Claire McCaskill: Bernie Sanders too ‘extreme’ to be president

“I think Bernie is too liberal to gather enough votes in this country to become president,” the Missouri Democrat said on MSNBC.

McCaskill highlighted multiple aspects of Sanders’ platform that emphasized his extreme position on the far Left.

“He would like to see expansion of entitlement … he is not worried about a debt at all. He is somebody who I think is, frankly, against trade. He’s against a whole lot of things that are unrealistic in this day and age,” she said.

McCaskill refused to give much credence to the huge crowds that Sanders has been drawing, in spite of the the fact that she claims that he will never be able to be elected. On Saturday night alone, 5,500 people jammed inside a Denver gymnasium, atrium and lacrosse field to hear the Vermont senator speak.

“It’s not unusual for someone who has an extreme message to have a following,” McCaskill said. “I think Hillary had a massive crowd at her announcement, certainly as large as any crowd that Bernie Sanders has had.”

Despite McCaskill’s insistence on Sanders’ eventual loss, she admitted that “he has a message that is touching people’s frustrations.”

She also emphasized that more people seemed to be focused on the fact that there is another contender in the Democratic race than whether that contender actually has what it takes to be a good president.

“The media is giving Bernie a pass right now. I very rarely read in any coverage of Bernie that he is a socialist. I think everybody wants a fight and are not giving the same scrutiny to Bernie Sanders,” the senator added. “As soon as they begin treating him as a serious candidate instead of ‘oh my gosh, it’s so great we have a fight in the Democratic Party’ it will become clear.”

Sanders announced his candidacy on April 30, and he refused to take donations from super PACs. Instead, support will come from small, individual donors.

McCaskill underscored that Sanders is “frankly, a socialist.”