In a post-midterms interview with The New York Times, outgoing Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) attributed her loss to Republican Josh Hawley, at least in part, to the ubiquity of Fox News across her state. Accusing the cable-news network of amplifying President Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, especially in regard to the “caravan” of Central American asylum-seekers headed toward the U.S. border, she said, “It’s time we all quit dancing around what is now a state-owned news channel.” One week before she lost her re-election bid by 6 percentage points, McCaskill appeared on Fox News to defend a radio ad in which she described herself as “not one of those crazy Democrats” and tried to distance herself from figures like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
