Claire McCaskill unloads on Bernie Sanders

Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) unloaded on her Senate colleague Bernie Sanders on Thursday, saying the Vermont independent is far too liberal to make it to the White House.

“I think that the media is giving Bernie a pass right now,” McCaskill said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I very rarely read in any coverage of Bernie that he’s a socialist. I think everybody wants a fight and I think they are not really giving the same scrutiny to Bernie Sanders that they’re giving to, certainly, Hillary Clinton and the other candidates.”


McCaskill endorsed Clinton’s 2016 bid almost exactly two years ago, in June 2013, making her one of the former secretary of state’s earliest major Democratic backers. In the 2008 cycle, she endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama over Clinton.

But this time, she’s all in for Hillary.

“So she’s going to win this, and as soon as I think they begin treating [Sanders] like a serious candidate instead of, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s so great we’ve got a fight in the Democratic Party’, I think it’ll be very clear,” McCaskill said.

“Any other candidate that had the numbers that Hillary Clinton had right now would be talked about as absolutely untouchable,” she said. “I think Bernie is too liberal to gather enough votes in this country to become president, and I think Hillary Clinton is going to become a fantastic president.”

McCaskill’s comments came the same day that a pair of new polls showed Sanders gaining momentum in Iowa and New Hampshire. Both those polls, from Bloomberg Politics, found Clinton with a substantial lead.

Meanwhile, the super PAC aligned with former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, another candidate running in the Democratic primary, released an ad Thursday, attacking Sanders on gun control.

“Bernie Sanders is no progressive when it comes to guns,” the voice-over said.

Sanders said McCaskill’s comments were a first for him.

“This is the first time I’ve had a colleague attack me,” Sanders said in an interview with Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect later on Thursday. “You’ll have to ask Senator McCaskill why.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that Sanders spoke to New Hampshire’s WADR radio station; he spoke with Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect.