Chuck Todd to McCaskill: What’s the Proof the Dem Party Is Open to Moderates?

‘I think there’s still a whole lot of people that care about the debt’

CHUCK TODD: You recently bragged about not supported Harry Reid when he was the Senate Democratic leader. And you did that in 2014 because you thought maybe there was a leadership problem in the Democratic Party. I’m curious, do you still think the Democratic Party has a leadership issue?

SENATOR CLAIRE MCCASKILL: Well, I think it’s hard when we are the minority party, that we have lots of folks that are leaders and want to be leaders. We have so many people that are trying to position themselves to run for president I think it’s hard to say who is the leader. And there’s a lot of angst about that. I, frankly, don’t worry about any of that. That’s not something—

CHUCK TODD: No I hear you. But you called yourself a moderate. Let me ask you this, do you think the Democratic Party is open to moderates still?

SENATOR CLAIRE MCCASKILL: I do.

CHUCK TODD: What’s the proof? Isn’t the party moving to the left?

SENATOR CLAIRE MCCASKILL: I think there’s still a whole lot of people that care about the debt. I think there’s a whole lot of people...There’s a lot of issues that unite us as Democrats. And I’m going to focus on those issues. And I’m not going anywhere on those issues. They are principled things I have voted on time and time again that unite the Democratic Party, things like minimum wage, workplace protections, the safety net that Pell grants and Medicaid and Medicare provide and social security. That unites us. And I think that’s going to be strong next year especially in our face of what’s going on in the Republican Party.

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