Mika Brzezinski welcomed newly announced Democratic Kentucky senate candidate retired Marine colonel Amy McGrath on today's Morning Joe.
"Great to have you on the show. That was an incredible rollout, but how do you get the people of Kentucky to hear that message?" Brzezinski said.
"Well, it's good to be here. And I think that this is a message that Kentuckians are ready for, you know? I never set out to be some politician. All I wanted to do with my life was fly fighter jets, serve my country and be a United States Marine, and I did that," McGrath said.
"And along the way, I met my husband, we have three amazing children right now. But like a lot of Americans and a lot of Kentuckians, we look at each other and we say, you know, we're worried about our country. We're worried about Kentucky. We're worried about the future. And many Kentuckians are worried along with us and so, you know, for somebody like me who's always stepped up the plate, who has always been somebody that wanted to serve my country, it felt like this was the right time to stand up and I think many Kentuckians will be ready for that."
Willie Geist congratulated her on getting into the race.
"Welcome to the show, good to have you here this morning. There are many people over the years who have come at Mitch McConnell, who believe they -- he or she were the candidate that were going to finally take him out politically. He has persevered. He's been a retail politician through the years. Why do you think you'll be different?" he asked.
"This is a different race because because, you know, Kentucky voted for Donald Trump and you can say Kentucky is a very red state but it's a very pro Trump state. If you think about why Kentuckians voted for Trump, they wanted to drain the swamp and Trump said he was going to do that. He promised to bring back jobs and promised to lower drug prices for so many Kentuckians and that's important. What stops them along the way? Who stops the president from doing these things? Well, Mitch McConnell," she said.
"I think that's really important and that's going to be, you know, my message, that the things that Kentuckians voted for Trump for are not being done. He's not able to get it done because of Mitch McConnell."
Steve Rattner asked her how she'd position herself on progressive issues in the state of Kentucky.
"Well, I think that, you know, when I watched the Democratic debates with my husband and my family and, you know, a lot of times --my husband is a registered Republican and I'm a Democrat, but I was an independent for many years and there were times when, you know, when my husband and I looked at each other during the debates and we were concerned that many of the candidates were pulling a little too far left from where we are. Because we're both moderates. You know, we're like most Americans. We get along and we want reasonable solutions for some of these things."
Here's the announcement video:
