Embroiled in another fight for her political life, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is being cast by her opponents as an elite Washington insider, out of touch with Missouri but eager to collaborate with Hollywood and Wall Street. The last thing she needed was another controversy about her private plane.
But that’s what she got.
A Washington Free Beacon report published Tuesday found credible evidence in the form of GPS tracking data that McCaskill’s plane was used between stops scheduled on her campaign’s recent “Veterans for Claire” RV tour. Pressed to respond, McCaskill admitted to having used the plane for part of the tour. “I was on the RV so much that the broken door drove me crazy,” she told Politico, after her campaign declined to respond to the Free Beacon. “I even lost an iPad around a corner on the RV.”
McCaskill’s likely GOP opponent, state Attorney General Josh Hawley, has sought to cast the senator as an ally of faraway elites in Washington, Hollywood, and Wall Street. This isn’t the first time McCaskill has made that easier, and it likely wont be her last.
President Trump won Missouri by almost 20 points in 2016, but he didn’t do it by pretending to be an Average Joe and running from his billionaire lifestyle. Even as anti-establishment sentiments run high, voters hate inauthentic politicians more than they hate wealthy ones — and that’s a lesson McCaskill would do well to absorb. If you’re the kind of person who would rather fly around the state on your private plane than an RV, just do it.
And if you’re going to own a private plane, don’t try to downplay your wealth by arguing “normal people can afford it.”
