Claire McCaskill apologizes for ‘hurtful term’ used during live MSNBC interview
Former Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill apologized on social media Thursday morning for language she used during a late-night interview with MSNBC’s Brian Williams.
In particular, McCaskill said she regretted saying the word “transsexuals” as opposed to “transgender.”
“I’m so sorry I used hurtful term last night,” McCaskill tweeted Thursday morning. “I was tired, but never a good excuse. People have misinterpreted what I was trying to say. Our party should never leave behind our fight 4 equality for trans people or anyone else who has been marginalized by hate. My record reflects that.”
“Transgender” is considered an umbrella term that describes people whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth. “Transsexual” is a more specific descriptor for someone who has used medical means — like surgery or hormones — to alter their gender.
GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) calls transsexual an “older term” while saying, “Many transgender people do not identify as transsexual and prefer the word transgender.”
McCaskill’s response came after Williams asked McCaskill when she felt the Democrats had become the “Whole Foods” party of the United States.
“I think it’s hard to pinpoint. I think it began around cultural issues,” McCaskill said. “The Republican party, I think, very directly adopted cultural issues as part of their main theme, whether you’re talking guns or issues surrounding the right to abortion in this country or things like gay marriage and the right for transsexuals and other people who we as a party have tried to, quote-unquote, look after and make sure that they’re treated fairly.
“As we circled those issues, we left some voters behind, and Republicans dove in with a vengeance and grabbed those voters, and you’ve seen this shift. You saw it in the South. I’ve seen it in the rural areas of my state. So we’ve got to get back to the meat-and-potatoes issues. We’ve got to get back to the issues where we are taking care of their families, and we also need to quit acting like we’re smarter than everybody else, because we’re not.”
McCaskill clarified what she was trying to convey in another Twitter reply, saying, “I’m sorry. I meant that we need to obviously continue our core principle of inclusion & equality, but need to do a better job communicating our economic agenda. We are the party that looks out for people’s healthcare, minimum wage, etc & value those who work over those who invest.”
The apology wasn’t enough for some in her party. New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez singled out McCaskill on Twitter, linking to the MSNBC clip before saying, “Why do we listen to people who lost elections as if they are experts in winning elections? McCaskill tried her approach. She ran as a caravan-hysteria Dem & lost while grassroots organizers won progressive measures in MO. Her language here shows how she took her base for granted.”
Ocasio-Cortez was referring to a 2018 interview with Fox News where McCaskill, while running for re-election, said she would back President Donald Trump on any plans to stop a caravan of migrant immigrants moving through Mexico at the U.S. border.
McCaskill spent 36 years in office as a legislator, county prosecutor, state auditor and two-term U.S. senator. She was defeated by Republican Josh Hawley in 2018.
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 11:36 AM.
