Florida’s two Senate candidates – incumbent Marco Rubio (R) and challenger Val Demings (D) – debated on Tuesday night in an at times nasty, name-calling throwdown that covered a wide range of issues including inflation, abortion, immigration, and gun control.
(Video Credit: NBC 6 South Florida)
The debate was held at Palm Beach State College’s Lake Worth campus.
Proverbial punches were thrown over skyrocketing inflation and how it impacts housing prices and the cost of gas. The two politicos sparred over how to “help families now” after trillions of dollars were dumped into the pandemic adding to the pain of inflation.
Rubio, using unassailable logic, pointed to federal government spending being behind rising inflation. He noted that Democrats “were warned by Larry Summers, by other Democrat economists, you do this, you’re gonna fire up inflation,” while calling for the production of more American oil.
“We’ve got to produce American oil again,” Rubio asserted. “Why are we begging Saudi Arabia for oil? Why are we begging Venezuela and Iran for oil? We’re producing a million barrels a day less on oil than we used to do just a couple of years ago. Instead, we are depleting our reserves. Our oil reserves do not exist to win midterms. They exist to help this country in an emergency or in the midst of a storm. What we cannot do is some of these crazy policies that are coming from the left that Congresswoman Demings has supported.”
That’s when Demings decided to play gutter politics and frolic in the mud.
“Of course, the senator, who has never run anything at all but his mouth, would know nothing about helping people and being there for people when they are in trouble,” she responded. “No one planned the pandemic, but our response to it is everything. Individuals were hurting, families were hurting, businesses were hurting. We passed the CARES Act.”
Rubio slammed Demings, who currently represents Florida’s 10th Congressional District and previously served as chief of the Orlando Police Department from 2007 to 2011, for having “never passed a bill” during her time in Congress.
“The congresswoman likes to talk about helping people. She’s never passed a bill. She’s never passed a single bill. She’s been in Congress for over half a decade, she’s never passed a bill. Not [Paycheck Protection Program], not anything. Not a single thing she’s passed has ever become law,” he stated.
Then it was Demings’ turn to play the victim and call Rubio a liar.
“I’m really disappointed in you, Marco Rubio because I think there was a time when you did not lie in order to win. I don’t know what happened to you. You know that’s not true,” she charged. Demings went on to claim that she passed a measure during her first term in Congress to “help law enforcement officers with mental health programs.”
"No U.S. Senator has gotten more done than I have," says Sen. @marcorubio in his closing statement.
"My opponent has been in Congress now for half a decade and has never passed a single piece of legislation into law. The only thing she does is vote 100% with Pelosi." pic.twitter.com/llEVTVW8m6
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 19, 2022
Up next was abortion.
“The extremist on abortion in this campaign is Congresswoman Demings,” Rubio commented. “She supports no restrictions, no limitations of any kind. She’s against the fourth-month ban, she voted against the five-month ban. She supports taxpayer-funded abortion, on demand, for any reason, at any time, up until the moment of birth.”
“Senator, how gullible do you really think Florida voters are,” Demings clapped back. “You have been clear that you support no exceptions, even including rape and incest. Now as a police detective who investigated cases of rape and incest, no, senator, I don’t think it’s okay for a ten-year-old girl to be raped and have to carry the seed of her rapist. No, I don’t think it’s okay for you to get to make decisions for women and girls as a senator. I think those decisions are made between the woman, her family, her doctor, and her faith.”
Demings then segued into gun control. Another favorite of the left and a losing issue in Florida.
The Liberty of Florida is under attack from the Radical Left we Need to Vote Red to prevent our Freedom from being taken from Us.
Vote For Our Great Senator Marco Rubio pic.twitter.com/hCobqgvb6G
— Marco Noel Novoa (@MarcoNovoa1991) October 19, 2022
“You’ve done nothing. Nothing to address gun violence and help to get dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people,” Demings accused. “Our primary responsibility is the safety of Floridians and senator, 24 years in elected office and you have not yet risen to that occasion and then when asked about it you say something that makes no sense.”
“What makes no sense is that we’re gonna actually pass laws that only law-abiding people will follow and criminals will continue to violate,” Rubio correctly responded.
“The truth of the matter is that at the end of the day, Americans have a Second Amendment right to protect themselves,” he continued. “These killers that are out there, if their intent is killing as they are, they have found multiple ways to get ahold of weapons and cause mass destruction. … I have a bipartisan red flag law, sponsored with Sen. Jack Reed, but the problem is that the leftists in the Senate, and in the House, like Congresswoman Demings are against it because they want the California red flag law that allows your coworker who has a grudge against you to go to a judge and take away your guns. That, I’ll never support.”
Immigration was also on the menu and Rubio clobbered Demings over the issue.
“You mean Joe Biden just instituted Trump’s return to Mexico policy,” Rubio remarked. “There’s not more to it, that’s exactly what he did. Congresswoman Demings said what’s happening at the border is nothing unusual. We have 5,000 people a day crossing the border. You know how many people have entered our country illegally since Joe Biden took over as president? 5 million.”
“There’s no country in the world that can tolerate, or permit, or afford, 5,000 people a day arriving at your border saying the magic words and getting asylum. And she says that’s not a problem. She says there’s nothing unusual about it. This cannot continue. It has to be fixed,” he added.
Then it was time for Demings to use her career as a police officer as a political prop.
Senator @marcorubio blasts Val Demings for supporting a federal takeover of elections: "You have to ask for ID to get into her neighborhood where she lives and you have every right to have that. But you can't ask for [ID] when they vote?" pic.twitter.com/t1si5rOiVI
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 18, 2022
“Despite what the senator wants you to believe, he’s living in fantasy land,” she said. “We need to make sure the men and women at the border have the resources they need. I’m a fan of boots on the ground, but we need to hire more processors. … We’re a nation of laws. We have to enforce the law, but we also have to obey the law that says people who are in trouble can seek asylum in this country.”
“The senator likes to talk about open borders. It’s almost an insult to the men and women who are there securing the border,” Demings contended.
Rubio did not let that charge stand, asserting that the “only one who’s insulted the people working the border are Joe Biden and Democrats who accuse them of whipping Haitian migrants and that turned out to be true.”
Rubio is currently leading Demings 48% to 41% according to a Spectrum News/Siena College poll conducted in September. Fox News’ Power Rankings rates the race as “lean Republican.” The election will take place on November 8.
Watch the full debate below:
(Video Credit: First Coast News)
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