Arizona Republican Blake Masters relentlessly hammered Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) on the issues of border security, inflation, abortion, and big-tech censorship in a clear-cut victory in Thursday’s U.S. Senate debate.
Kelly presents himself as a moderate Democrat, but Masters dismantled this false persona at numerous junctures during the PBS debate.
Masters Calls on Kelly to Resign for Inaction at the Border
While covering the issue of inflation, Masters noted that Kelly voted against an amendment to hire 18,000 more border patrol agents in the Inflation Reduction Act but voted for 87,000 more IRS agents. In response, Kelly asserted he has been “focused on the border since day one” and claimed he is in communication with Arizona officials on “what we need for border patrol and immigration.” Masters slammed him for evading the question.
“I’ve been focused on the border since day one,” Kelly repeated.
“With no great effect because we have a wide-open southern border, so if that’s the best you can do, I respectfully request you resign and let’s get somebody in the seat who will actually secure our border,” Masters declared.
Masters Slams Kelly for Failing to Use Leverage He Always Had to Secure Border
C-SPANWhile Kelly claimed he has worked to secure the border and that he’s “been focused on [it] since day one,” Masters noted that he had tremendous leverage in 50-50 senate to negotiate for security measures. More moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have used such leverage in other bills. Masters noted:
He’s the 50th vote in the U.S. Senate, Joe Biden needed his vote,” Masters explained. “Mark Kelly, a year ago, could have dug his heels in and said, ‘Mr. President, I’m not supporting a single thing, not a single spending bill, not a single piece of your agenda, unless and until we get border security.’ Biden would’ve had to secure the border. If this is the result of Senator Kelly being focused on the border, my gosh, he’s the most ineffective and worst senator of all time. The border is wide open. People are walking through by the hundreds of thousands.
Border Patrol Agents Are “Disgusted” with Kelly
Masters asserted that Kelly and radical Democrats “don’t believe in our national sovereignty because they’ve turned over the entire border zone to Mexican drug cartels, and it is killing people.
“It is killing Arizonans, it’s ruining our state, it’s ruining our country. He’s not doing a darn thing to stop it. And the border patrol understands this,” Masters said.
“Go ask a border patrol agent what they think of Mark Kelly. Ninety percent of them will tell you they’re disgusted by what he’s failed to do. That’s why the National Border Patrol Council endorsed me, the Arizona Police Association endorsed me,” he continued.
“It’d be bad enough if they were trying to enforce federal law and failing, but they’ve just surrendered,” he added. They’ve thrown their hands up and thrown our southern border wide open. It’s killing people. I’m sick of it,” explained Masters.
Masters Ripped Kelly for Radical Legislation Promoting Aboriton up to Moment of Birth:
Kelly attempted to paint Masters’s abortion views as extreme, but the Republican candidate turned the tables, noting Kelly sponsored legislation supporting abortion in the third trimester:
I’m pro-life and that means I believe in limits. Now, I support exceptions, because I don’t believe in being extreme on this issue. Senator Mark Kelly is the abortion radical. Senator Kelly in Washington, he voted for – no actually he sponsored, he didn’t just vote for it – he sponsored a bill that would have mandated legal abortion nationwide–get this–up until the moment of birth. Take a second to think about how truly radical that is. Mark Kelly says any abortion is okay for any reason all the way up until the moment a baby is due to be born. He wasn’t the only radical who voted for that bill. He was joined by Elizabeth Warren, by Bernie Sanders, AOC voted for this in the house. And the only countries in the whole world that support Senator Kelly’s preferred no-limits extreme abortion policy are China and North Korea. So no, I‘m pro-life, I believe in limits, I think we should be more like, I don’t know, how about every other civilized country in the world?
“I believe in limits. Mark Kelly believes in no limits at all. I understand why he wants to lie about my position because his own is, which is on the record, he sponsored that legislation up until the moment of birth, that is so truly radical,” he added.
As the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America nonprofit pointed out, Kelly failed to say “whether he supports even one single limit on abortion.”
Masters Called out Media, Big Tech, and the FBI for Censorship in the 2020 Election
The Republican candidate blasted the collusion between media, big tech, and “apparently federal law enforcement” to stop the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop reports in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
“Millions of Americans didn’t get to read about that. They didn’t get to read about Hunter Biden and his corrupt business dealings with China and the Ukraine. Business dealings which credibly implicated Joe Biden,” Masters noted.
“And then the media lied to us about it. They said, ‘Oh, that was Russian disinformation,'” he added. “No, it wasn’t it was true, so when the media is lying to people, helping big tech, and apparently federal law enforcement, censor information about presidential candidates, well, I think people start to worry about the integrity of their elections.”
“I suspect President Trump would be in the White House today if big tech and big media and the FBI didn’t work together to put the thumb on the scale to get Joe Biden in there,” said Masters in response to a follow-up question.
Masters Hammered Kelly, Biden on Inflation
“Two years ago, inflation was 1.5 percent. Now in the greater Phoenix metro-area, we are suffering from the worst inflation at 13 percent. Joe Biden’s policies caused this, and those are policies that Mark Kelly in Washington has supported every single time,” Masters detailed, adding:
So look, first they declared war on oil and gas. What’d you think was going to happen? When you declare war on oil and gas in a country that is still mostly powered by oil and gas you think that’s going to sen the price of energy to the moon? Well yeah, it did, they took gas from two dollars to six dollars. Now they want a prize because it’s back in the five dollars. When you make energy too expensive, everything you need to live takes energy to make or to move. You make energy expensive you get some inflation, that was the left hook. Well the Democrats weren’t done. Then they decided to print $6 trillion. They print and spent $6 trillion too quickly. The normal person understands this. PHD economists don’t, apparently senators don’t, but when you print a trillion dollars, that makes every dollar in your wallet worth less and less.
“Joe Biden is spending like a drunken sailor, and at every single opportunity, Mark Kelly just says yes. He can’t say no to Chuck Schumer. He can’t say no to Joe Biden,” he said in response to a follow-up.
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