Sen. Claire McCaskill said Monday she'll be voting for Mike Pompeo to head the CIA, but she's looking at President Donald Trump's Cabinet picks as individuals, and won't as a Democrat rule others out.
"I had worked with Gen. [James] Mattis and Gen. [John] Kelly, and I do think they are a tempering influence on some of Donald Trump's irresponsible rhetoric when it comes to the worldwide stage," the Missouri Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, while stressing she'll vote against Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos because of her answers during her confirmation hearings.
She said she'll also definitely vote against former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the EPA, and she's got her concerns about Attorney General-nominee Jeff Sessions.
"What people need to understand about a prosecutor ... it's not as simple saying 'I'm going to enforce the law,'" said McCaskill. "Discretion is the power of a prosecutor. They don't call 911 on crimes. The attorney general gets to decide where they use their resources. And the fact that Jeff Sessions would be exercising that discretion worries me a great deal based on his voting record."
Most Democratic lawmakers, she continued, are trying to set their party aside when considering Trump's Cabinet picks, and measure them all individually.
"It's taking longer because they have got billions of dollars that we have to sift through for conflicts," said McCaskill, a frequent guest on the early morning show. "The next time I come back, we got to talk about Donald Trump's conflicts because they are real and it's a problem."
She also praised Saturday's nationwide Women's Marches, saying she was "shocked" at how "organic they were," and she hopes Trump pays attention to the message.
"I frankly said in a very short remark to the crowd in St. Louis, 'hey, quit yelling at the TV and let this not be the last time you use some shoe leather,' said McCaskill. "We will be trying very hard to capture this energy and make sure it translates into volunteers and door knocking and all of the things that are really necessary for us to fight, particularly with Citizens United, the amount of dark money that is going to flow into these midterm elections."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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