29 electoral votes. This afternoon, vice candidate mike pence will head to utah, the electoral votes, tight race between donald trump, Hillary Clinton and independent andidate during that trip to chicago. Announcer sunday night on kahn discussing bobby kennedy. Had kennedy beat richard nixon, america would be a different place, i think smchlt today, we are visiting racial tension and International Discord might be a little different if we had tried to years ago. M 50 sunday night on q a. 2016 nouncer Campaign Coverage continues with the Pennsylvania Senate debate tooney and Katie Mcginty. Over the next pat toomey and Katie Mcginty. We are glad you look forward to debate. Ic before we begin, quick note on some of the ground rules. Candidate will have one minute to answer the question posed to them, followed by a oneminute response or rebuttal and to the candidate, the from me, i hope , i hope you wont think i am disrespectful if i try to time limits. Our i will need your help and that. Iate your help with by random draw, the first to Katie Mcginty. Around inty, issues pennsylvania, passions on both sides more than the issues of gun violence and the Second Amendment. Ou support background checks and assault weapons ban, a ban n high capacity ammunition clips and no fly, no gun zone. Yet one of the countrys most advocates of gun control, arizona congresswoman ive ordhas endorsed your opponent. This room, was in what would you say to her . I would say, thanks for for being nd thanks here tonight. The first thing i would say to gifford, thank her for her service and leadership. Is a sue of gun violence critical issue, some 300,000 People Killed over the last through gun violence and i would take leadership role. Be endorsed by coming together on some common sense issues, i think we can get it done. To get it done you have to stick with it and that is the difference i have with senator to me. To a bills name that led police away when it fell by a couple of votes. Let democrats take the lead. Im ready to take the lead on this critical issue. To seeomey its good you back in the seat and im glad youre doing well. Thanks to temple for hosting this. I want to thank my family and friends who came down from the Lehigh Valley and greater philadelphia to be here. I approach this issue as somebody who is a strong believer in the Second Amendment. I think that is a very important personal right that we have, and , its properly enshrined in the constitution. It just never occurred to me that a threeminute background check to try to prevent somebody who has no legal right to a firearm that that in any way infringes on Second Amendment rights. So i got together with joe manchin after what was probably the most painful meeting i ever had, when i sat down with the families of sandy hook, the parents whose little babies were just massacred. Those families they werent asking us to ban all categories of guns or do anything unreasonable. They said cant we make progress on a background check. Joe manchin and i put together a bill. We had three votes on that bill. I still support that and i intend to reintroduce that, because we ought to be able to keep firearms out of the people who had no legal right to it. But Katie Mcginty is the point of politicizing everything and hyper politics. That drives people apart and prevents us from finding Common Ground. Jim mr. Toomey, perhaps because a woman is running for president , has a longstanding issue of profound importance become one of the more visible issues of the campaign and that is equal pay for women. According to wallethub. Com, pennsylvania is now the fourth worst state in the country when it comes to gender pay equity in and the World Economic forum places the United States 28 in the world. There is something called the paycheck fairness act. It would require businesses to explain why wage gaps exist between their male and female employees and impose tougher penalties against employers for wage discrimination. Five times you have voted to reject the paycheck fairness act. Are we to think that accurately describes how you feel about a womans right to make as much money as a man . Sen. Toomey the fact is i have grown up and ive been blessed to have a family full of strong mom, my three sisters, my wife, who had a wonderful career before we got married, and i have a 16yearold daughter. You Better Believe i want her to have every opportunity and to be compensated as well as my sons might be someday. The fact is though, the legislation you alluded to was ruled by even the Washington Post editorial age, no conservative page, as a boondoggle for trial lawyers, not as something that would actually make progress. I have supported legislation that makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of the gender of a worker. I voted for legislation that makes it illegal for employers to retaliate against workers who share information about their pay. And i feel very strongly that women ought to get every opportunity and the same level of compensation as men. But i will tell you also jim thank you. We are going to move on. Im sorry. Ms. Mcginty. Ms. Mcginty thanks. I believe this country was founded on a basic bargain you work hard, you get ahead. The truth is that families, women and families are working as hard as they know how, two jobs, three jobs, but they arent keeping up with the cost of childcare, the cost of college, and just basic needs that every family has. I believe we need to honor hard work and, yes, im for increasing the minimum wage and enabling families to provide for themselves. And im for ensuring that a woman doing the same job as a man is able to bring home that same paycheck. These are critical issues, and i do disagree with senator toomey. Its not enough to have platitudes or say that i think highly of women. Families need income so that they can support themselves, and the senator has voted against equal pay. Hes voted against increasing the minimum wage. He agrees with donald trump that the problem in this countrys people are making too much. Thats not what i see out there. Hes voted many times against College Affordability as well. This is about family needs, and i will fight for those families. Jim ms. Mcginty, your opponents claim that you were handpicked to run for the senate by the democratic machine in washington and will be a rubber stamp for the democratic leadership and Hillary Clinton, should she be elected president. I think we all agree that voters like an independent voice. Can you tell us about one issue where you disagree with your party or your potential president . Ms. Mcginty thanks, jim. I do stand with secretary clinton, because she is focused on standing up for families and rebuilding the middle class. I think it would be helpful at this late date in the election if senator toomey would similarly let voters know whether he is voting for donald trump or not. Jim we will get to that, ms. Mcginty, but im asking you about an issue that you disagree. Ms. Mcginty i have one litmus test in serving the people of this commonwealth, any issue, any idea, does it serve our interest as a state and the families working hard in this state . I will tell you there are some issues that i disagree with secretary clinton on. For example, i agree that it was wrong to set up Guantanamo Bay. We know that has been a tool that has been used against us by terrorists, as general betray us petraeus and others have said. But i cannot today say we should close Guantanamo Bay because im concerned we would have those who would return to the battlefield against us. I know this secretary clinton will fight for working families, and thats what im going to do as well. Jim mr. Toomey, youve been taking a little heat for refusing to say if you will vote for donald trump for president. I know you have been waiting for this debate. [laughter] jim i know youve been waiting for this moment to say whether or not you will vote for the nominee of your party. So is it yea or nay . Sen. Toomey unlike Katie Mcginty, i am not a hyper partisan, reflexive ideologue who gives blind obedience to his nominee. Katie mcginty does that. I dont. There are a lot of things that concern me a great deal about donald trump, and ive been very public about it. I have criticized him repeatedly, publicly, because i think he has said some terrible things. I think he has taken some badly flawed positions. And i acknowledge the nominee of my party is flawed. Katie mcginty is blindly obedient to Hillary Clinton and she cannot acknowledge a single flaw to what is on the democratic side what is the most badly flawed candidate in decades. She cannot even acknowledge what the dishonesty we see from Hillary Clinton on a regular basis, maybe because Katie Mcginty began a campaign with a background,r own claiming she was the first in her family to go to college, when she knew her older brother had gone to college and come back to temple for a graduate degree before she ever graduated from high school. Maybe its Katie Mcgintys problem with the truth that allows her to overlook Hillary Clintons chronic lies. Jim so, i guess that means you have not been waiting for this debate. [laughter] sen. Toomey thats exactly right. Senator toomey, you know there are detractors of yours who will say that you are not completely disavowing trump because you need his supporters to win this election. What do you say to that accusation . Sen. Toomey i have refused to endorse donald trump. Katie mcginty says that was supporting donald trump. That doesnt make any sense. Look, the dilemma is this, jim, donald trump is a badly flawed candidate, as i said. But if he were president , he would probably sign a bill repealing obamacare, which we badly need. He would probably sign a bill that would restore sanctions on iran, which we badly need. So there is this dilemma. If Hillary Clinton is the president , we will have a doubling down on all the failed policies that have endangered us around the world, that have weakened our economy and that Katie Mcginty supports. Like a lot of pennsylvanians i know, because i talk to them on a regular basis, who feel stuck, who feel that, i cant believe in a country of 300 million people, weve got these two choices, and Katie Mcginty cant acknowledge a single flaw in the nominee of her party. Jim im not going to badger you to Say Something that you are not going to say. Dont you think your constituents, the people of pennsylvania deserve to know if , you are going to support the nominee of your party . Sen. Toomey i dont think my constituents care that much how one person is going to vote. They are going to make their own decision all across the commonwealth about whom theyre going to support and whom they are not going to support. I think they care much more about whether ive got policies that are going to help grow this economy, whether ive got policies that are going to help keep us safe. Thats the contrast on which they will make their decision. Jim you wanted to Say Something . Ms. Mcginty i do. The center senator is in a class of his own on this issue. Hes the only person running for senate in the entire country who has not leveled with his constituents. Heres what i want to share with people here. In philadelphia, the senator will say he has differences and disagreements with donald trump, but in other parts of the state, what we hear from the senator is how excited he will be to confirm president Trumps Supreme Court nominees. In other parts of the state, we hear the senator saying that he thinks donald trump has put forward incredibly constructive ideas. Senator, in politics, the definition of courage and character is doing whats right even if it costs you votes. You have failed that test. Sen. Toomey this is televised statewide, katie. Im sorry if you didnt know that. [laughter] [applause] jim lets move on. Mr. Toomey, the First American has been killed in the campaign to recapture mosul from isis. Last february, you appeared to object to president obamas guarantee that the war against isis would never require american boots on the ground beyond our current advisory role. You said this, quote, we have to recognize that the u. S. Military has capabilities that no one else on the planet has and, if were going to be successful in this, its going to take american presence. In your estimation, sir, will it be necessary to send Ground Forces to fight isis . If a vote in the senate were to come up to that effect, would you vote yes . Sen. Toomey i dont its going to take and i dont think it would be a good idea to launch a largescale invasionary force. I think we have capabilities the iraqis dont have here they should have never been pulled out of iraq, then we might not be in this situation. We need people who can help with logistics, air traffic control, medical evacuation, technology the iraqis simply dont have. We must absolutely defeat isis. An even bigger meteo mediumterm threat for us is the rise of iran, the hegemony of iran and the middle east, which is a direct result of president obamas very mistaken policy. This Iran Nuclear Deal, which endangers all of us unbelievably and that Katie Mcginty fully supports what iran poses now is a very serious, nuclear armed, Ballistic Missile capable, regional threat that runs from afghanistan to the mediterranean. Jim we will talk about that. Sen. Toomey i hope we will. Jim what i want to know is, do you believe that americans should be deployed to the front lines to fight isis at some point in time . Sen. Toomey as i said, i think it is the american contribution on the ground should be that of special ops, sophisticated i think it is leadership. I think the bulk of the Ground Forces need to come from the kurdish fighters, Sunni Arab States that will be absolutely necessary to secure the peace afterwards. America can provide leadership and technologically sophisticated capabilities that others dont have. Ms. Mcginty its imperative that we defeat and destroy isis. I believe that means our airstrikes supporting local troops, not our combat troops. I think it means, second, that we have to cut off the financial lifeblood of isis, including their access to oil assets. Third, we have to take them on in cyberspace as well. Whats very troubling to me about senator toomeys record is that he hasnt shown up for many of the key hearings and meetings. The senator has missed some 90 of the Key Committee hearings and meetings on our Critical National security issues. And when the senator has shown up, his votes have been in the direction that takes down our security instead of enhances our security. For example, the senator voting against legislation that moved forward in closing some loopholes in our visa waiver program, critical legislation. The senator voted against not once, but twice the decision legislation that would close a loophole that allows terrorists to buy guns in our country. Jim a question for you on the economy. There is a frightening prospect for something called a new normal in the economy. A Federal Reserve economist just a week ago said that the longterm Economic Growth in this country could actually settle at 1. 5 for years to come. A new normal. That would mean slower Economic Growth, fewer jobs, workers wages and Living Standards would increase more slowly or even fall in absolute terms. Should you be elected, what would your specific blueprint be for fighting the new normal . Ms. Mcginty i think we need to ensure that people have training and jobtraining and apprenticeship programs, skills development, so we can put people back to work in jobs like rebuilding our infrastructure. Its part of the reason, though, that we do need to pay people a decent wage and enable people to fully and engage in the workforce by helping them with the cost of childcare. Thats why senator toomeys proposal to hold back Economic GrowthSmall Businesses are the engine of Economic Growth and job creation. Thats why learning that senator toomey had launched a bank, his bank has foreclosed in such a predatory behavior against Small Businesses right here in pennsylvania, killing jobs, hurting those businesses, that senator toomeys own banks practices are literally considered illegal and predatory in 30plus states. Thats a track record of the senator is working for himself and his own profitability, but he has certainly hurt those Small Businesses that were creating good jobs. Jim mr. Toomey . Sen. Toomey i want to talk about the Small Business background that i have with my family and how we get this economy going, but i cant let pass she just raised this, jim, and said something of shocking hypocrisy. She was referring to a legal device called a confession of judgment. She has scripted ads that have gone on tv, attacking me because of a bank using this. Those ads were taken down today because they are so blatantly dishonest. They are off