With only 12 days to go before Election Day, the campaigns of Sen. Claire McCaskill and Rep. Todd Akin continue to duke it out for Missouri's U.S. Senate seat.
Today, McCaskill's campaign released three new ads highlighting the difference between the two candidates on Medicare, minimum wage and the middle class. To view the ads, click on the links below.
Meanwhile, Akin's camp released a statement blasting McCaskill for focusing on alcohol abuse and bar brawls in Afghanistan instead of investigating the death of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya.
Quoting Rick Tyler, a senior advisor to the Akin campaign, the release state:
Claire McCaskill claims to believe in 'oversight' and 'transparency' but apparently doesn't think those should be required of the Obama Administration or her own businesses. Claire McCaskill issued a press release this week trumpeting her oversight of a bar brawl and alcohol abuse by contractors in Afghanistan, but she won't call for hearings into the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including our ambassador. Pure and simple, this is hypocrisy. I think most Missourians would agree that figuring out what happened in Benghazi, and why the Obama Administration misled Americans about the attack, is a higher priority than a bar brawl in Afghanistan. The White House knew these attacks were by terrorists and misled the American people for weeks, but apparently McCaskill doesn't think that's important. Once again, Claire McCaskill is showing her true colors--she is Obama's biggest ally in the Senate and she will protect him and his Administration at all costs. Todd Akin has called for Senate hearings on the Benghazi attack, but McCaskill has run the other way to protect Barack Obama and not anger Harry Reid.
McCaskill's camp has not yet responded to Akin's charge.
McCaskill's Campaign Manager Adrianne Marsh told reporters on a conference call Thursday that the campaign continues to work while Sen. McCaskill remains off the trail. Her mother is critically ill in a St. Louis-area ICU.
McCaskill and her siblings have maintained a vigil at their mother's bedside since earlier this week.
"She appreciates the support," Marsh said of McCaskill. "The senator is not going to leave St. Louis as long as her mother is in ICU. She has made some progress, but she is still very, very ill."
Marsh said McCaskill hopes to resume campaigning next week, but her schedule largely depends upon the health of her mother.
