Montana by 20 points in 2016. John good evening and welcome to the Montana Senate debate. I am john twiggs. Anna and i am anna rau. We would like to welcome visitors and viewers viewers joining us nationally on cspan. John we have both candidates on the ballot in our studio tonight. They are incumbent republican steve daines. Senator daines. And democratic governor, Steve Bullock. Welcome to illinois. We appreciate having everyone here in person. But we are safely distanced and ready for a spirited debate. Anna we have a slightly different format. Each candidate will have 90 seconds to answer the question. Afterwards, there will be an open discussion period for that topic with a chance for rebuttals, comments, and exchanges. We will finish the debate with a 90 closing statement from each second candidate. John lets get set with the Supreme Court justice confirmation. Just this past saturday, President Trump announcing his nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. This promises to be another contentious process following the ugly scene with the kavanaugh confirmation. Critics,at has opted democrats, to talk about possibly term limits for the justices or changing the size of the court itself. Our first question, as montanas senator, would you vote for any changes in this process or the court itself . By virtue of a coin toss, we will start with governor bullock. Gov. Bullock thank you for moderating and hosting. These debates are an important part of the conversation leading up to november. It matters who we send to the senate. It matters what they will focus on. Throughout my time as governor and a. G. , i focused on doing what is right for montana. This is what this campaign is about. My opponent on the other hand seems to be focused on washington politicians like Chuck Schumer, nancy pelosi. After the first debate, i had a friend from great falls who called and said, good thing it was not a drinking game every time senator daines talked about a politician, or he would not be able to get out of bed in the morning. I challenge him to focus on what matters. I know montanans would appreciate it. So it willknight, keep john from having on too many. I argued in front of the Supreme Court. I want to believe it is beyond partisanship and politics, but unfortunately what we are seeing right now this is more or less senator daines against himself. Four years ago, he said there is no way during an Election Year we should move forward with a nominee for a new Supreme Court position. And this year, he flipflopped on that. So we have to do what we can to take politics out of the Supreme Court. John thank you, governor bullock. Senator daines . Sen. Daines i heard what the governor had to say speaking against himself. Up the if montanans add amount of times the governor said he was not gonna run for senate, it was not five times, 10 times, 12 times, but 13 times governor bullock told the people of montana, i am not running for the u. S. Senate. And here we are tonight. The reason schumers name gets brought up is because he flew out to montana days before the filing deadline and talked Steve Bullock into the race. That is why we are here tonight. To answer your question about the Supreme Court, i took an oath to defend the constitution. The constitution is very clear, article 11 section 11. And that is, the President Shall nominate for a vacancy in the u. S. Supreme court and the senate will either confirm or reject that nominee. In 2016, the senate rejected that nominee. The senate was controlled by republicans, barack obama made the nomination. Now you have the senate and presidency controlled by the same party. Every time since 1888, when there has been a vacancy in an Election Year, it has been filled 15 times. I support the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. She is exactly the kind of justice i want to see on the Supreme Court. She is a minivan mom, a brilliant intellect, brings a great mind to the Supreme Court. Im grateful somebody like her would be willing to share the United States court. John this is the open discussion, rebuttals, followup. To get it started, governor bullock, we start with you. Gov. Bullock i am running for senate because i think washington ought to work more like montana. I heard from a lot of montanans across our state that senator daines was not working each and every day for us. He was working for the corporation and special interests. He has taken over 2 million of corporate pac money along the way. During my time as governor, i have brought democrats and republicans together to make a difference in peoples lives. We expanded health care for 90,000 people, saved rural hospitals. Senator daines has been trying to strip that health care away. We cut taxes for Small Businesses. Senator daines has been focusing on the Largest Companies and the wealthiest among us. We kept public lands in public hands while senator daines has been fighting with the wealthy out of state interest, taking 800,000 real estate dollars out of the way. I will always fight for montana. That is what i have always done. John senator daines . Sen. Daines it is hard to keep a straight face talking about dollars in a campaign. Governor bullock raised and ran an organization that raised 30 million of dark money. Took 3 million from big pharma. Regarding the corporate pacs, the liberal senators supporting Steve Bullock and washington, d. C. , are taking corporate pac dollars and redirecting it to his campaign. That is how it works. Coming back to the Supreme Court question, montanans want the u. S. Supreme Court Justice that will protect our Second Amendment, the out of control radical limber projects, litigating the keystone pipeline. We need to keep Natural Resource jobs in montana. That helps provide jobs. The justices Steve Bullock would support with schumer would be bad for the country. John governor bullock . Gov. Bullock going back to the court and thinking about the day i stood in front of the justices, really wanting to believe justice is blind, like every montanan wants that to be the case. This is steve daines against steve daines. Four years ago he said, let the people decide. Let the people vote before we appoint a new justice. Four years later, he changed it. I dont know if it has anything to do with week after the election the Supreme Court will hear a case that could strip coverage for preexisting conditions like the senator has tried to do his whole time in d. C. , to eliminate Medicaid Expansion, and get rid of health care and benefits in the economy. I want to hear from montanans about how to take politics out of the Supreme Court. I think montanans expect that out of all of the courts. That is what we need to get to. John statement from senator daines. Sen. Daines montanans want to have a Supreme Court justice that will uphold the constitution and know that their proper role is not to make the laws but interpret them in accordance with the constitution. This is one of the biggest votes a u. S. Senator makes. I am grateful i stood behind justice gorsuch, justice kavanaugh, and now i will be standing behind this amazing nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. We have to have justices that understand they cannot threaten our way of life in montana. Here is what is at stake. On the ballot right now, the Second Amendment. It was on the front page of the Great Falls Tribune last week that said Justice Ginsburgs vacancy puts the Second Amendment on center stage. For those montanans who care about the Second Amendment, know that Steve Bullock has an f from the nra. He called for a ban on semiautomatic guns. The Second Amendment is at stake right now with whoever is put on the Supreme Court. John thank you, senator daines. We will move to a topic that will be addressed during the next Supreme Court session. Anna as the governor alluded to, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a challenge to the Affordable Care act a week after the election. If the Court Strikes down the Affordable Care act, what happens next for the 23 million americans now insured through the aca . The first answer goes to you, senator daines. Sen. Daines my opponent is a lawyer. I am a chemical engineer. But i have spoken to experts looking at this case. This is a very big case that will go before the United StatesSupreme Court act. Experts say it is highly unlikely they will overturn the aca. That is the consensus of many legal experts. However, i want to answer the question, what if they do . This is a personal question for me. My sister susan, born and raised in bozeman, spent her entire life in bozeman with four children, had a preexisting condition. She contracted a rare autoimmune disease. Had she not had access to health care, it would have bankrupted the family. Her medical expenses were over 1 million. She eventually died of this horrible disease. This is very personal. That is why i will always fight to make sure montanans with a preexisting condition will have access to health care. And importantly, have access to Health Care Without paying additional cost. Obamacare, the heart of this lawsuit, has doubled premiums for montanans. Doubled premiums. I dont think folks have forgotten that. Obama said if you like your doctor or health care, you can keep it. Over 20,000 montanans lost their Health Care Insurance as a result of the Affordable Care act. This is a very important case before the Supreme Court. We must protect those montanans with preexisting conditions. John thank you. Governor bullock . Gov. Bullock health care deeply personal to all montanans. I think we all agree that all montanans should get the same coverage senator daines and his family has had. That is why it is shocking in some respects when even the Washington Post would give four pinocchios to your claim you would be protecting preexisting conditions. Even before covid19, access to Affordable Care was so important to our economy and individuals. That is why we brought democrats and republicans together to expand Medicaid Expansion for 90,000 montanans and preserve rural hospitals, take on drug and insurance costs. But the whole time senator daines has been supposedly fighting for us in washington he , has been trying to strip coverage for you. Voting four times to take away coverage for preexisting conditions like cancer and diabetes. With his hand in the pocket of the Drug Companies. Drug costs are 20 of Overall Health costs, not even allowing negotiation for drug prices along the way. When we look at the 90,000 montanans, three out of every five businesses in our state that rely on Medicaid Expansion to cover one or more of their employees, the whole time the senator has been in d. C. , he has been trying to take that away. I will fight to make sure everybody has access to Affordable Care. I will take on Prescription Drug companies. And i will not let anyone take your health care away. John thank you, a chance for rebuttals, followups. Senator daines, we begin with you. Sen. Daines what you just heard was right out of schumers playbook. I can tell you that because if you were to watch the Senate Debates tonight, in places like maine, iowa, montana, what governor bullock just reticulated was exactly what Chuck Schumer put in the playbook, running against republicans. That is what you are seeing parroted across the nation. Heres the facts. I served on the finance committee of the u. S. Senate and i was part of a bipartisan bill working with Chuck Grassley, republican, and rod wyman, democrat, and passed a bill to lower the cost of Prescription Drugs. It was a bipartisan effort. I have been ranked one of the most bipartisan members of the u. S. Senate. That bill passed. It would lower Prescription Drug prices by 20 billion and saved the taxpayers 100 billion. That is how you Work Together to generate an outcome with republicans and democrats focused on reducing prices. This is a big issue particularly , for Senior Citizens. Gov. Bullock this is a playbook out of montana. We have brought folks together to get you health care. Senator daines has tried to strip it away. Lets talk about Prescription Drug costs. It is almost immoral costco can negotiate the price of Prescription Drugs, but the largest purchaser, the federal government, cannot. Steve daines stood in the way of that. A bipartisan effort. There was another proposal in front of his committee that said, for those essential drugs, lets make sure these Drug Companies cant raise Prices Higher than inflation. Republicans like Chuck Grassley were on board with that. Cassidy, another republican. Steve daines stood with the pharmaceutical lobby. There is a reason why he has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Drug Companies. When he talks about getting rid of obamacare, there will be 63 million of drug coverage our seniors get. Steve daines works with corporations and special interest, not making sure your health care will be taken care of. John senator daines . Sen. Daines lets come back to a basic fact. The governor raised 3 billion 3 million from big pharma, that is a fact. The Congressional Budget Office took a look at the proposals Steve Bullock talked about. You know what it said . It said if they did that, the choices our Senior Citizens medicare is what he is talking about that Senior Citizens would see many of their choices, Prescription Drugs, restricted. That was a study done by the Congressional Budget Office. While it might sound good on a debate stage, what Steve Bullock just proposed would directly impact our Senior Citizens and restrict choices they have today for their pharmaceutical drugs. What i am most concerned about is the direction d. C. Is headed. You put nancy pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and joe biden in charge of washington, youll see a federal takeover of the health care system. That will put the federal government right in the middle of the patient and the doctor. That is where it is headed if you dont have a check and balance on nancy pelosi and the farleft of the house of representatives. John governor bullock. Gov. Bullock this is about choice. No montana senior should have to choose between heating their home and Prescription Drugs. At the end of the day, 63 million of medicare drug benefits would be taken away if senator daines had his way. I am going to fight just like i have every day, bringing democrats and republicans to do what is right for montana. We did it in our legislature. Standing in the way of making change in washington, d. C. , when it comes to drug prices has been senator daines. But it is even more than that. It is more than the senior drug benefits. It is actually looking at things like medicare as he votes to cut funding or even privatize. It is things like social security, a risky scheme of a payroll tax as he tries to figure out how the wealthy and corporations can get more money. Montanans deserve a senator who will fight for them, not corporations and special interests. John we will move to a topic related to the pandemic. We have had multiple stimulus packages, another currently stalled in congress. This could be something you face in the new session in january. Our question, do you think we should have another stimulus package . If so, what would be crucial to helping montanans and our economy . We will begin with governor bullock. Gov. Bullock we are faci