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Former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) bizarrely claimed that Republican-led states were set to enact “vigilantism laws” empowering citizens to “round up people that look like foreigners.”
The MSNBC contributor made her baseless remarks during a segment on Nicole Wallace’s little-watched program on Monday during a discussion that saw McCaskill reference the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts.
Wallace set McCaskill up by suggesting that Democrats take time “over the holidays rethink their fealty to norms” and consider blowing up the filibuster in the Senate as well as “court reform” that would involve expanding the Supreme Court.
“Oh I think both counts,” McCaskill began.
“There is definitely some reform needed at the Supreme Court,” she continued, which, for Democrats, has generally meant adding leftist justices to counter the influence of the court’s conservatives and originalists. “And you can just start with ethics. They don’t have the same rules, Supreme Court justices. You can start with term limits. The American people support term limits for everybody including Supreme Court justices.”
She went on to say “filibuster reform must happen to carve out the ability of the Senate to deal with voting rights” — likely a reference to legislation Democrats have been pushing that would override state laws designed to protect ballot integrity while imposing universal mail-in voting, eliminating voter ID requirements, and other factors Republicans say would lead to widespread fraud.
After complaining about the high court’s conservative majority, McCaskill then made her outlandish claim.
“I think we know everybody but Roberts is in the tank for the right-wing, extreme views, and I think this vigilantism is going to catch on,” she said.
“I’ll tell you what’s going to happen next, Nicolle,” McCaskill said. “These red states are going to do vigilantism laws on immigration, and they’re going to empower citizens to go out and round up people that they think look like foreigners. And that’s what we are coming to in this country. It is incredibly depressing, especially as we’re so near a religious holiday that is all about loving other people and accepting the least among us to be part of the larger group.
No one on the panel challenged McCaskill’s remarks.
Throughout the segment, the MSNBC chyron referenced California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement over the weekend that he will seek legislation modeled after Texas’ abortion law that will empower citizens in his state to sue makers of so-called “assault weapons” and “ghost guns.” The Texas law, which was recently upheld by the Supreme Court, allows citizens to sue abortion providers if they perform the procedure after a fetal heart tone is detected, usually at around six weeks; the justices, in their ruling, also allowed Texas to be sued over its law.
“I am outraged by yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Texas’s ban on most abortion services to remain in place, and largely endorsing Texas’s scheme to insulate its law from the fundamental protections of Roe v. Wade,” Newsom said in a statement.
“But if states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way.”
Jon has over 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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