In an email sent by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Thursday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) attacked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for a comment made by National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director Brad Dayspring in which he called McConnell’s challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes an “empty dress.”
“How ironic that Mitch McConnell talks about the importance of women voters to his campaign, and a few days later his spokesman uses a sexist smear against a strong, smart and capable woman,” McCaskill said in a statement sent out by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Thursday. “I don’t understand these men in the Republican Party. It seems almost impossible for them to open their mouths without insulting women.”
Dayspring’s comments were first reported by The Hill on Wednesday. Democrats were quick to tie Dayspring’s comments to McConnell, even though Dayspring does not directly work for the top Senate Republican.
McCaskill won reelection in 2012 after facing Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.). Akin took a substantial hit in the polls after he suggested that the female body had ways of naturally ending pregnancies that are the result of “legitimate rape.”
Ed. note: The headline originally said McCaskill called the “empty dress” comment “misogynistic,” but that was the DSCC. We regret the error.
