but and I just wonder, like, if I look at, you know, the Tennessee just to take them one of the most recent replacements in the Senate, you know, that conversation got harder, based upon who’s in that chair now, versus who is in that chair, before to Congress as a whole and government as a whole. We had gone through a period of time where people’s trust in government has eroded for a variety of reasons. And in depending on where you said, there could be opposite reasons. And then we have a pandemic kit. And the pandemic is one of those events that under normal circumstances, you think, Okay, well, this ought to bring us together.

Andy Slavitt 

And there is obviously a huge role for government, because we are we have a deep need that only government could help itself. And I would love for you to reflect on 2020 and how well you think Congress as a whole did its job, because I felt like at the beginning, there was a lot of action. And they felt like over the last six months or more Americans have not had the feeling that Congress has had their backs. Do you think that’s a fair characterization? How do you think Congress has done over the course of the year?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth 

Well, we haven’t delivered much. So I think that is a fair characterization. If you are outside of the Congressional bubble, right? And you’re looking at just word products come out. But you should know that the House of Representatives has passed bill after bill after bill after bill that had been bipartisan, significant pieces of legislation that would really make Americans lives so much better in a bipartisan way, over 300 pieces of legislation. And yet, Mitch McConnell one person, one person has stopped us from being able to vote on those.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth  14:19

If those bills came to the floor in that senate, many of them would pass, many of them would pass. But he’s just simply refused to allow them to come to the floor for a vote. And that’s where the dysfunction happens. So from inside my bubble, what I see is a lot of really good people trying to do some work and being very bipartisan. And then one man and he calls himself the Grim Reaper, because the Senate is where bills gold legislation goes to die. And he’s very proud of that fact. And all he has done has worked as hard as he can to change the judiciary of this country.

He’s now seated about 30% of the judges in this country, who are all ultra conservative and have a very significant political agenda. So you know, I see is trying to do the work but not getting things done. I want to backtrack a little bit if I can. You talked about finding a commonality up until President Trump and I can’t say this about him anymore. But I always assume that the person I’m talking to loves this country as much as I do, that they’re coming to the problem from a different perspective, but that they at, you know, in the depths of their heart, love this country as much as I do.

And together, we could find a way to find that. I’ll give you an example. You mentioned a senator from Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn, we actually went on a trip together on national security and she and I got along great. She ended up being my secret Santa last year. You know, and she’s she was, you know, as I’ve known her someone from the house, but not well enough, and didn’t really get to know her. And she’s ultra conservative. And, you know, it’s like, what do we have in common, and on that trip, we got to know each other a little bit better.

And she does love this country as much as I love this country. And then so we’ve sort of talked back and forth and tried to work on things together. But I will tell you, I don’t feel that way about Donald Trump. And I don’t feel that way about Mitch McConnell, because Donald Trump, I believe, only loves Donald Trump and his family well, more than he does his country. And Mitch McConnell is just doing a very specific thing.

16:11

And that makes it really hard to find a way to common ground. I think in the past, Republicans and Democrats have been able to work together. But because people have always been able to work together, that’s going to be harder and harder to do.

Andy Slavitt  16:38

People outside of Congress, people outside Washington don’t understand as much how important the leadership of the party is, and that they decide what comes to the floor. And to a certain extent, you know, their job is to keep order and to keep people from going against where the rest of the party is voting. And they have lots of tools, including chairmanships, including campaign money. And all those people know these things, generally, but very specifically, why Mitch McConnell has so much power.

Andy Slavitt 

And why people are frustrated? How can one person do this? That’s just the way Congress was either designed or has been redesigned by the people who are in leadership. And each party works slightly differently.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

Yeah. So each side so in the house, there is a way to get legislation on the floor. It’s called a discharge petition. And if you can get the 218 Congress people to sign it, the bill comes to the floor for a vote and nobody in leadership can stop it. So have you ever watched Legally Blonde, that’s what (UNCLEAR) did for her for bruisers law.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

She got you know, the number of sets of Congress people to sign the bill and it came to the floor for a vote. And so the leader, you know, the speaker can’t stop it. So that mechanism exists in the house. It doesn’t exist in the Senate. And so he can hold it, he could stop anything from coming to the floor.

Andy Slavitt

Right. And people talk about the Senate has been described deliberative body, which means that the design of the senate really makes change more difficult, it makes consensus more difficult. And you could argue that it acts as a brake against radical changes too quickly. And if you’re on the other side of that change, that might be a good thing.

18:16

If you’re in the one side it might be a bad thing. But you’re exactly right. The house is more the body that speaks to the more democratic and frequent needs, theoretically. So McConnell any insight you have into what you think drove him during the Trump era, and what you think will drive him during the Biden era? And will it be any different than it was during the Obama times?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

I don’t think it will be different, because I think McConnell has been very consistent. And he’s always said exactly what he was doing. And he started off with President Obama by saying the Republicans were going to be the party of no, and they were going to stop everything that President Obama wanted to do. Michael Bennett, my colleague has written a great book. It’s called The Land of Flickering Lights or something like that. And it talks about the rise of McConnell’s strategy. And the failures of Democrats made to stop this march towards where we are now where it’s a simple 51 vote in order.

You know, we’ve lost a lot of traditions in the Senate, that would have stopped things like really bad judges from being seated because it used to be 61 votes. Now, it’s just a simple majority. And that used to stop bad judges of being from being seated. And so Michael Bennett’s book has a really good I’ve been listening, listening to it on audio books, and it’s got a it talks about this March. So McConnell has been consistent, he’ll still be who he is.

Now, he apparently does have a good relationship with Joe Biden and their time in the senate together. So I hope that President Elect Biden will be able to reach out to him, but McConnell has only wanting to do one thing, and that’s changed the judiciary. I mean, in the last two weeks, we confirm a 37-year-old to a lifetime judicial appointment. You know, these folks are going to be there when my daughter is a grandmother. They will still be affecting, you know, loss in this country. And it’s really scary.

Andy Slavitt 

What will be different with a Democrat in the White House? Let’s put aside Biden legislation for a second, which is really good point. What would you think his agenda will be? Obviously, he will want to retain his majority in 2022. Presuming he holds on to it in 2020. My sense Biden is, relationship is one thing, but what a relationship allows you to do is see what the other person’s wants, and see if you can meet their needs, so they can meet your needs. But if McConnell has no needs, if McConnell just basically says I just want very little, which is oftentimes where Republicans land, then it doesn’t matter how good his relationship is, right?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth  20:44

Right. Well, that’s exactly it. Now, the McConnell wants one thing, power. He wants to change the judiciary, and he wants to maintain his power, when he has cooperated with Democrats, has been when his members have told him they need something. Otherwise, they’re going to go against his wishes and vote their way anyway. So he has, you know, the cares act when that passed, that was because enough republicans that we really need this, the defense budget.

When we stood up to just recently President Trump’s veto threat, it’s because, you know, his members said, we need to do this. So he will listen to his members of his members say, I’m gonna lose my senate seat, if I don’t vote this way. Or if I don’t get this, we will lose the senate seat. infrastructure is a good example of something that Democrats and Republicans I think will be able to work on with the Biden administration and major infrastructure package.

Because we need infrastructure investments across this country. So I think there are other ways to get to McConnell and get him to come along. But at the bottom line, he’s been very, I mean, he’s been upfront about what he who he is, and what he wants. And those are two things is maintaining power for himself staying as the majority leader and changing the judiciary, and he’s been consistent for literally decades now.

Andy Slavitt

Yeah. And look, I remind myself that it could be even worse. We have after McConnell, I could think of an (UNCLEAR) and by name, but I can think of people in the caucus. Who if they followed him, the McConnell days could be the good old days?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth  22:14

Oh, my lord. Oh, well, let me you know, I have high hopes, I do think I think that we can, we can move forward with you know, a Democrat in the White House, we have, for example, the tool of executive orders. And so something that because Donald Trump broke that norm and really just exploited those, I think we’ll be able to use executive orders to reverse a lot of the bad things that Trump did, and move forward on a few things that I think are really critical.

Andy Slavitt 

I don’t know what your perception of this, but I think Biden would like to figure out how to unite the country. And I don’t know that there’s a formula for that. I do think he’s wired that way to want to accomplish that. So your perception that that’s indeed going to be one of the important goals in the administration.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth 

It is, it’s also why he won. That was his message to the American people. So the majority of the American people felt that our country would be better off if we could reunite because that was Biden’s main message in his campaign. And that’s what the American people voted for. Now, remember that there’s a significant chunk of people who did not vote for Joe Biden, who feel the other way.

But Biden has said that he’s going to be a president for all of the people, not just those who voted for him. So we’re going to move forward. But the majority of the American people across the country, not just in large cities, but in all of the newly you know, the states that flipped Georgia in those places voted for Joe Biden, because they do think that the way forward is for us to stop the division and work together

Andy Slavitt

So finally, at the 11th hour, the Senate did come through with a bipartisan bill to give some relief to the public. So first of all, thank you for being persistent on behalf of all of the people that have been scared to death out there and could you talk a little bit about what’s in it, how you feel about it, and what you feel is left to be done.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth  24:16

Sure. So we had come up with a bipartisan little over $900 billion deal that has more money for PPP, which is the small businesses it has more money for hospitals and health care. It has more money for education to try to get our kids back into the classrooms. There are two things that were the key points that Democrats and Republicans could not agree to. One was money for state and local government. Remember that state and local governments because everything has been shut down has not been getting tax revenue so they are just broke.

I’ll give you an example. Rockford Illinois, has stopped hiring new police officers. Peoria, Illinois laid off its firefighters because they don’t have the budget. The money left to pay for their first responders. We can’t continue with that. So there was money about $160 billion, that the Democrats, you know, that was our point. Let’s put some money in there to go to state and local governments.

Andy Slavitt 

Are you saying McConnell defunded the police?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth 

Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much defunded first responders, you know, defunded your garbage collectors, all of that. The other point that is a contention is that McConnell wants blanket liability protection for corporations during this time. So if any, you know, but it’s not just, you know, somebody comes to a restaurant gets sick and then wants to sue the restaurant, it’s also medical malpractice. I mean, if you went to the hospital and, and they amputated the wrong leg during this time period, he wanted them to have like a protection, and you would have no recourse to sue.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

So I can’t support that I can see if you are a business that did everything, right, according to CDC guidelines. So you were a restaurant, you provide the PPE. You just, you know, you only had people outside you had taken but people still chose to come and eat at your outdoor patio and they ended up getting sick. Well, yeah, you should have some protection, right? But those who were grossly negligent, should not have protection. So that those are the two stumbling blocks.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth  26:08

We came to apparently agreement that we’re going to split out the money for states and local and the blanket liability into a separate piece of legislation. And we’re just going to pass the 700 billion that we’re going to vote on that will have everything else. Also it has unemployment insurance, which is something that we push really hard for Democrats, unemployment insurance ends the day after Christmas right now. And this would extend it into March, it won’t be the 600 additional per week that we want it it’s only 300. But it’s better than nothing.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

So that’s, you know, again, that’s compromise. Right? Would you said you get something that you want, I get something that I want. And we both hate a little about it, but we move forward. And but I’ve already told my leadership as most of the Democrats, that I’m not leaving here until we get something out the door to help people it is obscene. It is unethical. It is a dereliction of duty if we don’t pass something for the American people.

Andy Slavitt 

And how about have a protection for renters? and things like that? Did that make it in the final bill?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

That made it into it as well? Yes, so far?

Andy Slavitt 

Well, thank you. I’ll just finish up by saying you’re one of the most admired national politicians, people really relate to you. throughout the country. The people who are listening to this podcast are all of us, all of us have gone through a very challenging year. And you’ve gone through incredibly challenging times, yourself. And I wonder if you could speak a little bit on a personal side, how to help people think about what they’ve been through in 2020.

All of the challenges, not just COVID, but the racial justice issues, the stress of the election and the democracy and so forth. And then looking forward to 2021. You know, can you give people some sense that things will be brighter, and what the challenges will remain and how to how to fight through that. And then on a personal level?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

Well, I think things will be brighter, I think, because with the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, I think that we already have more tools in our arsenal to fix some of the problems that we have. So once they are sworn in, we’ll be able to really push to fight back against the COVID and then start to distribute the vaccine. The first, you know, vaccine started going out this week. But you know, the vaccine is not going to be the be all and end all of things. But there’s a lot more that can be done, we can finally invoke the defense production act to get more support out there.

28:33

So things will get better next year, it may not be as fast as people want them to be, but things can and will get better next year. And what I tell folks is, you know, you survived this year, there’s not been a year as bad as 2020 in a long time. And if you’re one of the ones who lost a loved one. You know, for me, it’s always been about I have an obligation to those that didn’t make it to do better. I was carried out of that dusty field in Iraq when you know, my buddies thought I was dead, but they didn’t leave me behind. And because I survive every day, every single day, I wake up, I look in the mirror, I say a prayer of thanks to them.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

And then I know okay, no matter what happens today, it’s not going to suck as bad as it did that day. And so try and do one thing to move the ball forward a little bit. I’m mixing my metaphors, but you know what I mean?

Andy Slavitt 

Yeah, I do,

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

You know, and so what I tell folks is that, you know, as devastating as it’s been, get up, and do what you can the next day, and maybe what you can is just simply surviving. And that’s okay, too. But if we can all survive together, and we can all try to know those of us who can do a little bit more, do a little bit more we can get through this. We’re a strong nation. We put a man on the moon, we ended polio. I mean, we are a great nation, and we can do better. We’re just going through a rough time right now and that’s okay. That’s okay. And Americans came together and voted and like to Joe Biden because he said, we can do this together. And that’s the direction we’re headed in.

Andy Slavitt

Senator Tammy Duckworth. Thank you for having all of our backs. Thank you for knowing what it’s like for people to struggle and fighting for them every day that alone I hope gives everybody strength. It certainly does give me strength. I’m a big admirer.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth  30:14

Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

Andy Slavitt

Okay, thanks for sticking with us. Through this. I have a great interview Wednesday, Anthony Fauci. We’re going to talk about how we finish off the year and how we begin the next year. We have an episode that is going to be focused on our other theme of the year besides surviving, which is remembering and that will be followed by some great episodes in 2021 is we have really episode featuring the 20 best scientists as they predict what’s going to happen in 2021. And an episode I’m staying safe at work a toolkit with some great people, will talk to you on Wednesday.

CREDITS

Thanks for listening IN THE BUBBLE. Hope you rate us highly. We’re a production of Lemonada Media. Kryssy Pease and Alex McOwen produced the show. Our mix is by Ivan Kuraev. My son Zach Slavitt is emeritus co-host and onsite producer improved by the much better Lana Slavitt, my wife. Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs still rule our lives and executive produced the show. And our theme was composed by Dan Molad and Oliver Hill and additional music by Ivan Kuraev. You can find out more about our show on social media at @LemonadaMedia. And you can find me at @ASlavitt on Twitter or at @AndySlavitt on Instagram. If you like what you heard today, most importantly, please tell your friends to come listen, but still tell them at a distance or with a mask. And please stay safe, share some joy and we will get through this together. #stayhome