In america is happening here in kentucky. Mitch mcconnell versus amy mcgrath. While were not in front of a live aw audience, we know the race and issues are too important not to debate. Ill talk about everything from the covid19 pandemic to the u. S. Supreme court. Tonight Gray Television welcome you to the kentucky debate. Good evening live from the studios of wkyt in lexington, im bill bryant and im joined by u. S. Senator majority Mitch Mcconnell and retired lieutenant amy mcgrath. Were 20 feet apart and each candidate will have time to answer questions and rebuttals will be permitted. A draw to determine who goes first and lt. Colonel mcgrath, well start with you. Nothing impacts more than the covid19 pandemic. The two of you sparred if you should be tested. If comes to that, the president and first lady had had covid19 and the governor and his family are in quarantine for exposure. What should be done. Its impacted all of our lives. If you take a step back senator mcconnell as the Senate Majority leader has the highest briefings of any member of congress. He knew about the dangers of coronavirus in january. Did he tell us . Did he tell, we need to be prepared and get our president prepared for what was to be this crisis . He didnt. The first time he said the word coronavirus wasnt until the stock market crashed and all along hes playing these very partisan political games, even now when kentucky and America Needs more aid, thats not what youre going to get from me. I have a plan to get us through this coronavirus so that our schools are opened up safely, so that we get our economy back and stop playing these games. To this day senator mcconnell still doesnt have a plan, a National Testing and tracing plan and hes not going to do whats right for our country. Thats time. I want to start by congratulating colonel mcgrath for her service in the military. And nominated over a hundred people to have the opportunity she did and i was involved in making it able for women in the military to go into different jobs like being able to fly in combat. With regard to the question you asked, what i did was shepherd through the senate an almost 3 trillion Coronavirus Relief bill, which has provided 13 billion for kentucky. Over a billion dollars for hospitals and health care providers, and ive tried to be a good example, too. When we went back in session in the senate in may, i was the one who said we need to wear masks, practice social distancing. Dr. Fauci made it clear that coronavirus is not going away. And we need to practice distancing and masks until we finally get a vaccine and can put this in the rearview mirror. Times up, senator, and lt. Colonel mcgrath you have a rebuttal. Senator mcconnell, we have had that passed in march and here we, the house put it on his desk in may, and all summer long didnt see the urgency to do anything. We have a million kentuckiens, and 300,000 who dont have health care in the middle of coronavirus hes walking an i with an i away and even President Trump wants it to happen before the election, its irresponsible. Senator mcconnell. Well, what she supported after the cares act was the socalled heroes bill over in the house, a 3 trillion which included in it, by the way, tax cuts for rich people in new york and california, health care for illegal immigrants, and by the way, that bill that she supported, that they passed in the house after the cares act, provided more money for puerto rico than it did for kentucky. In spite of her best efforts, shes a national democrat. She is in line with schumer and pelosi and the rest on all of those issues. For kentuckians, President Trump and governor Andrew Bashir are the most two important voices they hear regarding covid19 and they are afr afrey frequently different. They did the best they could with an unknown disease trying their best to handle. Imagine the situation in early march when dr. Fauci recommended we shut down the economy in order to deal with the health care pandemic. We were confronted with problems. A Health Care Emergency and shut down economy at the same time. What to do . Well, the cares act began in my office, we drafted it, built it out. Appealed to the democrats and the administration, and literally flooded the zone with ultimately three trillion dollars to both deal with the health care pandemic and the economic crisis created by shutting down the government. Now, we learned some lessons. Dr. Faucis indicated were not going to shut the economy down and i agree with him. It created a whole different set of problems. In the meantime, what we have to do until we get a vaccine is to wear our masks, practice social distancing and try to prevent the spread. Thank you. Lt. Colonel mcgrath. Well, i give the president , the white house and this congress a f for handling of coronavirus. Look, we have 213,000 americans dead in nine months. Thats more americans dead than world war ii, korea, vietnam, persian gulf war, iraq and afghanistan wars combined. And senator mcconnell things weve done a good job . We have 5 of the worlds population, 25 of the worlds covid cases. And we still have a president in mixed messages from this white house on how to handle this virus. And senator mcconnell, his one job is to help america through this crisis right now in passing legislation to keep our economy afloat so that people can make ends meet. And instead of doing that, he is trying to ram through a Supreme Court nominee right now, instead of negotiating, which is what he should have been doing all summer long to make that happen. Senator, do you have an addition aresponse. [laughter] she wanted health care for illegals and tax cuts for the reach and for puerto rico. Weve been trying to put something together that attacks the problem. I laid out a bill in the senate about a month ago that provided Liability Protection so that people didnt get sued as a result of how they handled this, kids in school, jobs, health care, we couldnt get a single democrat to vote for it. So its pretty clear to me that her party doesnt want to get a solution. Senator, time. Lt. Colonel. Can i respond to that . Yes, please. Senator connell three years ago had no problem ramming through working overtime for a tax cut for wealthiest corporations, now when this comes to kentucky families, when it comes to putting food on the table. When it comes to renters that 40 of kentucky renters are facing eviction right now. He wont pass the 2 trillion, even President Trump wants done right now. I mean,ed 2 trillion for corporations, no problem. 2 trillion for kentucky in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of a National Crisis that we havent seen in 100 years, no, thats too hard. Lets get in it. Youve made glancing references to the Economic Activity and the problem that we have right now and the trouble with getting a deal. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on our compli and were all well aware of that. 600 federal boost to Employment Benefits ended, and to small businesses, and airlines started mass layoffs and federal problems ended as well. This question from a university of kentucky student and were privileged off their perspective tonight. Where do you stand on negotiations on a second stimulus bill and we begin with lt. Colonel mcgrath. Well, as i said before, i think its an absolutely dereliction of duty to not be negotiating and working on this. You know, this is the first time in a century, in 100 years where we have a major interNational Crisis, where no one in the world is looking to the United States for leadership. Think about that. Its because we have such poor leaders right now. Cant get this coronavirus under control. And the one thing that our senate is supposed to do is to help people right now. And here is the problem, senator mcconnell built a senate that is so dysfunctional and so partisan that even in the middle of a National Crisis he cant get it done. Think about that. For that reason alone he should be voted out of office. Weve got to get our democracy back again. Weve got to get our democracy working because we have to get through this crisis right now. Thats your time. Senator mcconnell. Well, my opponents entitled to her opinion, but not to her own set of facts. I mean, here is the situation. Weve been in negotiation with the speaker. Shes been demanding we throw 3 trillion at this problem in a way that is largely in many respects unrelated to solving the problem. What weve been trying to do is to reach an agreement when you have divided government, you actually have to reach an agreement. And the speaker has been totally unreasonable and not interested in getting an outcome, as weve tried and tried and tried, as i just said a few minutes ago. I put a bill on the floor of a half a trillion dollars, a lot of money, about a month ago to tackle this problem in a highly targeted way, going after vaccines, treatment, testing, and we couldnt get a single democrat to vote for it. I think they dont want a solution prior to the election. Lt. Colonel mcgrath, 30 seconds. What i would just say all summer long senator mcconnell didnt see the urgency of doing anything and negotiating. He sits here and he says its too hard, too hard to negotiate, too hard to get it done. Basically saying, you know, thats too hard for him. Thats not hard to do whats right for america. Its not hard. Ill tell you whats hard. Strap on a 70 million jet to your back and landing it on an Aircraft Carrier 150 Miles Per Hour at night in bad weather with no navigation lights, thats hard. Doing whats right for the American Public in the middle of a National Crisis, not hard. Senator mcconnell, do you have additional response. When you have divided government there has to be a willingness on both sides to get an agreement. And the speaker of the house is clearly not been interested in getting an outcome. Thats why the talks have gone on for a while. She just chooses to blame the Republican Senate when obviously, the biggest part of the problem has been the democratic house. If im a viewer watching this debate im saying why cant you get get together . And i think the answer is, the proximity to the election has slowed the process and thats unfortunate for the country, its unacceptable, but she wants to pass all the blame on the senate. I mean. Go ahead. I am ill give you the house passed a bill in may, and the senate went on vacation. I mean. [laughter] you just dont do that. You negotiate, senator, it is a National Crisis, you into that the coronavirus wasnt going to end at the end of july. We knew this, i mean, i just think youve got to and here is the thing, if you want to call yourself a leader. The bill and those of us who served in the marines we dont just point fingers at the other side, we got the job done. Nobody went on vacation except the house was gone most of the time. We can do things like use telephones. We communicate with each other a lot. The challenge here was the speaker was simply unwilling to cooperate to the extent that we could get a reasonable proposal. The secretary of the treasury who is delegated by the president to talk to her went on and on and on and i think weve belabored this point pretty thoroughly, bill. It seems to think she thinks were the problem, i think theyre the problem. What we need is a solution. The way you get a solution is the way well i was going to say we know we have a problem and it is continuing. A lot of excuses. And so is the pandemic continuing. It appears that we have an escalation in many of our states. As the pandemic continues, winter and flu season are approaching, whats the appropriate balance between keeping the economy open, students in school, if they can be, and protecting the health of americans. Senator mcconnell. The single biggest thing, this is not going to be put in the review mirror until we get a vaccine. For those of you with world war ii history, the manhattan problem, the atom bomb as quick as we could to avoid invading japan. We have the Manhattan Project underway to get a vaccine. Some of our Major Pharmaceutical Companies are producing doses before the Clinical Trials are proved out. Were going to get a vaccine in the most rapid period of time that this has ever been done, without cutting any corners. And the honest answer, bill, is until we get a vaccine we cant entirely put this behind us. Weve got a resurgence here in kentucky, a resurgence around the country. The vaccine coronavirus is not going away until we can kill it and it will take the vaccine to do that. Lt. Colonel mcgrath. Certainly, the coronavirus is not going away until we get a vaccine, but, we still have the worst trajectory of first world countries when it comes to the coronavirus. And there are other countries that have been able to get this under control and theyve done it with National Testing and tracing plan that we still dont have in this country. This virus is so bungled at the federal level that we have cities and states fighting for personal protective equipment. No leadership at all. What do we need . We need immediate aid right now that unfortunately senator mcconnell doesnt want to work on, but we need Unemployment Insurance from those, an extension for for these people thrown off through nofault of their own, and we need ppp, a testing and tracing plan, i cant believe nine months into this thing im still saying that and frankly leadership at the very top to talk to us, to tell us the truth about the virus and how deadly it is. Senator, anything to add . Yeah, look, i know how to make deals, i had made three deals with joe biden during the obama era. What the problem here has been an unwillingness by the speaker to make a deal. We can spend the whole debate on this if we want to, but she wants to blame the Republican Senate, i think its been clearly the case that its the democratic speaker of the house, but there are some other issues going on here like a new Supreme Court justice. Were going to get to that. That we might want to cover at some point. We will. And Lieutenant Colonel mcgrath if you want yeah, sure, look, i was a United States marine for 20 years. When you go into combat, you dont make excuses, you get the job done, youre a Senate Majority leader, hes the Senate Majority leader and all he can do right now is make excuses in the middle of a National Crisis, he has built a senate, what was once the greate greatest deliberative body in the world cannot function in a National Crisis and thats why weve got to get rid of him. And this morning, the Senate Judiciary committee began an a hearing for Supreme CourtJustice Amy Coney barrett. This is on the minds of many people and turns out many u. K. Students when we asked them to submit their questions. And so, one of the students asked, should the confirmation hearings be happening this close to an election when early voting is already underway. Lt. Colonel mcgrath . No, thats the short answer. Nobody should be voting on a Supreme Court nominee right now. Four years ago, senator mcconnell said by the mcconnell rule during an Election Year, we dont vote on the nominee, let the people decide. Well, right now, with 22 days to an election, we should let the people decide. And whats really important is that we should be focusing on aid for kentucky as we just talked about and not a Supreme Court nominee, but lets be clear about what this is all about. Senator mcconnell for a decade tried to undermine and get rid of the Affordable Care act legislatively. He could not do it. So now hes trying to do it in the courts. The first case that the Supreme Court is going to hear after the election is going to be about the Affordable Care act. And that is something that we really cannot have in kentucky because the Affordable Care act did a lot of good for many, many kentuckians. So i dont want to throw it away. I want to fix it. Time an up. Senator mcconnell. Yeah, no one believes the Supreme Court is going to strike down the Affordable Care act. What this is really about is trying to change the subject away from this extraordinary nominee, who is before the senate. An outstanding woman, an accomplished scholar, a judge on the 7th circuit, a marvellous children, seven children, two adopted one with special needs, an absolute legal allstar and the Judiciary Committee she want they want to talk about anything other than the nominee. This is the progressive position. My opponent says shes the most progressive person in kentucky. What does that mean in they means they want to stack the Supreme Court, in other words, add numbers so they can get an outcome they like. She wants to make the district of columbia a state, puerto rico a state, get rid of the filibuster in the senate. In short, theres not an i am dimes worth of difference between my opponent and all the of the democrats youve watched. If you give them control of the government thats what theyll