This post has been updated.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is incensed that Rand Paul dredged up a scandal from the 1990s.
McCaskill ripped the Kentucky senator on Tuesday for saying that Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky undermines Democratic claims of the GOP’s “war on women” and that, fair or unfair, the scandal could be a factor in Hillary Clinton’s anticipated presidential campaign.
“I think I can speak for most women to say that I found what he said infuriating. I think most women understand they should not be held accountable for the behavior of their husbands,” McCaskill told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “You know, frankly, it was a long time ago. Our country did very well under the leadership of Bill Clinton.”
Paul accused former President Clinton on Sunday of engaging in “predatory behavior” with Lewinsky and, pointing to the successful female members of his family, argued that there is no such thing as a “war on women.”
McCaskill swatted down Paul’s bit of mansplaining.
“I think Rand Paul is grasping, trying to show that he can be tough and win the presidential nomination,” she said.
“It was a political posturing and, frankly, what Rand Paul doesn’t get is that women want birth control. What Rand Paul doesn’t get is that women don’t want to be marginalized in the workplace, that we are not yet at the point we need to be in terms of our country and around the world.”
McCaskill herself was critical of Bill Clinton’s infidelity with a comment that later brought her “to the point of epic tears.”
“He’s been a great leader but I don’t want my daughter near him,” she said while debating then-Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO) in 2006. She later apologized for the remark.
Despite garnering the support of the Clintons for her 2006 re-election, McCaskill ultimately chose to endorse then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential campaign.
McCaskill on Tuesday also responded to Mike Huckabee’s recent comment on the female libido by reiterating that most women view access to birth control as a basic right.
“I don’t understand why these guys don’t get that,” McCaskill told Mitchell.
