Transcripts For CSPAN2 Campaign 2020 Utah 4th District U.S. House Debate 20240712

Votes in the democrat running for a second term against Burgess Owens. Live coverage on cspan2. Tonight we will hear from the incumbent democratic congressman then mcadams and his republik and challenger, mr. Burgess owens. The safety of all involved in the debate process we are hearing the social distancing guidelines and there is no studio audience. The Debate Commission has established a format that allows each candidate one, two minutes for the initial reply to a question. I will then direct followup response to then questions. I will be taking questions from members of the news media, students from salt lake Unity College and from members of the viewing audience participating on social media. Prior to the debate a virtual coin toss determined that Burgess Owens will provide the initial response to the first question. We will alternate who answers first on the remaining questions. Lets get right to it. Mr. Owens, welcome. Good to see you. We wanted to, we wanted to let voters see something personal about each of the candidates. What uniquely qualifies you to represent the fourth Congressional District . Thank you. Id like to thank the utah Debate Commission and i have a very unique american story. I grew up in deep south, tallahassee in segregation in the kkk. Was martin in front of an allwhite Movie Theater at 12 years old because i cannot go there. I was a third black american to go to university of miami to play football in there i got a degree in biology and chemistry. I played football and little later i was a Chimney Sweep Security Guard and later a corporate executive. I battled cancer and through that process there was some financial hardships which i was able to come through and i stand before you today as a survivor of both. My thirtyyear dream came true with a Second Chance to use an organization that gave are at risk boys and girls hear their Second Chance. And last, most importantly, proud father of six and grandfather of 15 all here living in the fourth district. My story is unique but common with utahs values and culture. We dream, we risk and we start a new. I look forward to fighting for those values here in utah and make sure that what makes our utah league great is the key to state this way for sure. You have 90 seconds. Thank you, doug. Thank you also to the utah Debate Commission for sponsoring this debate and to Burgess Owens bird great to see you. I am honored to serve as utahs independent voice in washington and i am in the most independent member of utahs delegation and i was raised a family of eight on values of faith, family and duty to community. Going up my family struggled to make ends meet and im grateful for the blessings i have today. I was taught to work hard and my mother taught me that its important that we give back. Im proud to receive the first ever award for bipartisanship from the u. S. Chamber of commerce and their endorsement for my work to build bridges and to find solutions to the challenges we face with the country, solutions not to be bipartisan if we are to enact them into law. That is how i worked with replicants and democrats to reduce Prescription Drug prices, to protect access to healthcare and that is how i felt individuals, families, Small Businesses, hospitals and healthcare workers and seniors and veterans to weather the storm from the coronavirus but there is more to do. Im proud to be a unifying leader but im not afraid to stand alone if that is what is good for hardworking you tone. Thank you. We will go to our second question we will alternate who goes first on those questions will go congressman mcadams, you first. The coronavirus pandemic has gripped the world, the nation and certainly utah. Do you believe that President Trump has done a good job managing the pandemic secondly, has congress . Thank you, doug. As someone who was sick with the coronavirus and diagnosed in march was very, very sick and spent eight days in the hospital i know how serious this virus can be. We are kidding our state and like many of us have friends and loved ones and have been afflicted by this virus and a dear friend right now is in hospital on a ventilator. This virus is serious and we must take it seriously. I believe that washington has failed us. Congress has failed us. When the virus first hit in early march we came together with a plan to help those who would need a lifeline because of the Economic Hardship and plan to slow the spread of the buyers with testing. That legislation passed with bipartisan, overwhelming bipartisan support to the house through the senate and was signed into the loft by the president. These are things like bpp they give a lifeline to Small Businesses struggling and it gave the Economic Impact payments to individuals hit so hard and were not sure how they would put food on the table or pay rent. I think of david pats barbecue who reached out because they were not sure what would happen to them in the shutdown and they were able to receive the ppp loan and a lifeline to them like so many other businesses to help them get through until things could normalize a little bit. In the time since then weve seen partisan creep back in and republicans and democrats fighting against each other and failing the american people. I have called on republicans and democrats to come together and pass legislation to continue to shore up the foundation of our economy and to help people who are suffering. Same question about the president S Performance and the performance of congress. I think we need to look at the foundation and the rights we have. Life and the pursuit of happiness. We came to this pandemic at the beginning of the year with a remarkable economy and the best weve ever seen and yet because of the threat of 2 Million People caused to die we were able to shut it down and that took face. It took a lot of courage to do so in the key to it is what happened in the process as we pull together warp speed and brought businesses and governors to get things done. Normally vaccines take decades or years so that was the first parts. The second part was making sure the liberty and the power push down as far as it could to those who can really take their governors and based on which state some governors handled it different than others in the thing we have right now is pursuit of happiness and allowing us to come back and allowing the Business Owners to have a say in how we open up our society again to make sure we are getting people back in business and back in a school and those things that make our country what it is and continues to dream and hope and of course we need to get that done and thats whats happening now and what our president is pushing toward. I think basically were down to 1. 4 in terms of on employment which is saved and said a lot about our society and culture here. I think we will do really well in terms of allowing the rest of the country to see how well utah works in getting us back. Quick followup. They talked about the failures of washington so do you think the president did enough . It comes down to bipartisanship and we are right now looking at targeting help for folks who need it and not for states, not for blue states they want to get bailed out but because of the way they dont deserve that. The key is coming together and focusing on we the people. Those who need help in a targeted way and we will get that done and we look at the same game in a positive way. Thirtysecond rebuttal. Congressman, do you support red and blue states . Thank you. First of all, i want to acknowledge that we are still, there are a lot of people still struggling and hardship and unemployment is an unacceptably high in utah. Even for those who are working they are underemployed. I talk about dave who runs pats barbecue and they are able to open today but they are nowhere near the profitability that they were just one year ago. Utah businesses are still struggling pretty utah families are still struggling. That worries me. I want to make sure were doing everything we can to support them. I do want to commend governor herbert and his leadership and he has, in my view admirably so that made this about partisanship and not about rebellions and democrats but about doing the right thing to help the support people here in utah and i think we could look back and say there are things we would have done differently but in utah we come together and try to solve our problems and we dont try to make them partisan and there are still people still struggling and still more work to do to support him. Given that the house is starting to get scary levels, to support statewide mandate . Again, i know how serious the virus is great around mask and im now giving plasma and donating plasma and they test my antibodies and i have antibodies that they say should provide some level of protection and they dont know how much and they encouraged me to still wear a mask and i do wear a mask and do my best to model Good Behavior and then also do my part to slow the virus. Thats important for everybody in utah. Each and every one of us should do our part, take response ability for our actions and help do our part to help slow the spread of the virus and protect those who might be vulnerable. To support the statewide mandate . I dont support a statewide mandate. Couple of things, were learning about this virus that came out a report yesterday that who says the lockdown was a mistake should not do that because what its doing physically and mentally. We learned continually. I think it comes down to weve done a good job of helping society but its important to take response ability and if you allow businesses to take the lead on this, Business Owners want to make sure people come back and make sure they are coming back to their stores and feel safe and they continue to put their dollars down. If you allow Business Owners where its at the very crux of where we can get our country back we can make the right decisions made right now Business Owners are dealing with masks. They want masks when you come into the place because they want their customers to feel safe. We should do it from that level versus the topdown mandates which i am beginning to see. Its not been helpful in some ways. Lets move on to the stimulus and this is where you congress men can start. Congress has failed to produce a second stimulus package as we all know. President Trumps Administration proposed a 1. 8 trillion measure which includes a 400dollar boost in weekly on appointment insurance, 1200dollar direct payments to u. S. Adults in a thousand dollar payments for each child. There was productive by nancy pelosi over the week and again today she was ready to go even though some democrats are encouraging her to do that. Democrats have pushed for 600dollar increase in weekly on plumbing, 12004 payments and substantial more funding for state and local governments. What do you think bigger blows he should do and what would you like to do . Let me reiterate that we have to do something and we cannot let partisanship and gridlock stop us and paralyze us from taking any steps to send that lifeline to the american people. We need to enact a smart plan that will slow the spread of the virus, bring down hospitalization rates and positive rates in utah and help those in those families and Small Businesses that are struggling. Democrats are put forward a plan and it was the first plan was 3 trillion and i voted against that plan. I thought it did spend too much. While i know we need to take steps to stabilize the Economy Today we have to do that and recognizing the impact that will have on future generations and any money we spent today will have to be paid for and fiscal responsibly is a priority of mine and we cant forget the need to ask fiscally responsibly. They like about the president s plan is include money for Small Businesses an additional round of ppp and support for families. I call and everybody in washington, republicans, democrats, senate, white house to get back to the table, negotiate a deal, make compromises and build consensus and do something for the good of the american people. Mr. Owens, let me frame it this way. President has [inaudible] some republicans think that is too high but where you stand on that figure and what present, trying to do . The first time it came through we had over 50000 people or ppp loans put out, 5. 5 billion and allowed us to be as aggressive in terms of getting it out and we need to make sure that what comes next is targeted. We have businesses doing well and dont need to have the same help as others. The last thing we need to do is bail out cities, that is part of what nancy plus he is putting forth that part of this is help in those cities that have been neglectful in a way they done business in the pass and we need to make sure this goes to those who need it and again with the National Debt we need to be careful on how we do this and make sure its done in the right way and not encouraging people not to work. Welfare is not a good thing. People want to work. Allow them to go to work, feel they dating the of that process and allow Business Owners to have those who want to come back and make it happen. Thirtysecond rebuttal. Thoughts on that. Will look, i would say again we have to come to a deal. We have to reach a compromise and i do share concerns about the impact of a high level spending. The worst thing we can do for the deficit is to watch the economy go off the cliff. We have to take measures to stabilize a foundation of our economy but we should not be voting through everything for it when i voted against of the heroes act this was the democratic proposal the 3 trilliondollar proposal i called it a partisan wish list for this is not a time for partisanship or fund the backlog of things that people would want to do for a long time. This is time for targeted, relate to the mega people. We need to do it with physical response ability in mind. You both mention targeted relief. Thirty more seconds, mr. Owens. I just wanted to push back real quick because it is we should be looking at the same endgame to make sure our country comes back and my opponent talks about going across the aisle 85 he has voting for the leadership of the Democratic Party. Thats what we have to work through right now. We all have the same endgame. Its for america to come forth and succeed again, prosper and have the freedoms we all fight for. We deserve freedoms. Keep that in mind that we have again, in this case here, and simple oc is not on the same page with that and i will look forward to her coming together and the rest of the Democratic Party and rubble can party making sure our country succeeds and moves forward again. Thank you. We welcome glen mills of abc for utah who has a question in the first, mr. Owens. Thank you, doug or gentlemen, good to be with you. Following the death of george floyd elected officials here in the city of utah and started meeting with members of the local black lives matter chapter in ways the founder of that organization has never happened before to discuss potential reform. What does a black lives Matter Movement mean to you and how would you act to support how you feel about that . First of all, we have to understand what the blm means and i would suggest because we have good people and sometimes special interests use people to move their agenda forward. Black lives matter, blm, and their manifesto against capitalism and the Nuclear Family and they are against god. So know we have a lot of things and we the people have done so good in the past just of being who we are and put together things like Second Chances and the other things around this country that allows us to work with those and we dont need a motivation that the endgame and the byproduct is the destruction and loss of more black lives, more black businesses and the division of our country right now that we do not need. Lets understand again good people, please special interests dont let it drive the process, know who they are, do your homework and let stand together to make sure were doing things based on respect of god, country, family and authority. Mr. Mcadams. Thank you. We have come so far as a country and accomplish many incredible things prayed we made incredible progress as we work to make sure that everybody in our community is treated fairly and equally under the law and reported the dignity that every individual expects but we have more that we can do. While we have made incredible progress and have so much to be proud of there is more we can do. There are people in our community who feel left behind and they arent treated fairly. Within the last couple of weeks the Community Leader president nelson, church of the latterday saints put aside racism to rise up and be better versions of ourselves. I think that call ghost each and every one of us but how can we be better . How can we make our neighbor feel more accepted and respected and to have the dignity that everyone enjoys. We have come a long way there is more we can do and i plan to do my part to help build those bridges and heal the divides that exist in our country. Mr. Owens, both governor herbert and senator are two examples who claim the local chapter to be credible and invited them into their offices to discuss reform and a number of local lawmakers at the state level are working with them and do you find no value at all in the local chapter . I find value in anyone who wants to talk. History number one the idea that we are systemic racist country is totally false. I grew up in the kkk when you would separate bathrooms and fountains. In the nfl when they know black quarterbacks no linebackers because there were white positions. Weve come to a point in a country where were better inside out than outside in. We need to be a proud of that and we need to start off with piecing out our history and white americans who do not feel they have to apologize for being white and black americans do not have feel like they are angry because they are black. This is a country that brought so much. Success across our nation now and people are making 50 million a year and i would not stand for a flag because they dont understand because they not been taught how to respect and appreciate those who came before but were not a perfect country until christ comes back but meanwhile lets do the very best we can to appreciate who we are and to appreciate our path and as we say [inaudible] thank you. I believe we can recognize the incredible things that happen in this country and the progress he made in making everybody feel respected and dignified weather this years celebrating the hundredth anniversary of womens suffrage and progress we made to make sure every american of any ethnicity feels treated with respect and dignity. But lets not also recognize that we have more progress to make and for me progress starts with [inaudible]. My door is always open and i hear from people across our community who feel that doors arent open to them and that they may try as hard as they may try to get ahead but they are not afforded the same opportunities. I look internally at what i can do to contribute to healing the divisions that exist in our country into bringing us together to get to the point that every all americans feel respected and valued and i think we have more progress to make. Thirty more seconds on this. Mr. Owens and said there was no systemic racism and others refer to that is institutional racism do you believe theres institutional racism in america . I think the market people are great people and we are a great people. I dont think anybody, we can acknowledge there are some bad apples and with the murder of george floyd there are people who take despicable actions and we need to call that for what todays spirit it was a murder and those people need to be held accountable and held responsible for their actions but i think we can also recognize that we can do better in making people feel that they have the opportunity that all of us have and i see im out of time but let me conclude, i think we can do better and there are, you know, not everyone feels they have equal access to every opportunity. Thirty more seconds. I think utah is a state is in a good example of how you pass this idea of systemic racism. We have a culture in which for two years across the country around the world and deal with people from every kind of background in the come back and realize what it means to look at each other inside out in not outside in. Thats a 58 year history and i can go to deep south tallahassee and it bothers me to think that we have a country which my parents generation did such a great job of changing and all you have to do is love your nation, love your god, love each other we get better and better as time goes on. Every generation gets better then the next in terms of this process. Lets not take the narrative of those who do not love god and believe it or not there is a segment out there of ideology that truly does not love the culture we have. We take from them the direction there will be a divided country. We the people the most powerful thing we have is to come indicate to each other, talk to each other, care for each other and no one does a better than we do. No, theres not systemic racism people. I grew up in that environment and i can tell you with a family that has colors of the rainbow that is not the case. Lets move on and if you like we could talk to an hour. Lets switch gears for minutes and we have a video question from one of our salt lake commUnity College students. Hello, my name is dax schaefer, fulltime student and parttime staff employee at sully commUnity College. Im also a type one diabetic and get insurance because of the Affordable Care act. My question is how could you help me get the lifesustaining medication at affordable prices if the Affordable Care act were to go away . When we go to mr. Owens. First of all, lets not let fear drive us. Preexisting conditions are off the table. Republican senators passed a law that made sure to weeks ago President Trump made sure he did executive order and both agreed that thats a good part of the obama cares act. Do not let those who say we are trying to take that away because its not an issue. Yes, you will have but the other thing were looking at is transparency and how about affordability and whether you work for the job or your income and your insurance and these are the conversations we need to have and it comes by thinking outside the box not thinking that all we have to do is stick with the process in the past and we can get that done and come up with solutions that will be good for everyone in particular healthcare. Congressman. Thank you, doug. This is something that weighs on my mind quite heavily because my sister is a type one diabetic and she was diagnosed at the age of four when she went into a coma. We know as a family the challenges that she is now older and may not but she has two kids and is doing well but got my entire childhood we were a family that struggled to make ends meet and expensive medication was one of the things that impacted our Family Budget and the price of insulin has only increased since then and as a member of congress ive met with parents of diabetics and i hear their stories about rationing insulin and trying to make her stretch it to the end of the month to get by and you just cant ration insulin. I know how much the price is affecting these families and expecting their help and sally people have died because they have attempted to rationalize because they cant afford it. The protections under the Affordable Care act with preexisting conditions isnt readily important and to address the price of necessary medication and im glad to hear my opponent mr. Owens talk about the need to protect previous existence by your website up until three weeks ago talked about removing protections for people with preexisting conditions and thats troubling to me because people rely on those productions for their lifesustaining medicine and i think mother of a son fred praises in condition and she worries every day that they will be to have access to medication for keeps her son alive. You know i was concerned to see that on your website and i know youve updated it after we started talking about the need to protect people with preexisting conditions but simply saying they want to protect people with preexisting conditions is not going to protect them. We have to keep the protections in place and i would be curious what your plan is to protect those people because simply saying it will not do it. Mr. Owens, 45 seconds. If it was on my website i would be concerned to but its not there. Im a cancer survivor and i understand what preexisting condition is all about. At the end of the day we have right now already in place and executor border by President Trump and the congress has passed laws that said we protect so to bring this up as an issue is using fear. I will be honest with you. We have seen this citizens out there that pay the price and have done what they had to do and now in a vulnerable position and they of people who issued multiple positions but they use fear as a way to give votes. Ive seen it happen in my race and committee for too long and at the end of the date previous concession is not an issue and look at all you have to do is look at both sides of the aisle and thats been taken off. For my opponent to bring this up is typical of what ive seen in so many years and that is throwing stuff out there that is not true and can change so we will continue to move forward and okay. Your response. Mr. Owens, people are afraid. I talked about camille they are afraid that they wont have access to healthcare if protections for people with preexisting conditions are repealed. Again, it is true and we can tweet out that on september 22 your website changed from sane you must repeal protections of people with preexisting conditions and your website changed and so i think justifiably so people are afraid and worried that they might lose lifesustaining access to medication and i think this is real and important issue for us to debate that howe will be protect peoples preexisting conditions because simply saying it isnt going to protect them. Mr. Owens, 30 seconds. We will appeal obamacare and we will now reform obamacare sounds we had the switches in the tweaking nowhere on my website has that come up. This is what i want to make sure, it is time for us to have representatives be held accountable. We ask for them to be honest and keep their word. Thats basically it. For us to have preexisting additions or bombs going off in lower utah or things that are made of manufacturers because what the Democratic Party does in this case here is using dc tactics and fears never be a way to wiggle out absolutions. Final response. It is within black and white on the website that we saw it and i was concerned by it and many people were concerned by it because they know how important this medication is. Mr. Owens, what is true is true and this was a position on her website that the Affordable Care act must be repealed which includes and that includes protections for people with preexisting conditions. Your website changed on september 22 but i dont thank you can see here today and say that up or down or down is up but this is true and this is a policy difference between us. I think it is a pardon for people to understand especially people who are afraid that they might lose access to lifesaving medication. I thank you for the backandforth but could i just say everyone can take a drink of water. We are nearing the midpoint of our time tonight and i think it is going well. I appreciate the honesty of the candidates. I welcome you once again to the debate between the top fourth Congressional District. As a reminder use the ut debates and listen, learn and vote. Lets return to our debate. I want to talk about some of the words we talked about the website and we talked about words mattering we talked about black lives matter but if i could start with you, mr. Owens. You talk to Maria Bartiromo on fox news and said the Democratic Party is led by narcissists and sociopaths. Your quote was last month a septembers you said i truly believe this maria that the Democratic Party really draws the type of people and im talking about leadership and they draw a narcissist and sociopaths and these are people who have no empathy for anyone else. They love misery. To really believe your opponent was a part of that party is a sociopath connect. I was very clear. The leadership part of the Democratic Party and when i talked about the misery as a political strategy ive seen it for decades. You see in that communities where you have murder going crazy and 75 of the people in 15 schools in baltimore for have zero proficiencies in math. When i talk about the ideology there is an ideology out there that we have to face the facts that christian values give us a great country and theres another side of that picture that hates every part of that and uses misery as a Political Tool and ive seen it in particular. By the way, for utah [inaudible] its important for those of you and we might not agree in politics but lets make sure that we understand what truth is and so please go there because we dont have the 10 million that pelosi put into this campaign to go against every single falsehood so we are doing it simply in one location burgess for utah backslash facts and check for yourself and based on that whether im being honest or not. Could i ask if you stand by that statement or not . I do. Thank you, doug. I think those words are troubling. In a time when america is divided as ive ever seen and i think people are like me. We are exhausted of the controversy and the division and want to come together. In the middle of this pandemic with the hardship that so many utah families are feeling now its important more than ever to stop the namecalling and stop the fingerpointing and come together. When i was elected to congress over a year and half ago one of the first things i did was join a group called the problem solvers caucus. This is a group made up of republicans and democrats to join you have to join two by t two, republican and democrat and meet on a basis to talk about legislation and talk about how we can break the gridlock and how we can come together to solve our countrys challenges and i will tell you one thing ive learned through that. There are good people in both Political Parties and there are good ideas in both Political Parties. I think the more we listen and talk to each other the more we can come together to address the challenges like this pandemic unlike jobs in the economy and addressing and improving access for so many who need it. Thirty seconds and then congressman i have a different question. I have always believed in ive been very proud of the fact that we have both sides of the aisle have independent friends and friends that are apolitical and as they weaken there is the same endgame that we the people do best when we also understand this is where america has to recognize that people hate our nation and heater culture and it could be inside our country. You have to take our right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness bid theres an ideology against what we are for and not only republican and my family and yet we have nice debates and we love each other and that is what americans do best bid we the people talk and it all has the same endgame. We are people in leadership of the Democratic Party and they want to take away our rights for liberty, pursuit and happiness and its important to recognize that if my appointment recognizes that an if we could just be okay with that and be consistent with those. Thirty seconds. Thank you. I think the voters are seen a clear distinction here. Are we going to move forward . Look, we are not at war with ourselves but we are all americans and i wake up in the morning and i dont look in the mirror and see were public and or democrat but im an american and the yukon and someone who cares about my family and making sure my kids do well and have opportunities in life. I think if we are going to feel that heal the broken washington and we know it is broken for it we dont need namecalling and fingerpointing but we need listening and people who can recognize that we have so much more in common than what divides us. That is how ive served and how i will continue to serve. Heidi from channel to a. Good evening, gentlemen. It was just this last friday represented the mcadams you came out and announced new funding to help with Human Trafficking aside with the schools. This is something ive heard burgess owen talk about and something that is now a talking port for Republican Party. Its also now something embroiled in Conspiracy Theory. This is a problem that as old as time, it seems. Why now is it an issue and why is it a focus . Thank you. First of all, its important that we not allow conspiracy theories and partisanship to get in the way of protecting our kids. That is why i was proud to introduce legislation that im on the Financial Service committee that oversees banking and transactions to work with the private sector to identify those Global Financial transactions and identify which ones could be financing trafficking, child trafficking and Human Trafficking in kids are at risk and kids are vulnerable and we must take steps to protect them. Once again if we make this a partisan issue about republicans or democrats who suffers are our kids. Its also why it was proud to stand with the School District and announce that we are funding a program in the granite School District to help teachers and counselors and principals and even janitors to know what to look for if a child is being trafficked into help protect our children. This is another area where we have to rise above our partisanship and recognize that we are all american we have to protect our kids. First of all, i welcome them to the party. The last two years this is by way [inaudible] i dont think my opponent sat down with him to discuss this and we have a president right now who is putting together a committee to focus on this issue. There are 50 million slaves across this country and around the world, 10 million of them are children and to go through the horrendous that they deal with is something we need to be upfront and we cannot continue to just because we talk about it puts a conspiracy but so far with tim tebo all of a sudden its conspiracy behind it and at the end of the day we need to make sure that we are protecting our children. My goal is to make sure utah is the first traffic stay state in the union by a federal, state and individuals and i think they focus on this but again my opponent i dont think so its nice to talk about but when it comes down to action is what we are looking for and this has been a passion for me forever but in fact, i work with kids in the system and this is to make sure the next generation of kids will be safe. Do you want more seconds . Just real quickly, to say welcome to the party, mr. Owens, that disrespects an important legislation i passed. Ive been in congress 18 months but less than my pass legislation to protect our kids online and hold the feet to the fire of Online Internet companies to protect our kids and i passed legislation passed legislation through the house of representatives again this year. This is only ever worked on and im a father of four kids. I know how scary it can be to be a parent and to see the risk that our kids are exposed to online, whether its creditors predators or on savory content online and we have to do better. Ive been working hard at this, not just talking about it by passing legislation to do our part to stop this practice. My understanding is you cannot pass legislation. Thats not true. At the end of the day this is an issue that should be bipartisan, no question. I think we have right now theres an energy and you taught that we could lead our country and we need to make sure we coalesce around those and at the very front of this issue and i dont my opponent has set down yet to discuss or sean whos been involved with the process. We have a team to get it done so lets make it happen. We welcome then. I have a question for each one of you, one at a time for it we will start with you, mr. Owens. What do you say or what you want to say about your appearances on internet shows that seem to suggest that you are embracing the q1 on fringe Conspiracy Theory . Thats as silly as it comes. Again the great thing about my background is i have a history. We go through my website and you start to see years of conversations about what i believe in our country and what my thoughts of conservatism and about our nation and our constitution. Its all there and way before i started a year or so to go to become a politician. I think it is interesting in my mind that whoever talks about child trafficking whether tim tebo, myself and all of a sudden every thing we do is tied into conspiracy. Up until this came out i still dont know what it means or what they are about and it doesnt matter because it doesnt respect anything im doing right now. Im trying to make sure we have a youth and an environment where can love our country, god, country, family, respect women and authority and we got to start teaching that will be in good shape. How do you respond to criticism about your vote to impeach President Trump . Do you stand by it or do you regret it . I think with the president and does not hesitate to criticize the way the democrats handle that process. I think it was also wrong and also overly partisan but come back to this conversation that the fbi has called a dangerous Conspiracy Theory and mr. Owens youve appeared on that show and you appeared on a quanon show and said you did not know what it was and that you said you have to google it. A few months later he went back on another quanon show and again you said tonight youre not sure what it is. At what point are you responsible for the decisions you make . And think what we are seeing here is a pattern of bad judgment. Whether its appearing on web shows or dangerous conspiracy theories or appearing on raising money for the wall that turned to be a fraud and the perpetrator that was arrested and he said at that time you did not know that wall athon with the crawl underneath you do not know there was a fundraiser for and im concerned by what i see here is a pattern of bad judgment. Thats interesting because we got the word out and talked as much as we can and try to make sure we got her message out. He showed hes talking about was a show that was not quanon. Someone called in who was a member of that and now this organization, then steam called this entire show quanon. Lets get to the facts of what needs to happen. What needs to happen for district four is what we need to talk about right now. We have a candidate here that is 85 voted for man nancy pelosi that 84 against district for. We vote for impeachment of the president at a time when our country had the lowest on employment in the history of mankind or lois on a plummet history of our country for blacks, hispanics, asian, women in black on a plummet and skyrockets and then at that same time the impeaching the president thats gives us that and again we realize its nothing to it and they realize he will not vote for the district and voting for pelosi. Dwight ou time . Do i owe you time . Gentlemen, good evening. This district covers both rural and urban areas and in between areas that expands a lot of growth. After speaking with citizens what you believe is the most important issue facing utah and the fourth Congressional District . Congas mick mcadams. Thank you. Good to see you. Look, right now we are facing an uptick in covid19 cases and illness and we are seeing that hits our economy. So many utah families are struggling right now and we have to be better and we have to have a plan to get this virus under control and to slow the spread of the virus and to help those families that are really struggling. For me this isnt about republicans or democrats but i am utahs most independent member of congress and dont hesitate to vote against my own party as i did with the heroes act that pelosis bill that sent too much and working with publicans to find a plant that we can come together on and move forward into though that life preserver to utah families struggling so much right now and it is not a time for namecalling or fingerpointing but a time to recognize that we are all american, weve got to rally together and come togeth together. Could you repeat the question . Mr. Owens, talking to residents in the fourth Congressional District what do you believe is the most important issue . [audio difficulties] i will just say about the problemsolving that my opponent keeps mentioning. Its interesting how he goes to dc and has this nice moment but to come back and we see then most negative ads weve ever seen. Again, go to burgess utah backslash ads and we can look at not just going to dc but having this moment but actually seen us doing it. We should bring ourselves together, talk across the aisle in a way that is truly bipartisan. Let me do one follow on that. Both of super facts have come in from the Democratic Party and Republican Party and their attacks add hitting each of you. How do you respond to that and do support the ads who are seen on the airwaves . I wish we could keep the outside money and the outside groups out of utah and let utah decide and let each of us as candidates take her message to utah voters and let them decide. I think some of the things raised in those outs are concerning. Mr. Owens has made divisions in the past relating to personal finances and the policies his supports by privatizing Social Security and the aarp will most trusted organizations says they would announce cuts to their Social Security benefits and his record opposing protections for people of preexisting conditions and his support for Nuclear Weapons testing in utah and all those things are troubling and i think it is something that is a factor for the voters to take in account and decide who will they vote for. Go to burgess for utah ads in my opponent is jumping on top of that so we have to take entire days to put together a fact sheet. Go there and see that. When i suggest is very simply this, we have to decide if we move this process forward. If in case we have an honest discussion about policy or spending time spreading falsehoods. Im four basic tenants. Education, faith, freemarket and family unit prayed those four tenants will make sure that anybody no matter where you are coming from the in this country can get the American Dream. Weve done a best here in utah. Question about needing a 52nd answer. Congressman, do you support Campaign Finance reform that would make the candidate accountable for the super pack . I do support campaignfinance reform and especially limiting the amount of outside money and dark money that can common. Mr. Owens. [inaudible] i would like to know more what that looks like and make sure the freedom of speech as part of that process. Thank you. Lets move to another question from one of our students. This deals with Climate Change. Hello, im austin. Im a student here at the commUnity College. With the increase of forest fires and decreases in our states [inaudible] utahs already seen the effects of Climate Change but what policies will you support to curb the effects of Climate Change moving forward . Thank you. I can only give you one minute. The United States leads the entire world in the co2 gas and Climate Change issues that we are dealing with. What we have to do is allow the free market and the reason we do so well in terms of making sure our water is clean, air is clean so we have the free market. The worst polluters are in the world are china and india who have the free market is not deploying what they are doing. We need to work with the warp speed commission to see what it looks like to have virus that normally takes decades and years to get to redoing it in nine months but lets do the same thing with Climate Change, healthcare and pull together freemarket and let them take the lead and allow the government to support and we could get a lot of things taken care of easier then we have in the past. Thank you, i set up frequently for the author for laws to be enacted they have to be bipartisan and that is a reality and thats my work of the problemsolving caucus with republicans and democrats talking and listening to each other developing prophecies so i came up with the problem solvers, remember kittens from ohio and we sponsored legislation to advance solar energy to look at air quality and pollution and the solutions to Climate Change will take all of us, republicans a democrats coming together to recognize the magnitude of this problem and then work with the private sector to harness the ingenuity and entrepreneurship from a private sector. We did this earlier this summer came together rebellions and democrats together with the president the Great American outdoors act that i was proud to vote for. It protects lands for hiking and camping and lands that my family enjoys as we get out to recreate and hike and i grew up recreating so he can do this and we have to do this. Its important. Gentlemen, thank you. Theres much more to discuss but we have reached the end of our allotted time for questions. We will now move to one minute closing statements. Prior to airtime it was determined that mr. Owens would have the start. Thank you. Thank you to whoever is listening. We are fighting for the soul of our nation but were seen this played out across our country. Stories of life and destruction. With all this turmoil america still the greatest country in history of mankind. America is the land of opportunity and no one knows that better than here in utah. Only america can through education, faith, hard work and family can we overcome all obstacles but only in america can these same values in the future representative or president come from [inaudible]. Im living the American Dream and dedicated my life to help others see their potential. Now more than ever we need leaders who will stand up and wont compromise their values for political opportunities. Now more than ever these leaders who stand against [inaudible] across the country we want to inject the mob mentality and once again be a shining city on the hill. Its time for us tonight, friends. I ask for your vote. I promise to represent you with honesty, courage, hard work and a servants heart. God bless this great state of utah. Thank you. Let me say to julie and our four kids watching tonight from home, thank you for always supporting me. Our country is hurting. Our state is hurting. We wont get better economically until we act individually responsible to get the virus under control. The divisiveness and gridlock wont get better until we put people ahead of the party. We need to stop the namecalling and stop attacking the motives of each other and by shared values and common grounds. I work hard to represent everyone in some people think im not liberal enough and other people think im not conservative enough. You may not always agree with every decision i make but you know my heart is in the right place. I listen. I work to bring people together in a work to find solutions. Im independent and i try to do what is best for utah even if its not always popular like my work to stop congressional pay raise that was proposed by republicans and democrats to require a balanced budget or to stop the trumps plan to resume the clear weapons testing that i Work Across Party Lines to get things done and help people and i would be honored to continue to represent you in congress. Thank you both and thank you to congressman ben mcadams and mr. Burgess owens for their time this evening, special appreciation to those who asked questions, including our panelists. I would like to offer a particular thanks to karen hill and wayne nader hauser, cochairs of utah Debate Commission and executive director nina trade we also need to recognize our media partner from organizing and providing airtime for this debate. And the commission would like to thank our general sponsors the Miller Family foundation and george and dolores [inaudible] foundation. I like to remind you the next debate is october 15 at 6 00 oclock between candidates for the third Congressional District. Remember to mail and or cast your ballot on or before november 3. In Salt Lake City im doug and good night. Who will control congress in january . Stay informed on all the competitive congressional races leading up to election day with cspans campaign 2020 coverage. Watch the candidates the debate and Election Results on cspan. Watch online at cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. The competition is on. Be a part of this years cspan student cam video competition, middle and High School Students be the start of a National Conversation by making a fivesix minute documentary exploring the issues you want the president and congress to address in 2021. Be bold with your documentary show support and opposing points of view and include cspan vid video. The winner earns [inaudible] and a grand prize of 5000. The deadline to cement videos is generally 20, 2021. Be informed about competition rules, tips and more information on how to get started on our website. Student cam. Org. You are watching cspan2 your unfiltered view of government, graded by americas Cable Television company as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Twenty mitchell is the author of a new book here in cyber in the age of the trump and the unraveling of Americas National security policy. Mr. Mitchell, before we get into the essence of the book what gives you a background in cybersecurity . I have covered the federal government for a long time and covered congress and the editor of roll call and i worked inside washington publisher so we do a lot of deep dive coverage into policy areas