Former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill insulted Sen. Ted Cruz and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a roundabout defense of former Vice President Joe Biden on MSNBC Thursday morning.
Biden has faced heat for naming segregationist Sens. James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia as two individuals he was able to work with despite disagreeing with them.
McCaskill began her comments by bringing up issues such as immigration reform and criminal justice reform that require 60 Senate votes to pass, implying that working across the political aisle is necessary to govern.
“You don’t get 60 votes, we’re not getting big stuff done that’s important to people that we care about because we can’t get to 60 votes. Biden is trying to convey that he can work with really creepy, stinky people,” she stated. “By the way, Cory Booker worked with Jeff Sessions and AOC is working with Ted Cruz. I mean, these are pretty stinky creepy people themselves, right?”
She then pushed back on Biden, arguing that it was a “big mistake to use those two guys as examples,” adding that “there’s plenty of stinky, creepy people through history he could be using to make the point.”
McCaskill continued, “So I think this is one of those deals where everyone is trying to get their moment on the tube and everyone is trying to — they’re going to pick on Joe Biden. He deserved to be picked on because he shouldn’t have picked these two guys as examples.”
Biden has faced criticism in the days since the remarks were made with fellow presidential candidates speaking out against him.
Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, both of whom are black presidential candidates, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is in an interracial marriage, attacked Biden.
“I have a great deal of respect for Vice President Biden,” Harris told reporters Wednesday outside the Capitol. “But to coddle the reputations of segregationists, of people who, if they had their way, I would literally not be standing here as a member of the United States Senate is … misinformed and it’s wrong.”
