McCaskill lost re-election to Republican Josh Hawley last month. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., one of her closest friends, said that when he met Hawley for the first time on the Senate subway last month, “I told him, ‘Yeah, you just beat my best friend in the United States Senate.’”

“I don’t like much the idea of a farewell speech,” McCaskill said. “But I want to respect that tradition, especially since I have seen so many Senate traditions crumble over the last 12 years.”

In that time, both Republicans and Democrats have been in control of the Senate. McCaskill voted against one Democratic leader, the former Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, because she thought he was too partisan and too hierarchical in leadership. Since the election, McCaskill has stepped up her criticism of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s handling of Senate business.

McCaskill choked up most when talking about her family, and appeared to also get emotional when Blunt talked about his friendship with McCaskill’s late mother, Betty.

McCaskill called her family a “port in every storm,” and said — as she has previously — that one of her big regrets was seeing political attacks on the business of her husband, Joseph Shepard.