Outgoing Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill questioned the rise of New York Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after the Missouri senator lost her re-election bid.
"I'm a little confused why she's the thing,” McCaskill said on CNN when asked about the much-discussed Democratic Socialist. “But it's a good example of what I'm talking about, a bright shiny new object, came out of nowhere and surprised people when she beat a very experienced congressman."
“She's now talked about a lot,” McCaskill said of the 29-year-old. “I’m not sure what she's done yet to generate that kind of enthusiasm, but I wish her well. I hope she hangs the moon.”
"The rhetoric is cheap,” she added. “Getting results is a lot harder."
"I hope she also realizes that the parts of the country that are rejecting the Democratic Party, like a whole lot of white working-class voters, need to hear about how their work is going to be respected, and the dignity of their jobs, and how we can really stick to issues that we can actually accomplish something on,” McCaskill said.
McCaskill lost her re-election bid to Republican Josh Hawley, the former Missouri attorney general, 51.4 to 45.6.
Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political world when she upset Joe Crowley, the number 3 Democrat in the House, in her primary bid before being elected with 78 percent of the vote to serve in his seat.
McCaskill slammed on the way out:
“The Democratic Party in a nutshell: Claire McCaskill lost. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won. Claire McCaskill out here telling everyone what AOC did wrong,” a Twitter user wrote.
“Every headline about Claire McCaskill giving AOC advice should just say ‘Losing Senator Has No Concept of Self-Awareness Or Irony,’” another user tweeted.
“Claire McCaskill keeps taking shots at Democrats for not being moderate enough, but her and almost all the other red-state Dem Senators (Donnelly, Heitkamp) who ran as drab centrists got smoked. Modern voters want boldness and conviction, not gridlock and riding the fence,” added TheLeft’s Adam Best.
