I hear it everywhere I go: 'Drug overdose deaths, the vast majority of them related to prescription opioids or heroin, are single-handedly destroying families and communities across Missouri and the country,' and I refuse to just stand by and watch, we have an obligation to everyone devastated by this epidemic to find answers.

Claire McCaskill

Categorized in : Health News

What is most heartbreaking to me is the young women who don't report [being raped] because they were drinking, and they feel like it was their fault that they were drinking. I mean, that is so common.

Claire McCaskill

heartbreaking drinking mean

I'm asking regular folks to be my super PAC.

Claire McCaskill

pacs folks asking

I've got a really hard election. If you had a really hard election and it was after Labor Day would you go to North Carolina to a bunch of parties and glad-handing or would you stay home and work as hard as you know how to convince Missourians they should rehire you?

Claire McCaskill

labor-day party home

Some of the morays have held on. When I was in school, I remember asking the question, "Why is it that whenever I walk into a fraternity there's alcohol everywhere and there's no alcohol in a sorority? Why is it that sororities won't allow alcohol, but fraternities do? What is that?" You know, nobody had a really good answer, and that's kind of held on. It's one of the issues that's being examined now - the role of alcohol in sexual assault.

Claire McCaskill

issues alcohol school

Even though we know sexual assault is still dramatically underreported, I think women are much more empowered today than they used to be.

Claire McCaskill

used today thinking

The price of a college education should never include a 1 in 5 chance of being sexually assaulted.

Claire McCaskill

chance college should

I think that I was just on the cusp of the generation that was beginning to really challenge some of the assumptions about the role of women and the role of men on campus.

Claire McCaskill

challenges men thinking

I know this, that there were thousands and thousands of hours given to Hillary Clinton's e-mail server and Benghazi. It seems to me we need bipartisanship now to look at exactly what happened in this election and exactly the things that people like James Comey did and put it in context to make sure we have all the facts, because I don't think anyone is comfortable with how this election played out.

Claire McCaskill

people needs thinking

I think it's important that we show up. I think it's important that we communicate directly with all those working people.

Claire McCaskill

important people thinking

I was really shocked after all of this talk about coal miners and all of this talk about Buy America, the Republicans and the House of Representatives gutted health care and pension protections for coal miners and removed the Buy America provision that had been put in the bill in a bipartisan basis.

Claire McCaskill

coal-miners house america

I think we have got to call out the Republicans, where their walk doesn't match their talk, and I think we also have to make sure that we communicate clearly that we are the party that cares deeply in our core about working people in this country.

Claire McCaskill

party country thinking

I think people forget that when people lose Medicaid coverage, they still show up at the hospital when they have a chronic illness or a traumatic impact on their health. And those bills are paid by the hospital who then passes those costs on. They do not have a magic fairy paying the bills for people who show up without insurance. Those bills are passed on to all the people in our country that do have insurance. That's why this bill is not going to break the cycle of higher premiums - because we're going to have fewer people insured.

Claire McCaskill

country people thinking

I've tried for years to get Republicans to help us fix some of the mistakes that we made in the Affordable Care Act. There are things we can do to shore up the exchanges, to make those pools healthier, to bring down costs. I would like to see us work together on that.

Claire McCaskill

care working-together mistake

I don't think Democrats are ever going to get excited about cutting Medicaid to pay for tax cuts to wealthy people. I just don't think that's the direction we should be going in our country. The 1 percent's doing very well in America. They don't need more help. But Medicaid does.

Claire McCaskill

cutting country thinking

I believe that sexual assault - if this is possible - was even more underreported when I was in school.

Claire McCaskill

assault believe school

I'm going to wait for the confirmation hearings. I'm familiar with General [John Francis ] Kelly because of my work on the Armed Services Committee. I think he is a fine general and I want to make sure that he has a handle on some of the complicated issues that are contained within Homeland Security.

Claire McCaskill

issues waiting thinking

There are people who have legitimate concerns about false accusations and the impact that can have on a young person's life when they have been falsely accused. Kirsten [Gillibrand] and I are not unaware that that is an issue we need to be concerned about, and that's why we have made changes in the legislation to address not just the rights of the victim, the accuser, but also of the accused.

Claire McCaskill

impact issues rights

I just think it's weird that Donald Trump wants to be an executive producer of a TV show while he's President of the United States. I agree with Newt Gingrich. He doesn't have to do that.

Claire McCaskill

tv-shows president thinking

I think Donald Trump can take major steps towards reassuring the American people that there can't even be appearance of impropriety for pay-to-play schemes under his administration.

Claire McCaskill

play people thinking

By the way, this should be not only about protecting us going forward but this is a form of warfare for Vladimir Putin, who is a thug and a bully and has the friends around the globe that we don't want to be friends with.

Claire McCaskill

thug warfare bully