Sen. Claire McCaskill, one of at least a half-dozen Democrats who voted against re-electing Harry Reid as the party’s leader in the Senate, said the recent midterm elections prompted her to reject the Nevada lawmaker.
“I think this was a message from the American people,” McCaskill, a moderate from Missouri, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Our party got walloped, and I think they said we have to change what we are doing, and change begins with leadership.”
McCaskill also expressed reservations about President Obama’s plans to use executive action to change immigration policy.
“I’m not crazy about it,” McCaskill said, though she added that the GOP is equally to blame for refusing to take up a comprehensive immigration reform measure in the House.
Senate Democrats lost their majority to the Republicans in the Nov. 4 election. The GOP took over eight Democratic seats and could win another one in Louisiana in a runoff election on Dec. 6.
McCaskill characterized the strategy of Reid, the Nevadan who is currently the majority leader, as “just trying to make the other guys look bad,” and said she wants the Democratic agenda in the new Congress to be about “driving people to the center, instead of politics today, which tends to be on the edges.”
McCaskill was asked about Reid’s decision to elevate to the leadership liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
“I think the leadership team hopefully may expand even more, with more moderates in it,” McCaskill said.
She pointed to Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who was elected to head the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s fundraising arm.
She called Tester “a moderate through and through,” adding, “his voice is going to be in that room along with Sen. Warren’s.”
