Commenting on MSNBC after the second Democratic presidential debate, former Sen. Claire McCaskill took a centrist stand that exploded on Twitter.
The former Missouri senator was explaining why she thought Rep. Tim Ryan and former Rep. John Delaney were on solid ground when they criticized the forerunners, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, for supporting a single-payer, Medicare-for-all health care. Ryan, for example, has predicted an easy win for incumbent Donald Trump if his Democratic opponent proposes trading private health insurance for such a system. Ryan’s also been wary of guaranteeing jobs as part of a Green New Deal.
So after the debate, MSNBC’s Brian Williams brought up job-training programs. Mentioning Youngstown, Ohio, and Joplin, Missouri, where he once lived, he asked McCaskill, “What happens when you walk into those communities and say, ‘Great news! You’re all going to get green jobs. We’ll need the keys to your F-150s, because we’re going all electric.’”
“It would not be good,” McCaskill replied. “And I think what Tim Ryan was trying to express is a bucket of cold water, which is reality about where America is. America is, generally, not as far along the left line as Bernie and Elizabeth. Free stuff from the government does not play well in Midwest, because they’re just convinced that they’re never the ones getting the free stuff. You know, they’re workin’ really hard, and they can’t afford to retire. That was part of the thing that Trump did. He said, basically, I’m going to tap into your anger and your angst, we’re gonna blame the Mexicans and the Muslims for everything that’s wrong in the world… The reality is that if you start saying that we’re going to let folks coming across the border have no criminal penalty, and we’re going to allow them to get access to free health care through Medicaid programs, then you are gonna lose a whole slew of voters that aren’t crazy about Donald Trump, but are not gonna go there. It really would be a very difficult thing to overcome in—” she listed state after state, noting that they were all “states we really need to win.”
Briahna Joy Gray, national press secretary for Bernie Sanders’ campaign, heard this and tweeted: “‘Free stuff doesn't play in the Midwest’ sounds an awful lot like the racial dog whistles about ‘hard working whites’ vs ‘handouts’ for POCs and I really hope that’s not what’s happening here.”
Others lambasted McCaskill for attacking progressives, called her clueless, pointed to farm subsidies and the current Medicare system as examples of residents in the Midwest liking free stuff, suggested that “Midwesterners” really meant “white people,” and pointed out that she’d lost her Senate race in 2016 and shouldn't be giving advice.
Look for a Q&A with McCaskill in SLM's September issue. She’s characteristically frank about being a centrist and, in the process, ticking off both sides.
You can watch McCaskill's comments on the MSNBC segment here:
