WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) – Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz.

During her interview with Brennan, Senator Duckworth says Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, should be dismissed explaining, “He should never have been nominated in the first place. He is the most untrained, inadequate, Secretary of Defense in our nation’s history. And look at what he’s done at the Pentagon. It’s in turmoil. He lost his top staffers within a matter of days. He’s now put classified information on an unclassified chain, and he’s put our nation’s national security at risk.”

Brennan and Duckworth then talked about Waltz who was removed as the National Security Advisor and placed as Ambassador to the United Nations, prompting Brennan to ask Duckworth what she wants to know about him and if she was open to confirming him for the job, to which Duckworth said, “I’m not open to voting for him. No, because he’s already demonstrated he’s incapable of doing the most basic thing, which is handling classified information.”

During the interview, Brennan and Duckworth talked about defense funding, with Brennan asking Duckworth if she can work with her Republican colleagues to increase defense spending after she said the Navy needs more money and financial support, and following the Republican chairs of Appropriations and Armed Services each saw the White House’s budget after it was released on Friday, to which Duckworth said:

“One of the places where there has been bipartisanship has been the Armed Services Committee. That has been something that I’ve been very proud to be a part of. Now, whether or not my Republican colleagues continue to be co-conspirators and collaborators with this administration in basically gutting the United States government is up to them. You know, right now, their plans are going to require laying off hundreds…at least 100,000 civilian workers at the Pentagon. It’s going to, in the words of Chairman Wicker, basically, I’m going to paraphrase him, cut defense capabilities to the bone. I think he is how he’s put it. We need to make sure the Navy needs more ships. We need more merchant mariners need more boats, more ships. We need to make major investments in our sixth generation fighter fleet. We need to make major investments in training pilots. We are short pilots, and yet the cuts that they’re proposing in order to fund a vanity project like the Golden Dome does not help make America more secure on a global scale, and it certainly doesn’t keep us, you know, the leader of the free world.”

Later in the interview, Brennan and Duckworth talked about Duckworth’s colleague, Senator Elissa Slotkin’s (D-Mich.) comments saying “Democrats are messaging in a way that doesn’t resonate outside of blue coastal areas,” which Brennan said was focusing on Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) use of the word “oligarchy.”

When Brennan asked if she agrees that there is a messaging problem within the Democratic Party, Duckworth answered saying:

“I’ve long said that we should be listening to Midwest Democrats a lot more. Those of us from the center of the country, you know, represent states like Illinois, where 102 counties, 96 are red and six are blue. You know, you don’t get elected in the Midwest without being able to talk to everyday voters in red counties about the issues that they worry about. To be able to talk about agricultural issues. You know, our farmers are just being battered by the Trump administration right now. The tariffs are hurting them with the products they’re trying to sell, the input that they’re trying to import in order to plant and grow their crops are being priced out of range. The steel that John Deere uses to make the tractors are also pricing those, that equipment out of range. I do think that, you know, the Democratic Party should be listening to the industrial Midwest more. I was so pleased we had the convention in Chicago and we were able to get that message out. Our own governor, JB Pritzker, is really out there talking a lot about issues that Democrats care deeply about, and Americans, not just Democrats, Americans care deeply about. You know, the your grocery store, prices at the grocery store, the price of the gas that goes in your tank. The fact that this administration is going to cut the LIHEAP Program, which is a program that funds low income housing and heating for rural communities is something that we should be talking more about. That’s what people care about.”

To watch more of Brennan’s interview with Duckworth, click here.