Missouri Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill is out of a job at the end of the year, after voters replaced her with pro-life Republican Josh Hawley last month.
But McCaskill isn’t leaving without a few parting words, and she’s taking aim at the “irritating” and “dumb” pro-choice activists she blames for her election loss.
McCaskill told “The Daily” podcast how she really feels on Thursday, when she explained why it would have been much better for her if abortion activists would have just “shut up” in 2018.
The New York Times’ national correspondent Sabrina Travernise told McCaskill many Democrats were disappointed she wasn’t more outspoken in opposition to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and questioned whether she appreciated why.
The senator teed off.
“Not really. My voting record is perfect,” she said. “I think I’ve been very clear in my position. I think the people you talked to – I’m willing to bet I can probably name three or four of them – are young women who have not spent any time outside of the group of people that agree with them.”
The outgoing senator claimed Trump’s success is built on economic angst, and claimed it was more advantageous for her to focus on “meat and potato” issues like heath care or prescription drugs, than to campaign on abortion.
“I think those people who were upset I wasn’t talking about it, shame on them if they don’t know my voting record,” McCaskill said. “And shame on them that they’re not working as hard as they can for me and not trashing me because of my voting record in a hard state.”
Missouri currently has only one abortion clinic amid legal challenges to state laws that strictly regulate such facilities. Nearly 57 percent of Missouri voters cast ballots for President Trump in 2016, compared to just 38 percent for Democrat Hillary Clinton. McCaskill was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 by a relatively small margin, then won re-election in 2012 with nearly 55 percent of the vote, due in part to controversial comments made by her Republican challenger.
In 2018, McCaskill garnered only 45.5 percent of the vote, compared to Hawley’s 51.5 percent.
Travernise posed the question: What did McCaskill want to say to abortion activists who criticized her silence during the Kavanaugh confirmation?
“Shut up!” McCaskill shot back. “You know, really? I mean, this is hard. … I’ve had to take a lot of tough votes over the years on this issue.
“I have been standing in the breech for women’s rights as it relates to reproductive freedom for all of my adult life, and the fact that these young women didn’t realize that and just be quiet, roll up their sleeves, and work their ass off for me, was beyond irritating,” she continued. “Can you tell?”
“So, rather than go, ‘oh, you know … she’s not doing enough, she’s not talking about it enough,’ well get out there and work and re-elect her and quit complaining. Because Josh Hawley thinks the morning after pill should be illegal. He has said publicly he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade,” the senator ranted.
“So to me, there was a huge difference in the two of us, and the fact they didn’t appreciate that difference and they were willing to be critical that I wasn’t talking about it enough – dumb,” she said.
“It wasn’t I was changing my position on the issue,” McCaskill said. “It was it was not an issue that was going to bring me more votes.”
Leave a Comment
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.