Outgoing Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill on Wednesday took a shot at some of her Senate colleagues for being more focused on personal success and TV appearances than compromise.
McCaskill said senators who prioritize themselves instead of their work are costing the Senate its reputation and its ability to get bills passed.
“I’m really most worried going forward about this place because the middle has atrophied so badly,” McCaskill said during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee business meeting Wednesday.
“I remember when I first got here, where we could have easily recognized 20 members of the Senate, of both parties on an equal basis that were in the room trying to find that compromise,” she said. “That has become a very dangerous thing for senators now because the base of the party is very impatient with anybody who wants to compromise.”
McCaskill said she expects Congress’ approval rating will remain low, around 20 percent, until lawmakers make policy compromises.
“I certainly encourage all of my Democratic colleagues and my Republican colleagues on this committee to remember being pure may get you on your chosen cable TV channel, but it wont get anything across the finish line,” she said. “And if we don’t get things across the finish line , I’ll tell ya what, we’re gonna end up with: we’re gonna end up with a third party in this country because I don’t think the American people are gonna put up with the dysfunction and the failure to get basic things done.”
McCaskill said she will miss working in Washington, D.C., but joked she was finally “free,” though she had run for a third term and lost to Republican state Attorney General Josh Hawley.
“I’m free at last. Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last,” she said.
