Masters from old dominion university. And republican candidate scott held this seat after winning the Congressional Election in prior to serving in 2016. Congress, he represented Virginia Beach in the house of delegates. Taylor served overseas as a navy seal sniper. He received a bachelors and a masters degree in International Relations from harvard. Here to moderate the debate is National Political reporter joe st. George. He has covered National Politics for a number of years. Thank you for being here. Joe should be a fascinating hourlong discussion. My job is quite simple. Ask questions on the minds of voters as they vote. We know plenty of virginians are already voting. My second job, enforce the rules. 90 second answers, 62nd report goals report 60 second rebuttals. First, opening statements. Congresswoman luria, you won the coin toss. You get to go first. Rep. Luria thank you so much for hosting this important conversation tonight. My name is elaine luria. Im currently your representative in the virginia Second District. Im a 20 year navy veteran. I served in the office of nuclear engineer. I was a Small Business owner and im also a mother and im joined by my husband and my daughter. I look forward to an opportunity to continue to serve the Second District. We are currently in a pandemic. This is something that is unprecedented as far as our public health, as far as the economic repercussions of where we are today. When i travel around the district, the things i hear most from people is they are concerned. They are concerned about the health and their livelihood. My promise as a member of congress is to continue to fight for those things virginians and people in the virginia Second District need the most. I will fight to continue to protect Health Coverage and coverage for people with preexisting conditions and will continue to support legislation that helps to cut Prescription Drug costs. I will continue to support those programs that have helped so many businesses through the pandemic such as the Payroll Protection Program that has helped 11,000 businesses in Hampton Roads and saved roughly 10,000 jobs. One out of five people in the area impacted by this rod and sweeping Bipartisan Legislation we have been able to pass. I am diligently negotiating as part of the bipartisan congress. Most people wouldnt think we have a Bipartisan Group that works closely together today but the problem solvers, the frameworks for negotiations now between secretary mnuchin and leadership, and i understand each day we are getting closer to a new set of legislation to help during the coronavirus. I look forward to a substantive discussion tonight of the issues close to the voters watching and i thank my opponent mr. Taylor for joining in the discussion. Joe and that is time. Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor good evening. Great to be with everyone and i look forward to answering your questions. First some background on me, i am not from a wealthy or political family with millions of dollars in the bank. I was raised on the delmarva peninsula by a strong single mother who did her best to raise her four kids. I think about her often and how devastating it would be for her today during this pandemic and how tough it must be for most of you out there without millions of dollars in your own bank account. How you are struggling with kids at home with work, with your businesses. Also i served the nation as a u. S. Navy seal both in peace and combat. I have buried many of my friends in these wars and i have wept with her family their families. I know the sacrifices many of you have made for this great nation and im proud to be your neighbor. I also understand the issues that affect your family of the state level having gained valuable experience serving for two terms in the Virginia House of delegates. It was truly an honor to serve as your congressman for two years, helping thousands of constituents, passing numerous meaningful laws like accountability for the v. A. Or serving on the Appropriations Committee and bringing back over 300 million to this area. This evening at this race is about contrast and the choice is clear. My opponent supports nancy pelosi 90 of the time. She has voted to use our taxpayer dollars on her own campaign expenses. She has been silent and absent while the working people of the district and businesses have been severely harmed by politicians whose decisions didnt affect their own paycheck. She was silent and absent on violence and vandalism and businesses being busted up. She was silent and absent on the American Flag being taken down from our Commonwealth Capital because it might be a target for protesters. Her votes would harm police and make communities less safe. The choice is clear. I ask for your vote and i look forward to speaking with you tonight. Joe that is time. We will have plenty of time to get into these issues. Congresswoman luria, as you mentioned, we are in the middle of this pandemic. There are plenty of virginians, americans watching tonight, still struggling. Respectfully, since you voted in the spring to provide that 1200 stimulus check, that money is long spent. Earlier this money month you actually voted against a bill saying that it did not provide enough targeted relief. In washington, democrats and republicans cant seem to get together on relief for the american. So i ask this. Why cant you and your party agree to stimulus checks now and worry about other aid later . Rep. Luria what i would say about that legislation, the problem is that people in washington cant get together. My opponent likes to say im with nancy pelosi. I voted against her bill. I voted against it twice. The problem was the first bill was 3 trillion, made completely on a partisan basis with a lot of additional things that were not targeted towards covid relief. I strongly support the covid relief package that includes individual stimulus payments, continuing the unemployment assistance program, the Payroll Protection Program, additional assistance to the airline industry. Our state and local government, schools and local Law Enforcement, and Public Safety officials are struggling. We need to make up for that. I set a few minutes ago that we are negotiating right now. I hear that negotiations are moving forward and we expect a deal by the end of the week. I fully expect that to include additional stimulus payments. The bill that is being negotiated now actually includes higher stimulus payments for children. What is holding it up is two things. Specifically the republicans and negotiations dont want to include tax credits. They dont want to include the earned income tax credit. They dont want to include a comprehensive, nationwide, orchestrated plan for tracking, tracing, and testing for covid. If we are going to get through this, we have to include the resources that will actually stop the spread of the virus. Joe mr. Taylor mr. Taylor i would joe joe like to she did not inject your name and im asking the question so you can respond right now. Some republicans are skeptical the city needs a major financial bailout. The major Reason Congress hasnt passed anything recently. Do you believe cities in virginia should get new Financial Assistance from congress to help pay the bills . Cities like Virginia Beach. Mr. Taylor thats a great question. Let me first say localities and cities, not the ones irresponsible and democrat states, but pensions, localities joe Virginia Beach. Mr. Taylor Virginia Beach definitely. No question they understand the need better locally further businesses and people, they know better than anybody, certainly better than washington. I dont agree with what she said. I think comprehensive is synonymous with a big liberal wish list. Rep. Luria thats why i didnt vote for it. Mr. Taylor she didnt vote for those two things, but she has voted with nancy pelosi over 90 of the time. The only people who didnt vote against those were democrats and swing districts. The reality is when i speak to business owners, they are hurting and she has been silent when political decisions of democrat politicians like the governor, who have shut down these businesses, and the workers, the businesses themselves, they are scraping by. Rents are due. They are stressed out. Their livelihoods, their lifes work has been called nonessential, which is insane. Quite frankly, representatives and leaders of any position should be fighting for their people. Elaine luria has remained silent. If you speak to businesses all over the district, they will say the same thing. Where has elaine been . Joe you have invoked the congresswomans name several times, so you have a chance to respond. Rep. Luria thank you. I will say that i have visited hundreds of businesses during my time in congress. I just visited one today in Virginia Beach, premium ppe. They are actually manufacturing masks here in Virginia Beach. I have visited businesses that are struggling. Thats why we need more help. I set up a hotline at my office for businesses to call, to help assist with the Payroll Protection Program, the Small Business administration loans. When i get feedback from businesses who say the only reason my business is still open, the only reason im still employing these eight people who are like my family, was because i reached out to your office and your office helped me, i can tell you we are working for the people. We are working for the businesses and we understand the additional need for that assistance. Joe mr. Taylor, i know politicians and elected officials do not like yes or no questions, but this is my attempt. Has President Trump done a good job handling this pandemic . Yes or no . Mr. Taylor i think he has. I think there could be some improvement of course. But i want to touch on other things. There are two things ms. Lurie spoke about. Ppe. When she was disgracefully using her uniform to justify, before she saw any evidence, it was when the pandemic was starting. I spoke with nurses who were you who were reusing disposable ppe masks and congress was nowhere. And again, leaders lead. I jumped into action and worked with the private sector. Got tons of ppe delivered to supply all the hospital systems, including inova and vcu to make sure virginia was taking care of. 87 of the ppe is manufactured in china, which ms. Luria is personally invested in companies that lose jobs here and go to china to work. Its interesting she visited that factory. Now constituent services. Mrs. Luria has the worst constituent services in virginia. We all recorded the same way congresswoman weston, congresswoman spanberger far exceed her as constituent services as did ours. We spoke to an africanamerican Small Business owner who almost had to shut her business down because she reached out to her office and was not helped. We have a long list of people who were not helped. That is the breadandbutter of her representation and she has failed. Rep. Luria what i would say about that is it is ironic mr. Taylor, because when i came into office, my chief of staff ask your staff a meeting in a turnover. You were in the navy. You understood turnovers. Took over the case files. We got nothing from you. Mr. Taylor we were supposed to finish we finish them. Rep. Luria excuse me, can you ask him to stop interrupting . I would like to have my time. Joe you have it. Rep. Luria as soon as we got the phones backup, we got call after call from people wanting to know what happened with their cases because they were not closed. And they were not resolved. As far as the woman you are mentioning, i cannot disclose the details for her privacy, but i can tell you she reached out to our office with a claimed i had to do with a federal agency. We helped her fill out the form for that complaint. We wrote a letter on her behalf and since contacted the federer federal agency and notified her four times. You also decided to somehow do a scare tactic to china relative to this woman. The one thing i can tell you is this womans complaint has nothing to do with china, and you are fear mongering with stupid political talking points. Joe a lot to get to, so next question. Mr. Taylor, we have seen the commercials, and people know by now former staffers of yours have been indicted and could dictate a fraud associated with indicted and convicted for fraud associated with the 2018 election. You have denied any wrongdoing, but if you cant manage your own staff how will you manage the , affairs of the people of virginia . Mr. Taylor thats an excellent question. I have been very honest and upright for over two years. We just heard about fear mongering and scare tactics. Ms. Luria, if she had anything other than scare tactics, you would have seen way more commercials that were positive for herself. Joe the question was about you, though. Mr. Taylor i understand and i just answered it. The reality is i said many times, i dont know if any wrongdoing, theres zero evidence to show that. We of course made faulty decisions that were regrettable. I said that many times and taken responsibility for my team. The reality is we move forward and this is just noise. The reality is there is clear, a clear choice and selection and a clear diversions of ideology, clear diversions of pathways for the country, and as i said, ms. Luria has voted with nancy pelosi 90 of the time and will do anything to get away from talking about what shes voting for. Joe i want to move on to the environment. Rep. Luria i think he mentioned my name. Joe you have 60 seconds. Rep. Luria have an article from the virginia pilot. Im surprised mr. Taylor didnt try to dodge this tonight. On every other occasion he tried to say hes not under investigation. I want to remind people of this quote from john beamer, the special prosecutor overseeing the case, who said on tuesday that the twoyear investigation isnt over yet and he expects to see at least one more indictment. He said no one has been cleared including taylor, quoted from the virginian pilot. Hes part of the campaign and the whole campaign is under investigation. Mr. Taylor what his last quote was i will Say Something here. Mr. Beamers last quote, and inappropriately he should not have even said my name, but the reality is he said in his last quote, which she of course has failed to recite, to refer folks back to february, which says specifically theres zero evidence scott taylor knew of anything about any wrongdoing. Im obviously paraphrasing but thats what the last quote was. Not what she said. Elaine luria will do anything to get away from her record, to get away from the fact that who she told you she was last time, as she faked herself into a moderate, is not how she represented you. Rep. Luria do i get a rebuttal . Joe the environment is very important to the second Congressional District. We only have one hour. The environment can be complicated. Congresswoman luria, what is one simple change you would Like Congress to mandate that may help improve the air and Water Quality in the Virginia Area . Rep. Luria one of the things i think is very important is that we move to types of Energy Sources that are greener and reduce co2 emissions. Obviously i stand against offshore drilling, which my opponent used to support and now opposes. I think offshore wind is a huge advantage for virginia. Mr. Taylor did congress mandate it though . Rep. Luria congress shouldnt mandate anything specifically. I will talk about what i have done. Nuclear is a important part of the future of our greener and cleaner energy. I introduced the Nuclear Energy leadership act. It has been included in the Senate Version of the ndaa and the house energy package. It invests in the future of Nuclear Energy. New fuels for Nuclear Energy and small modular reactors. We cannot get to greener and cleaner and carbon free emissions, free energy, without including nuclear. I have been a leader on that in the house and working for my Senate Colleagues and we will continue to push it forward. Joe mr. Taylor, same question. What is one simple change you would like to see congress mandate to help the air and water in virginia and throughout the country . Mr. Taylor let me first say im a conservative so i am a conservationist by nature. I grew up on the Eastern Shore working on a crab house. I live on the Chesapeake Bay. I want my son to benefit from this beautiful bay. What i want to say is elaine luria, she said it was aspirational, the green new deal, which would be mandated by congress, severe mandates which would stranglehold the Energy Sector for sure. I agree with her on nuclear but i would like to go to the theory him which is more abundant. The problem is her party put in place which allowed that to happen for years and years. Lets talk about what i did as well when i was in congress on the appropriation committee, i brought funding back to 73 million for the program and 55 Million Dollars for the national sea grant. Also, not just rhetoric, this is what you hear from her side about current flooding and sea level rise. One of the things i did was put into law the ability for the department of defens