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 SweepSecurity 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 pos