Amy McGrath, a congressional candidate in Kentucky’s 6th District, released an advertisement August 18 criticizing President Donald Trump.
In the ad, McGrath, a retired U.S. Marine fighter pilot, told the story about how when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011 happened, she was stationed and put on alert and ready to shoot down commercial airliners if necessary. She said she told the story as an example of the faith people put into the president.
“Here I was, just out of fighter attack training and even though I had no combat experience yet, my commanding officer had no choice than to put me in the backseat of an F/18,” she said. “I sat there for four hours waiting to see if we would have to shoot down a passenger airliner. All I could think of was, this isn’t what I signed up for.”
“The power of the Commander in Chief is absolute,” she said, adding “there are no safeguards in situations like that or in a nuclear standoff, and with this president, that is concerning.”
Then, she brought referenced increase tensions in the nation due to a white nationalist rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend.
“There are times when politicians might have to make a difficult choice, do you stand with the president or do you stand with the president?” McGrath said. She called on Republican congressmen to stand up to Trump and “tell him he’s wrong.”
“When the president is in solidarity with white supremacists and Nazis, those members of congress have to stand up and tell him he’s wrong,” she said. “They need to tell him this is not what America stands for.”
Watch the advertisement in the video below:
In a previous advertisement announcing her campaign, McGrath spoke about how she always wanted to fly a fighter jet when she was a teenager. However, that dream seemed like it wouldn’t come to fruition when she was 12 because of a federal law limiting women from combat missions.
Eventually, though, that federal law was changed, and McGrath was able to achieve her dream, becoming the first female Marine to fly in an F-18 in combat.
McGrath graduated from the Naval Academy in 1997 and played for the school’s first women’s soccer team. After graduating from the school with a bachelor’s degre, she was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer and completed flight school in 1999.
In 2002, McGrath, then a captain, was deployed to Kyrgyzstan to support Operation Enduring Freedom. There, she flew combat missions in Afghanistan and completed her second combat tour to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
While serving in Afghanistan, she compiled almost 2,000 flight hours and flew 89 combat missions. She retired from the military as a Lieutenant Colonel from the Marine Corps on June 1. In her 20-year military career, she earned many medals and awards.
Learn more about McGrath by clicking below:
