TheChat: Claire McCaskill takes on The Donald

Good morning.

▪ “Running for President is more complicated than, ‘I’m smart. You’re stupid. You’re ugly. Build a wall.’ Anybody who thinks they can roll into the Oval Office and issue edicts like a CEO of a business doesn’t understand our system and the elegance of our Constitution.” — Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, speaking to Time Magazine about Republican Donald Trump.

McCaskill, a Hillary Clinton supporter, might turn out to be the Democratic attacker-in-chief should Trump maintain his lead in the polls.

▪ “I’ve certainly thought about it.” — McCaskill in the same Time interview talking about running for president.

But the senator also said, “I don’t think it’s a practical reality that I could become President,” and “I’ve also had the blessing and the curse of being close to a presidential campaign,” and it’s not something she’d sign up for.

▪ “The EPA has no businesses regulating ponds and puddles in Missouri or across our country.” — Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican, continuing his criticism of a rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency that expands the scope of federal authority over land and waterways in the U.S.

Last week, Blunt co-sponsored a joint resolution with 46 Senate colleagues disapproving of the so-called Waters of the United States rule.

▪ “From the standpoint of the attorney general's office ... I urge a healthy dose of humility and restraint by all involved in an effort to ease tensions and improve inter-branch cooperation.” — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt talking about fractured ties these days between the legislative and judicial branches of state government.

Schmidt also insisted that justices who publicly criticized a 2014 law to strip the Kansas Supreme Court of its ability to appoint chief judges should not review the appeal in a lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality. The AG plans to ask the judges to formally recuse themselves in the case.

This story was originally published September 20, 2015 at 8:29 PM.