Kudos to Talking Points Memo for capturing this:
Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri on Saturday defended her vote against President Donald Trump’s pick for CIA director but said the specific reasons were classified.
McCaskill was one of the few Democrats facing a difficult re-election this fall to oppose the nomination of Gina Haspel, who was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday after a heated debate about her role in the CIA’s torture program.
The Missouri Democrat told reporters at a Kansas City campaign event that her vote was influenced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who had been tortured as a prisoner of war and also opposed Haspel’s confirmation. But she said the most important reason for her decision came during a classified discussion with Haspel.
“I cross-examined her on the classified material. And I was very uncomfortable with her answers,” McCaskill said. “I wish I could explain to all my constituents the details of all that, but the law will not allow me to do so. I can tell you this, if everyone in Missouri read and listened to her answers to the questions I asked, I believe that a vast majority of Missourians would have voted the same way I did.”
And of course, this psychopath, aided by the right-wing propaganda machine, The Washington Free Beacon, pounced on McCaskill for doing the right thing:
"McCaskill proved once again that she is so liberal, and so reflexively opposed to the president that she cannot represent Missourans in the Senate," Cotton told reporters on a conference call organized by Republican Josh Hawley's campaign to unseat the two-term Democrat. "She put partisan politics over national security."
Fuck Tom Cotton. The fact that Hawley would want to be associated with that slimebag just adds on to the long list of reasons why he can’t be a U.S. Senator. Also, he should really focus on his current job because right now, he’s just causing headaches for his party:
Here it is again. A new poll last week showed McCaskill leading Hawley, 48-44 percent, the second survey in recent weeks with an identical result.
This, of course, is taking place in a state that has turned increasingly red and one where Hawley is touted as a rising GOP star.
That’s what chaos gets you.
The poll showed something else: Fully 55 percent of Missouri Republicans continue to approve of the job that Greitens is doing. Those Republicans may not take kindly to Hawley’s legal pursuit of Greitens for his use of self-destructing text messages and of a donor list that the governor allegedly stole from the charity he founded, The Mission Continues.
In fact, the poll suggested that Hawley’s support among Republicans may already be slipping. While 79 percent of Republicans said they backed Hawley, McCaskill was getting 92 percent support from Democrats.
GOP chaos hasn’t even reached its zenith. With impeachment proceedings about to envelop the Missouri House, the zaniness is about to get zanier.
Not that Claire McCaskill minds.
And McCaskill is serious about getting her base ready to come out and vote. She had some big name help on the campaign trail:
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker launched into a poem by Langston Hughes, his father’s favorite poet, as he wound down a speech Saturday night in support of U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s re-election campaign.
“O, let America be America again,” the New Jersey Democrat passionately recited. “The land that never has been yet — and yet must be— the land where every man is free.”
The campaign stop by Booker, one of only three African Americans in the Senate, comes at a time when McCaskill is trying to combat criticism that she hasn’t done enough to reach out to black voters this election.
And it comes as her likely GOP opponent, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, face challenges of his own in shoring up support from his political base.
Hawley’s campaign was the subject of a brutal Politico article last week that saw a host of prominent Republicans airing frustrations with the way he has run his campaign for a seat that could determine control of the Senate.
The article also highlights how McCaskill has been making more campaign stops in heavily African American areas of Missouri to combat criticism. McCaskill isn’t perfect but we need to let her know we have her back for opposing Haspel. Click here to donate and get involved with McCaskill’s re-election campaign.