Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill predicted "good things" will come of
student protests at her alma mater, the University of Missouri, where black members of the football team have gone on strike in support of better treatment of minority students.
"I want to say how proud I am of the young people on the campus who have decided they are going to make a stand," McCaskill said Monday on
CNN's "New Day."
"I'm proud of our football team, frankly. If you remember, this is the same football team that Michael Sam came from, one of the first athletes that went through the NFL draft as openly gay."
The football team's action is tied to a hunger strike by a black graduate student and several students who are sleeping in tents in the cold temperatures. The issue began when the black student government association president reported that a group of white students had yelled racial epithets at him a month ago.
Students are calling for the resignation or firing of the school's president Tim Wolfe.
"There has been not enough prioritization on this issue on campus," McCaskill said. "I think frankly, candidly, I don't think the student body would have elected a black student body president back when I was on campus. They have at the University of Missouri in Columbia "
Still, she said, she believes students are right to believe that current leadership has not prioritized some of the issues that African-American students face on campus in terms of being marginalized.
"I believe good things will come of this because of the passion and commitment of these young people," she said. "We need to be part of it, too."
McCaskill also discussed the Democratic presidential campaign, saying Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders is "unelectable" because of he is a self-described "Democratic socialist."
"In a state like mine, it's very hard to get past that," she said.
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