Joe Biden considers Iraq war hero as candidate for vice-president

A Thai-American senator who lost her legs as a helicopter pilot in Iraq has become a contender for Joe Biden’s running mate.

Tammy Duckworth in Chicago on Juneteenth. Picture: AFP

A Thai-American senator who lost her legs as a helicopter pilot in Iraq has become a serious ­contender for Joe Biden’s vice-presidential candidate as the contest enters its final weeks.

Tammy Duckworth, 52, has impressed members of Mr Biden’s team at a time when the presumptive Democrat nominee said he might take longer than his original August 1 deadline to name a running mate, suggesting he was struggling to decide.

Mr Biden, 77, pledged to pick a woman and his choice is seen as particularly important given the likelihood that he will not run for a second term because of his age, leaving his vice-president in a strong position to claim the White House.

The Trump campaign is also hoping to open up a new front against the running mate as the President struggles to close a large polling gap on Mr Biden.

Senator Duckworth, a recipient of the Purple Heart, the medal awarded to US troops wounded or killed in action, flew combat helicopters and is the first double amputee to serve in congress. She was elected to the House of Representatives from Illinois in 2013 and the Senate in 2016, becoming the first senator to give birth while in office.

Kamala Harris, 55, a black senator from California, has long been seen as the favourite for Mr Biden’s running mate, while party activists favour Elizabeth Warren, 71, a senator from Massachusetts with a radical agenda.

Senator Duckworth has a voting and campaign record viewed as steering a course through the middle of the conservative and radical wings of the Democratic party. A gun-owner who believes in “sensible” reform, she is pro-abortion and moderate on healthcare reform, backing an extension of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act just like Mr Biden.

One line of Republican attack could be her eligibility based on being born in Bangkok to a Thai-Chinese mother but her claim to being a “natural born citizen”, the constitutional provision for becoming president, would seem to be satisfied by her American ­father, Franklin Duckworth, who can trace his lineage back to the American War of Independence.

She was co-piloting a Black Hawk helicopter when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in 2004, severing her legs and shattering her right arm.

Her co-pilot thought she was dead, recalling: “All I saw was her torso, and one leg on the floor. It looked like she was gone from the waist down.”

She spent a year recovering at Walter Reed hospital in Maryland and credited her sense of humour for keeping her positive, calling the hospital “the amputee petting zoo” for the visits it received from political leaders.

She was an assistant secretary of veterans’ affairs under president Barack Obama.

Mr Biden said last week that his shortlist for running mate included “a number of women of colour”.

Black candidates include Val Demings, 63, a congresswoman from Florida, and Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, 50. Michelle Lujan Grisham, 60, the Latina governor of New Mexico, is also being considered.

The Times