McConnell challenger Amy McGrath mocked for interview flub

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Amy McGrath, the Marine aviator who just announced her campaign against Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is getting razzed for an awkward moment at the end of a TV interview Tuesday where she sought to explain a controversial statement comparing President Trump's 2016 victory to the 9/11 attacks.

In the CNN interview, the Democratic candidate was asked to explain her statement that, “The only feeling I can describe that’s any close to it was the feeling I had after 9/11.”

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McGrath told host Jake Tapper that she was comparing how she “took stock” of the state of the country after the 2016 election with how she reacted to the Sept. 11 attacks.

“You know many of us were spurred into action by what happened in 2016, the labeling of each other as they’re all communists, or they’re all this, or they’re all that, and the fake news. The divisiveness of our country was something I had never seen before,” McGrath said.

Looking back, McGrath admitted she “can see why, you know, folks might be upset about that.”

But then just as the interview was wrapping up, McGrath awkwardly signed off by telling Tapper, “Great to have you” -- a line typically used by news anchors, not their guests.

McConnell's campaign eagerly circulated the clip on Twitter, simply saying, “This is embarrassing.”

Trump campaign spokesman Matt Wolking drew attention to the ending, saying: "Stick around for the very end."

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President Trump has already commented on McGrath's push to unseat the Senate majority leader, noting her 9/11 comparison. Trump questioned why voters in Kentucky would want their state to give up the majority leader position by electing "a freshman Senator with little power in what will hopefully be the minority party."