‘Drain the swamp?’ Claire McCaskill already has her doubts

“Drain the swamp.”

That was President-elect Donald Trump’s clarion call during the campaign. But now, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is questioning just how serious Republicans are about it.

McCaskill, a Democrat, was reacting to reports that House Republicans are interested in bringing back earmarks, which the senator has roundly criticized over the years as secretive and wasteful pork-barrel spending that carries little oversight.

“So Donald Trump is elected president with a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and the one of the first things his party in the U.S. House does is head into a closed-door meeting to try to bring back earmarks?” asked McCaskill in a media statement Wednesday.

“This is exactly what Americans are mad about. Missouri’s U.S. House members and all House Republicans need to reject this idea, and if they don’t, I’m going to do everything I can to block any earmarks that emerge from the House.”

McCaskill’s office said she’s never requested earmarks and has worked to permanently ban them.

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 2:49 PM.