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Hawley targets McCaskill’s support of Clinton in campaign ad

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — In his bid for U.S. Senate, Josh Hawley launched a campaign ad targeting Sen. Claire McCaskill’s support of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race.

“Claire McCaskill stuck to her liberal party line and proudly endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016, and these latest comments make it abundantly clear how out-of-touch they are with the middle-class way of life we cherish and fight for here in Missouri,” said Attorney General Josh Hawley. “Our hardworking families are tired of being devalued by Washington elites who think they know it all. This is exactly the kind of McCaskill-endorsed rhetoric that will send her home in November.”

Clinton can be seen in the video saying “So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, ‘Make America Great Again,’ was looking backwards. You know, you didn’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women, you know, getting jobs, you don’t want to, you know, see that Indian-American succeeding more than you are, whatever your problem is, I’m going to solve it.”

Hawley’s campaign is capitalizing on McCaskill being the first lawmaker to endorse Clinton — in June 2013 — in a state where Donald Trump won by nearly 20 points. The Senator has also continued to defend the former-presidential candidate after Clinton has made remarks that don’t portray Missourians in a positive light.

In September 2016 Clinton said: “You know, just to be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it.”

“She, I think, was wrong in casting such a wide net for the people that I think represent the worst among us, our prejudices and our bigotry that we have in this country,” McCaskill said in response.

“But the point she made was a valid point.”

When reporters on Capitol Hill asked McCaskill about Clinton’s most recent comments she said: “Oh, come on,” adding, “You’re killing me here.”

McCaskill isn’t the only Democratic Senator running for re-election in a red state that is not helped by Clinton’s “backwards” comment.

“I don’t really care what she said. I just think that that’s not helpful,” Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown told the Huffington Post.