Connecticut GOP Senate nominee Linda McMahon is struggling to explain this week how she could favor a minimum wage increase after seeming to indicate the opposite.
Democrats have attacked McMahon for appearing to advocate a reduction in the minimum wage during a question and answer session with Connecticut reporters late last month.
"We have got minimum wages in states, we have got minimum wages in the [federal] government, and I think we ought to look at all of those issues in terms of what mandates are being placed on businesses and can they afford them," she told the reporters.
The minimum wage in Connecticut is $8.25 an hour, $1 more than the federal minimum.
Her answer was widely interpreted by media outlets as advocating a reduction in the minimum wage, but in an interview Wednesday with CNN, McMahon said she misheard the question and actually supports the minimum wage.
“There were conflicting questions that were going on in the room at that particular time,” McMahon explained. “I was answering a question that I had heard that was about increasing the minimum wage, would I consider that. So let me just go on record and say this: I am not for decreasing the minimum wage. I did not say that and that is not something I would consider.”
CNN’s Jessica Yellin then asked McMahon, “So basically you misunderstood the question and misspoke?”
“Yes,” McMahon replied.
