Claire McCaskill in 2006 Missouri Senate Debate
On Abortion:
Support embryonic stem cell research but not cloning
My faith directs me to heal the sick. God gave us the miracle of human intelligence to find cures. Our country has never turned its back on medical research and we shouldn’t in Missouri. We should strictly prohibit human cloning and provide a framework
of ethical conduct and laws that are going to restrict the kinds of things that no one wants. I respect people who disagree with me on this issue, I understand there are differences. I come down on the side of hope, hope for cures and supporting science.
Source: 2006 MO Senate Debate on NBC Meet The Press with Tim Russert
Oct 8, 2006
On Abortion:
Support a ban on partial-birth abortion
Q: Do you support a ban on partial-birth abortion? A: I do, within the constitutional framework that we currently have, with the exception for the life of the mother. I also support parental notification.
On the whole issue of abortion, I certainly believe that abortion should remain safe, legal and rare in the early term, but why don’t we concentrate on prevention?
and do the right thing to drop the number of abortions instead of making health care more unavailable to poor women, which in fact drives up the number of abortions in this country.
Source: 2006 MO Senate Debate on NBC Meet The Press with Tim Russert
Oct 8, 2006
On Budget & Economy:
$300 billion in Iraq is a lot of money
TALENT: What we’ve spent in Iraq & Afghanistan in total is 1% of the GDP. Look what Iraq is NOT doing. They’re not competing with Iran to sponsor terror in the region. They’re not threatening Kuwait. We don’t have to station troops in Saudi Arabia.
They’re not trying to restart the nuclear weapon program. This is the part of the mission that’s been progressing because we know how to fight and we know how to train people how to fight.McCASKILL: He just said the $300 billion was not a lot of money
Both of them had brave troops that we support. Both of them, our military was doing a wonderful, magnificent job. This administration is not being held accountable for its mistakes. No one is asking the questions, no one is holding them accountable.
Source: 2006 MO Senate Debate on NBC Meet The Press with Tim Russert
Oct 8, 2006
On Homeland Security:
Support surveillance with civil rights protection
Playing politics with this issue is not making us safer. I absolutely support surveillance. As somebody who has handled very tough criminal cases, I understand the importance of aggressive surveillance within the framework of laws. And frankly, if they
were more concerned about tough surveillance and not about election year politics, they would have gotten a bill through that would have allowed us to have the tools we need to go after terrorists around the globe.
Source: 2006 MO Senate Debate on NBC Meet The Press with Tim Russert
Oct 8, 2006
On Principles & Values:
Hastert should resign his speakership for a cover-up
Clearly what has happened here is an arrogance of power. It is about holding onto power instead of doing the right thing. And Washington is not working. This shouldn’t be about power. This should be about protecting kids and calling the authorities,
calling the Ethics Committee. They didn’t even tell the Democrats on the Page Committee. This was about a cover-up. I think it’s wrong. It is a great example of how out of touch Washington is, and how they’ve got their priorities all wrong.
Source: 2006 MO Senate Debate on NBC Meet The Press with Tim Russert
Oct 8, 2006
On War & Peace:
Need to change course in Iraq
Iraq is a mess. We can either stay the course or we can change course. Obviously, even the leader of the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Warner, probably the most respected Republican on the Iraq war in Washington, has now come back from Iraq & said, “You
know what? This is a mess and we need to re-examine what we’re doing here.” This is Truman’s Senate seat. When he was in the Senate, during the war, he asked questions about war profiteering and he was called brave. In this climate right now, they would
war, where we are losing lives every day and innocent Iraqi lives; and then our effort worldwide to begin to be effective against terror. Terrorist cells are popping up. We’re creating more terrorists around the world with this failed policy in Iraq.
Source: 2006 MO Senate Debate on NBC Meet The Press with Tim Russert
Oct 8, 2006
On War & Peace:
Redeploy our troops in Iraq to Afghanistan to find bin Laden
As a daughter of rural Missouri, we have a saying, “If you’re in a hole, you need to quit digging.” We have now trained 300,000 Iraqi troops. We have a civil war. This idea that we’re creating a democracy that’s going to be our ally in the war on terror?
We have a government that’s reinstituted Saddam Hussein’s laws to put journalists in prison. We need to listen to our military, and over a two-year framework, give or take, time period that they say, we need to move-Afghanistan, we need troops in
of dependence; we are not breeding a democracy. The elected leaders of Iraq have come out in favor of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that invaded our ally. I know that the NATO command would take our troops in Afghanistan. They need more.
Source: 2006 MO Senate Debate on NBC Meet The Press with Tim Russert
Oct 8, 2006
Page last updated: Feb 18, 2019