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With Lame Duck Session Underway, McCaskill Weighs In On Iraq, Immigration

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., says she learned a lot from her unsuccessful run for governor in 2004.
Sen. McCaskill's Flickr page

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) says President Obama’s strategy on Iraq seems to be working and should be allowed more time to succeed. McCaskill, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, was a guest Sunday on “Face the Nation.”

When asked whether the U.S. should think about sending American troops into Iraq, the Missouri Democrat said she thinks air strikes have been effective in slowing ISIS down, and that she supports forming partnerships with moderate Sunnis.

“We’ve got to have a unified Iraq with a competent military unless we want to tell the American people that it is our job for as far as the eye can see to in fact be the military of Iraq.”

McCaskill said the U.S. also needs to make sure that neighboring Arab countries participate.

McCaskill also spoke on immigration, saying it is time for the House of Representatives to act on the matter.

Obama has said that he will take executive action on immigration by the end of the year.

The senator said she’s not crazy about President Obama acting unilaterally on immigration, but Speaker of the House John Boehner has had more than a year to take up the Senate immigration bill.

“All he has to do next week, if he doesn’t want the president to act, is take up the Senate bill, amend it, change it; put up your own bill. Let’s get back to doing our work instead of blaming the president for everything,” McCaskill said.

The Senate immigration bill would put millions living in the country illegally on the path to citizenship and ramp up border security.