Democrat Senator Mark Kelly, Republican Blake Masters, and Libertarian Marc Victor had a debate Thursday night on a national telecast to discuss the upcoming United States Senate election in Arizona.
The debate was broadcast on Arizona PBS and covered the economy, border security, water issues, and abortion.
Regarding the economy, Masters blamed President Joe Biden and Kelly for the rise in inflation.
“I will put a stop to Joe Biden’s crazy spending,” Masters declared, adding that the president has spent like a “drunken sailor.”
“Sometimes the federal government has to step in to save small businesses, to protect livelihoods,” Kelly later said.
Kelly stated that his party and the president exacerbated the situation at the border, but he also stated that Republicans had “politicized” the issue.
“Well call me old fashioned, but I think the correct amount of illegal immigration is zero,” Masters stated and announced his endorsement by his fellow members of the National Border Patrol Council.
Then, Masters and Kelly argued over the issue of abortion.
“We all know guys like Blake Masters. They think they know better than anyone,” Kelly said.
Masters has said that he's in support of the ban of 15 weeks on both the federal and state levels with some exceptions. Arizona’s abortion laws are a source of confusion, since the recent 15-week ban, which includes the exemption for the mother's own life, is in conflict with an 1864 law which only permits an exemption for health risk at conception.
When the issue of voting was raised, Masters said he believes Biden is the legitimately elected president and that he's not seen evidence of widespread fraud in the voting process. However, he said that the decision taken by the social networks to stop a New York Post story about Hunter Biden's business activities unfairly tipped the scales in Biden's direction.
Kelly claimed that he's “okay” with voter identification.
In relation to water, Masters said that Kelly is California's “third senator,” and declared that California should not have any of the water from the Colorado River and that California should be working towards developing new methods to utilize fresh water that comes that comes from the Pacific Ocean with processes like desalination. Kelly declared that California should step up in its approach to water and that it's a collaboration between states.
