An outgoing senator from Missouri is griping about how the media covers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “like she’s the new shining object” — while older politicians take a back seat, according to a report.
Claire McCaskill aired her grievances about the state of the media, and its coverage of the just-elected 29-year-old congresswoman, in a wide-ranging as she prepared for her last day in office Thursday.
“When I first got here, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a half-dozen reporters in Washington. Now there is one person covering the entire Congress. It’s impossible. Now it’s all about social media, the cable networks, the unedited crap,” said McCaskill, who was first elected in 2006.
The 65-year-old Democrat continued about how her bill that drove down the price of hearing aids went unnoticed.
“It was a big deal because hearing aids aren’t covered by Medicare. But nobody wrote about it, so nobody knew about it,” she said.
“But there is so much drama over that New York woman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, like she’s the new shining object. That’s how the media covers stuff now. And some of us are passing good old-fashioned bills, and we get nothing. Gimme a break!”
McCaskill lost her bid for a third term to Josh Hawley, the state’s Republican attorney general — though she didn’t seem all that bothered to be leaving office.
“I hate losing. But this place is a grind,” McCaskill said. “It wasn’t as much fun as it used to be, and it was wearing on me. And the middle is evaporating.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who will represent parts of Queens and the Bronx, became the youngest woman elected to Congress after defeating longtime incumbent Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary.