Trump threatens to travel to Missouri to unseat McCaskill

In between tweets on Hurricane Harvey, President Trump said he would be campaigning against Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Democrat up for re-election next year in Missouri. 

‘I will also be going to a wonderful state, Missouri, that I won by a lot in ’16. Dem C.M. is opposed to big tax cuts. Republican will win S!’ Trump pledged Sunday using shorthand for McCaskill’s name, and the U.S. Senate. 

Trump fired off the tweet right after he said he would visit hurricane-ravaged Texas, too, ‘as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption,’ Trump said.

 

President Trump vowed to come to Missouri in an effort to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (pictured), who is up for re-election next year

President Trump (left) vowed to come to Missouri in an effort to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (right), who is up for re-election next year 

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. (left), will likely face off against Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (right), though he has yet to formally announce 

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. (left), will likely face off against Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (right), though he has yet to formally announce 

Democrats need to unseat at least three Republicans next year to take back control of the Senate, but they’re playing defense in a number of states too, including Missouri.  

McCaskill looked like she was going to get unseated back in 2012, the last time she was up for re-election, but then was boosted by comments her Republican rival Todd Akin made about ‘legitimate rape.’ 

Speaking to a local television station, Akin explained why he thought there were rarely pregnancies born out of rape, as he articulated his anti-abortion views. 

‘If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,’ Akin said in August 2012. 

The comment haunted him through November, when he lost to McCaskill by 16 points. 

Now Republicans have another chance to boot McCaskill out of office, in a state President Trump won by about 19 points.  

The potential GOP candidate getting the most ink is  Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, who won’t face GOP primary voters until next August. 

McCaskill has already tried making his residency an issue, as he cast a primary ballot in Boone County indicating, according to the Democrat, that he wasn’t properly living in Jefferson City, as Missouri’s attorney generals are supposed to reside at the ‘seat of government.’ 

‘Either he’s violating the law by not living in Jefferson City or he’s violating the law by voting in some place he doesn’t live,’ McCaskill recently said. ‘One of the two.’  

On the flip side, Republicans have hammered McCaskill for saying ‘normal people’ can afford to fly. 

The Republicans are casting McCaskill as out of touch for suggesting that ‘normal people’ can afford to fly private, though the video doesn’t indicate if she’s saying that or simply referring to people being able to buy plane tickets. 

McCaskill had previously weathered a political controversy over a private plane she owned with her husband. 

She had charged taxpayers for flights aboard the plane and failed to pay $300,000 of personal property taxes on it. 

In both cases she paid money back. 

The editorial board of the Kansas City Star is already railing against the candidates’ sniping, with 14 months to go in the race. 

‘The possible U.S. Senate campaign pitting Sen. Claire McCaskill against Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley already shows signs of devolving into a meaningless mud fest,’ they wrote Thursday. 

 ‘The petty skirmishes should stop now,’ they advised.  ‘The 2018 Senate race must be about important things, not personal minutiae.’ 

‘Yet the campaigns and surrogates for both sides seem hell-bent on turning the race into content-free hot air,’ they said. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk