Name: Claire McCaskill Full Interview
Uploaded: 2015-09-18
Duration: 22 min 42 s
Description: Claire McCaskill Full Interview at Women & Success

Welcome, Senator McCaskill, I'm, oh, good, so glad you could join us, particularly because the timing is so perfect for you to have published this book on exactly the subject matter that we all have been exploring tonight. And so I particularly love the story about how you came by the title. Cuz not exactly what one might expect for a Senator's memoir. When Todd Akin finished the first debate with me, the big televised debate in 2012, he told the media that he didn't think I'd been very ladylike. And it reminded me of when I was a young student in about seventh or eighth grade, and one of my favorite teachers. Took me aside after class one day and said you know Claire you're really talking too much in class. Boys are not gonna like you and it's just not very ladylike. So I decided that it was time to express in the title with a bit of wry humor that yes I am plenty ladylike thank you very much. And I've gotta say, after watching that panel of amazing women, I have to get this out, Nancy. Go for it. Just give it to them. I am ambitious. [ APPLAUSE ] Really ambitious. I have been ambitious as long as I can remember And can you imagine these women were so amazing, Can you imagine a panel of men that have the same level of accomplishments struggling over owning that word? And that's what this book, I hope, is mostly about. Is for young women to own ambition. It needs to be lady like to own ambition. And we shouldn't be afraid of it. We shouldn't be afraid to admit it. I got news for Savannah [ UNKNOWN ] She is totally ambitious. [ LAUGH ] I mean she's got one of the best jobs in national media. She is ambitious. You don't get there by accident. So I just want all of you To go home tonight and look in the mirror and say, I am ambitious. [ LAUGH ] So in the event that any of the young women doubt the fact that you came by this honestly and early, can you tell them how it is you came to be homecoming queen? Okay, this is embarrassing. This is really embarrassing. I've told this story. I've never told this story before. But I told in the book because I thought it was important for young women to see that every place in life you can be strategic. I was a cheerleader and I loved being a cheerleader and I was defeated for cheerleader my senior year. And I thought the world was over. So I decided I needed to become Homecoming Queen. And I figured out that the football team voted for the Homecoming Queen. And I figured out that every year, the Homecoming Queen was the boyfriend of either to co- captain of the quarterback. The girlfriend. That would have been extraordinary. It would have been. [ LAUGH ] In Missouri? Yeah. In Missouri for sure. In 1971, yes, the girlfriend of the quarterback or the co- captain. And I was, how many people there were on the team, so I methodically began making friends with the offensive line, the defensive line, the secondary, the linebackers and, because I realized they all had a vote. And sure enough I didn't tell-- I wanted everybody to think it's because I was so popular and everybody loved me. But I methodically worked the constituency and lo and behold on the day that it was announced they voted for me to be homecoming queen. So that's how I became homecoming queen. That is a very very early experience in-- Stealth campaign. What if you now, with all that you have achieved and all that you have learned could go back, do a little time travel and talk to that girl? What do you wish you had known? What do you wish you could have told her? I think I tried Way too hard earlier in my career to always try to be the smartest and the most prepared. And I didn't realize that sometimes I was not slowing down to be vulnerable and therefore, I alienated people. At times that it really wasn't necessary. I was so focused and driven and I was afraid to show any kind of weakness. I thought it was so important to always show strength. And had I shown weakness, At times that it was, I felt it, I think I wouldn't have been perhaps as in, I don't know if the word intimidating is the right word, but something like that to people that probably slowed me down at various places in my career because it was easy to kind of put me in the B category. Because I was so strong and so outspoken and so aggressive. And so if I would have slowed down enough maybe at a younger age had more self- effacing humor. I tried to use humor and I figured it out about ten years into my political career, that if I learned to laugh at myself more. people would see me as maybe for real and relatable. You know, at this event last year, I interviewed Senator Gillibrand, whose book had just come out, and now having Gone through this for a second year I think my aspiration is to be able to interview a female Senator who has written a memoir that does not involve a horror show of sexism that they encountered along the way and you write about what you ran into particularly as a state legislator of Of being called a ****, of having male lawmakers literally conspiring to block your bills, of being told the way to get a bill through is to get out your knee pads. I mean, one after another after another where you just, it is just astonishing to read. The Tell me about both, how much that has changed, [ LAUGH ] and please tell me how much that has changed and what you take away from that. Well I learned a lot. I am not sure I handled it right. I think in fact we just had a sexual Harassment issue with an intern in the Missouri legislature as the book was being published. And these young women came out and named these legislators that were propositioning them. And there were text messages and so forth. And both these men lost their careers. And one of the young women reached out to me and I told her how proud I was. Because when that happened to me when I was an intern I didn't want to tell anybody about it, because I was too worried about how it was gonna impact my career. So I do think we've made progress, cuz these young women said we're not putting up with this and publicly came out with the accusation that in fact was proved And so I tried to power past it. I cried in private. My feelings were hurt a lot. But I also learned that if I was prepared, you're hearing this common theme about preparation, and really knew a lot I could, in fact, win the respect of my peers even though they were marginalizing me. And every time someone said something to me, I just recommitted myself to be focused and just blow past them. I was going to I finally looked a bunch of them in the eye at one point and said, the difference between me and you is this is not the best job I'm ever gonna have. [ APPLAUSE ]. And that turned out to be true. You know I think it's time to push back on the prepared thing. Because yes, we can all testify to the value of that and that's really awesome, and far be it for me to suggest to any of you that you should not be doing your homework and killing it. But I'm fascinated by the studies when jobs open up that have found that men will raise their hand for a promotion, they think they're like 25 % qualified for it. And that women won't even put their hand up for it unless they think they're 100 % qualified for it. I think you're right. So how is that not something, how is that, I need to be fully prepared, 100 %, on top of my game, not something that's holding women back? I think it probably is. And I think because there was a sense as I was coming through a male- dominated world, both as a courtroom prosecutor And as a politician, that I had to be better than they were. I couldn't be as good. I had to be better. That is not the way to look at it. [ LAUGH ] I agree with you. I think that is a crutch that women have gone to because it is frightening that you are competing. In my instance the first two or three jobs I had, I was literally sometimes the only woman in the room almost all the time. So I always felt like somebody is gonna tap me on the shoulder and say, what are you doing here? You don't belong. So I always felt like I did have to know more that is the way I compensated for my fear. But frankly, I was just better than a lot of them. I didn't need to be probably that prepared. [ LAUGH ] Honestly. I was pretty good at what I did. But I did feel like I had to be because I think I was intimidated by how many men were in the room and that I felt like they would think I wasn't Smart enough to do the job. We are. We now have 20 women in the Senate. We're nowhere close to 50 / 50. What would, leaving aside party, imagine that it's evenly, both the Democrats and Republicans are evenly split in gender. But if the Senate were 50 / 50 male, female. Or 60 / 40 female. We need 60. How would it be different? It would work a lot better. Like how? Well, I must say that I don't think it would be better if it was about 40 Democrats and 20 Republicans, though. [ LAUGH ] I mean, I'll just show my political bias here. But seriously, the women are I think more collaborative. I think we don't Our politics has become scoring points at the others expense. It's not about you having a good idea it's the other person sucks. That's a technical term. [ LAUGH ] So it's always about making the other guy look bad. We don't do that among the 20 women. We don't throw each other under the bus. We never try to make a political point at somebody else's expense within the women's group. Not that we don't disagree. I mean, I disagree with some of my women colleagues on just about everything. But we are friends, we are collegial, and we want there to be a deal We want to negotiate and make things happen. We are not happy with treading water and just scoring political points. So I do believe. In fact, I give examples in the book of where things were totally logjammed. Patty Murray took over the budget committee. [ SOUND ] We got a budget. Couldn't get a farm bill. Debbie Stabenow took over the ag committee, we got a farm bill. Couldn't get an appropriations bill done, Barbara Mikulski took over the appropriations, got appropriations done. See a pattern? [ LAUGH ] So, I really do believe that women are roll up you sleeves, figure out how we can find common ground Get more things done and I think it would be better. And besides that, it would reflect the population. You've had, over the years, a textured history with the Clintons. [ LAUGH ] Including when you endorsed Senator Obama in 2008. You've endorsed Senator Clinton early and often now. What do you make of what we are watching, what we are seeing, how she is handling her campaign, being perceived, being portrayed? And the trouble that she's run into? Well. I can still go on a long time about this. I'm gonna try not to, I'll try to be brief. But she is incredibly qualified to be President of the United States. Running for President is more complicated than, I'm smart, you're stupid. You're ugly, build a wall. [ LAUGH ] [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] And anybody who thinks they can roll into the oval office and issue edicts like a CEO of a business doesn't understand our constitution and the elegance of the checks and balances in our democracy. It is hard to get things done because the framers of the constitution wanted it to be hard to get things done. And so you have to have patience. You have to be able to work with other people. You have to have experience in figuring out how you bring people together. I can't imagine anyone who's run for President in my lifetime that has stronger qualifications for the Presidency that Hillary Rodham Clinton. And I believe that, as time goes on The majority of this country will want substance and stability over anger and America is going to hell. And I think that she is going to be fighting for the things that matter to the majority of Americans, not the majority of the Republican primary voters. There's a big difference between primary voters and general election voters. But for general election voters, I think she's gonna be fighting for and talking about the things that matter to them. So I think she'll do her best work when she's behind. And she may be behind by another month or so. And then I think what you'll see is you'll see how hard she's willing to fight. You'll see how hard she's willing to work. She doesn't want this to be given to her, obviously it's not gonna be given to her. And I like to point out context. Imagine for a minute that Hillary Clinton said she wasn't gonna run, and Joe Biden said he was gonna run. And he was way ahead. The presumed nominee of the democratic party with a cast of thousands on the republican side, saying amazingly weird things. Joe Biden would be attacked for his recommendation to not go after Osama Bin Laden. For all the gaffes he's had, and the media would be descending on him, not because the media's evil, but because that's what happens when you're the frontrunner. And you know what the media would be saying now? You know, Hillary Clinton ought to get in the race. [ LAUGH ] Maybe Hillary Clinton is gonna reconsider and get in the race. So, I think it's context. And I think time will be on her side because she actually has the qualifications and the experience to do this job and to do it really well. You've conspicuously left out our cover subject of this week. That would be Senator Sanders. You've said you just don't think the socialist can get elected president. Why is that? Well, I'm from Missouri. This is a state that, while I was reelected in 2012. The state went by ten points from Mitt Romney. So I represent a lot of people who are republican and Are independents. And I know the trouble Barrack Obama has had for the last number of years when people just wanted to make up that he was a socialist. I just can't imagine that now it's a good idea to nominate someone who calls themselves a socialist. This is a self identification I'm not trying to be mean to Bernie he is talking about things we need to be talking about. How many of you feel the burn? Did some of you feel the burn? Okay, well, those who feel the burn, I get it. You know, he is talking about real issues that matter in America, about income inequality and about how out of balance our economy has gotten in terms of growth of the middle class and real wage stagnation in the middle class. So, good for Bernie for running, but I just do not believe that he has a chance in swing states, as somebody who has said " I am more comfortable being called a socialist than I am a democrat ." If you had to chose, which. is more important, electing a female president, or electing a male president who supports policies that are supportive of women? I think it's more important to elect someone who has policies that are supportive of women, but one of the qualifications I think, that you have to count In that list is whether or not you're a woman. [ LAUGH ] So, if I had a woman who had all the right policies and a man who had all the right policies, I think being a woman is an important thing for our country right now. For one thing, we need to show the rest of the world that we respect women as The ultimate, powerful leader in our country, and the voice and the experience is different, in some ways than men. And I think it's an added value to be a woman as president. But it is more important. I could never support Carly Fiorina under any circumstances. I mean, I hardly agree with anything. That she believes in. So, I mean, I'm proud of her for being a strong, smart woman. I think it's great she's running. But I could never, under any circumstances, support her, because she, I mean, I don't like what America would be if she were president, so. You have, as a long time politician from a swing state, you've watched both parties and had to understand that The tectonic shifts going on in both parties. How surprised are you by what you are watching in the Republican Party last night and generally. Well, I will tell you, cuz I know three's a lot of people here that work in journalism. The Internet is great for many things It is not good for what has happened to journalism and how we consume information in this country. It is so easy to surf along the top. The hunger for clicks and eyeballs in a, speaking of tectonic shifts, in terms of a business. There's been tectonic shifts in the way that media is produced and consumed in this country. so no wonder that America is kinda having a dalliance with what I would call a demolition derby. Have any of you ever been to a demolition derby or are any of you from a Midwestern state where you went to the state or county fair? This is where the cars, you go and watch cars crash into each other. Now really think about that. That's a weird thing to want to do and pay money to watch. But they pack the stands because people can't look away. And that's what the Donald Trump side show is. It's like a demolition derby. I mean it's like all this crashing. And you just kinda go, Oh my Lord. So not only is celebrity a big deal. I mean look, this is a country where you can be a celebrity for being a celebrity. [ LAUGH ] I mean I think the Kardashian family is fine, but aren't they just famous cuz they're famous? [ LAUGH ] I mean I don't think they've written a play. And so he's a celebrity, and celebrity is a big deal. I do think, however, that if people will calm down from this. I don't think the majority of this country thinks that Donald Trump is somebody who would do a good job in the Oval Office. So I do have confidence at the end of the day that this will work out. And that one of the substantive candidates. And I saw some substance last night. They did talk about some substance. It was, I think, more subsitave than the first debate. But, I just want people to read more than the top line. So to speak. I want them to get into more information, and really understand that, you know, it's not just whether your going to talk to Putin. Or whether you're not going to talk to Putin. [ LAUGH ] It's really more complicated than that. A lot more complicated than that. [ LAUGH ] And in this environment, why is a successful senior female senator from a swing state not a natural candidate to be [ INAUDIBLE ]? [ LAUGH ] Just hypothetically. Hypothetically. Well for one thing, we have a really good female candidate. And for another thing, it is very hard to run for President if you don't have a lot of pull in important states where a lot of the base of the party is located. And I'm not in. The base of the democrat party is not in love with me. I'm a moderate. I make the left mad with some regularity. I feel the burn. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] They were all very mad at me, the Bernie supporters when I said on The Morning Joe that I thought that Bernie was too liberal and was not electable in this country. And so, I don't think it's a practical reality that I can become President, although I've certainly thought about it. I've also had the blessing and the curse of being close to a presidential campaign. I actually know what it looks like close- in and it's not pretty. It is a horrific process to go through. I got nine grandchildren, I got a great life. Does this mean you're not ambitious enough. I think that's a fair question. I think that somebody who's me, who's starting out now, I want them to say, I said I wanted to be the first woman governor beginning when I was about 12 years old. I really do want women now to say " My goal is I wasnt to be President ." And figure out who to build their career to be President. Men do it. Women should do it. I did not do that. I did not set my sights high enough. I set my sights on governor. I didn't make governor but I made the U. S. Senate, which is not bad. [ LAUGH ] [ APPLAUSE ]

Claire McCaskill Full Interview

Claire McCaskill Full Interview at Women & Success