Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill talks with Missouri Attorney General and likely Republican challenger Josh Hawley during the Governor’s Ham Breakfast at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Mo., Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill appears set to be under the same tent as likely Republican opponent Josh Hawley (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch via her spokesman that the lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee is a “silly distraction”.

@clairecmc spox tells me and @stltoday that McCaskill considers #dnclawsuit a “silly distraction.”

— craasch (@craasch) April 20, 2018

The lawsuit is against Russia, Russians, GRU, Wikileaks, Guccifer 2.0, President Trump, Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and more.

I should nobody is taking this as anything other than a campaign/media stunt. https://t.co/HeIucbRabl

— Jeff B, fightin' the COVID one bootleg at a time (@EsotericCD) April 20, 2018

Smart move by the senator from Missouri who is up for a tough reelection race. She is also a former prosecutor and knows there is no way to spin this as a credible strategy for the Democratic Party.

Perhaps no one encapsulates the Democratic Party’s identity crisis more than Claire McCaskill. She’s a Truman-democrat who criticized Bill Clinton, but rode the progressive wave of the Obama years.

Her state, Missouri, is deeply red with a handful of deep blue pockets, like St. Louis and Kansas City. It’s not a blended “purple” state, it is ideologically segregated for the most part. After The Ferguson Event, rural Democrats and urban Democrats found they had little in common and that is the core of McCaskill and her party’s problem.

This statement may not help her chances, but at least she saved some face.