Dem. Michael Bennet open mike: Lame duck is 'rigged'

Sen. Michael Bennet’s candidness about the lame duck session of Congress might’ve come at the wrong moment Tuesday, as the Colorado Democrat calls the process “rigged” on the Senate floor.

Bennet’s chatter with a woman believed to be Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) was caught on a C-SPAN microphone as the cable channel filmed the chamber. “There's nothing about — because it's all rigged," Bennet says. "I mean, the whole conversation’s rigged. The conversation — the fact that we don’t get to a discussion before the break about what we’re going to do in lame duck — is just rigged. This stuff’s rigged.”

A veteran of less than two years in the Senate, Bennet was appointed to his current post after Ken Salazar was chosen as President Obama’s interior secretary. He won a full term earlier this month in a close race against Tea Party favorite Ken Buck.

Bennet cut his remarks short after two people (visible in the center of the screen near the end of the clip) signaled at him. Bennet and the woman laugh as the audio cuts out.

Bennet’s staff defends his accidentally public statement. “Michael was telling the same truths on the Senate floor that he tells folks back home in Colorado,” says Adam Bozzi, a spokesman, in a statement. “For almost two years, he has talked about needing to fix a broken Washington. We can’t move forward on major issues facing our country because of a broken system that is rigged to prevent progress.” (Continues here)