On Friday, October 14, there was a US Senate debate between Republican incumbent John Thune and Democrat challenger Jay Williams. This was the second of four confirmed debates for this election cycle. I had a somewhat lengthy post about the first debate. In this post I will do a similar note dump; but I will avoid adding too many notes for topics discussed in the first debate. For this note dump post I am focused on new stances or quotes.
I have embedded the KELO video into this post for anyone wishing to view the debate, or it can also be viewed on the KELO website. The debate was moderated by Brady Mallory and Angela Kennecke. KELO noted personal attacks are not allowed.
Opening Remarks
Williams
Williams spent his time going through his personal history.
Thune
Thune spent his opening remarks speaking about frustration people have with DC and victories he has had in the US Senate.
State of National Politics
Williams
Williams noted that Trump has been nominated by the Republican party by dividing and conquering. In DC he would look for common ground with others.
Thune
Thune highlighted he has found ways to work in a bi-partisan manner in the committees he has served on.
Lesser of Two Evils
Thune
Thune says this years presidential race is a “race to the bottom” and there are a couple of bad choices. That is why he publicly asked Trump to step down and let Pence take the lead. But he thinks the regulatory and tax policies from Clinton would be disastrous. Plus Clinton would make Supreme Court nominations Thune would find disastrous.
Williams
Williams said he feels sorry for Thune on this question, because Trump is unfit to be President. He noted George HW Bush is supporting Clinton. Williams says Thune is putting party over his country. Williams says he is truly afraid of Trump becoming President because we don’t know what he will do. But Williams notes we do know Trump is a sexual predator.
Thune
Thune was asked about him still being willing to vote for Trump after he asked for Trump to step down. Thune says what Trump had said would make it hard for Trump to win, that is why he thinks Trump should step down. But he says there are two very imperfect candidates and highlighted Clinton’s email scandals. Thune focused on how untrustworthy Clinton would be. So for Thune he will vote for the Republican ticket so he can vote for Republican policies.
Williams
Williams says it has been known for a long time Trump has been racist and misogynistic. He goes on to say Clinton “is a very principled person”. Williams says a partisan attack on Clinton is all the email scandals is about.
Thune/Williams
Thune interjected to bring up the FBI report. Williams interjected back to say the report said there was nothing to investigate. The two broke the rules here repeatedly by talking over each other.
Lack of Faith in Congress
Williams
Williams says he will not be an obstructionist. He says Thune has not done his constitutionally mandated duty to confirm court nominations. Williams also noted Thune ran for Senate his first time against a Democrat Thune claimed to be an obstructionist.
Thune
Thune says they have been moving judges through. Thune says he has been doing what is in best interest of SD.
Williams
Williams then says “You know Senator Thune has been in the Senate, and the Congress, for eighteen of the last twenty years. So, and he’s the number three man in leadership right now. So,I mean who do you have to blame for this low approval? Senator Thune.”
My Thoughts
Williams is really taking to Thune this time.
Thune’s Time in Congress
Thune
Thune contends he has been staying in touch with South Dakota and calls this his home. He says he is always traveling the state and speaking with people. Thune noted he fought against a Republican President to keep Ellsworth open and increase the size of the range. Thune highlighted his work with ethanol, wind production, livestock emergency legislation, and other legislation working across political aisles.
Williams
Williams wonders how Congress can be working as well as Thune says if everyone thinks it is broken. He contends Thune has not worked with Obama and is partisan.
Term Limits
Williams
Williams is not in favor of term limits because the voters will take care of limiting terms.
Thune
Before answering, Thune took a moment to note that Obama keeps signing his bills, so he is not working against the President.
Thune says he supports term limits and thinks it would be a good thing. He says it would bring new ideas to the process and that would make sure there are citizen legislators. Thune was asked if he would step down and let others have the position if he supports term limits. He said he would vote for it, if it applied to everyone else. Thune says he doesn’t know what the magic number is. He noted South Dakota tried to do term limits and it was found unconstitutional (for federal elections).
My Thoughts
This is an issue I keep going back and forth on. I agree voters should be taking care of limiting terms on their own, but in reality that doesn’t happen.
Plan to Reunite Country and Law Enforcement
Thune
Thune hates to see what is happening in communities around the country and how law enforcement officers are portrayed. He thinks there needs to be community dialogues, and DC is not the place for that dialogue to come from. Thune also talked about First Amendment rights and supports them, and says police officers also need to respect those rights.
Williams
Williams noted there is a trust issue with law enforcement. He says they are mostly good, but there are some bad apples. He says the basis of this is racism due to the bad apples typically shooting an innocent man who is non-white. Williams says racism “is one of the most ugly things there is”. He agrees with Thune that it is a local community issue, but that Senators should be speaking out against racism. He tied that into how the reservations are seen in South Dakota.
Could Congress Do Something to Take Burden Off Law Enforcement
Williams
Williams says we need to look at federal programs for the reservations to transfer them into fossil fuel free zones. He says that would give purpose “and change the mentality” of people.
Thune
Thune noted he meets regularly with the tribes, and security is often an issue for them. He highlighted the need on the reservations for more law enforcement and treatment facilities. But he noted nobody in South Dakota should have to live in fear. He thinks to start to fight this problem there needs to be more law enforcement.
Williams
Williams doesn’t agree more law enforcement is the only answer. Instead he wants to expand mental health programs in communities. That way police officers aren’t meant to act as counselors.
LGBT Safety
Thune
Thune brought this back to the previous question, saying everyone should be able to feel safe. He says a lot of this comes back to fighting fundamentalism and increasing intelligence capabilities.
Williams
Williams noted the question really had to do with the LGBT massacre and didn’t have to do with terrorism. Williams says “hate needs to be suppressed”. He said Trump supporters are haters. Williams also said the US needs to be inclusive. He said most domestic attacks have been “local home-grown haters”. He says we need to stop the hate speech.
My Thoughts
I wasn’t very happy with Thune’s answer. It sounded like he wanted to increase the ability of intelligence agencies to spy on American citizens.
Gun Control
Williams
Williams says he supports the 2nd Amendment. But he supports “common sense gun control”. Williams would like to increase the use of technology in gun control, such as smart guns that will only let the owner use a gun. At the same time he says preventing people with mental health issues should be an issue.
Thune
Thune says people on the No Fly list should be prevented from owning guns. He also thinks people on the list in the past five years should also be prevented from owning guns. The bigger issue he agrees with Williams on is mental health. When asked about military-style guns he said there are too many in circulation and won’t be any support to do anything with those.
Williams
Williams said he never saw an automatic weapon growing up hunting. He says these military-type assault weapons aren’t used for hunting.
My Thoughts
This is an issue Thune really lost me on. He and Democrat Paula Hawks from the US House race appear to both support denying 2nd Amendment rights based upon a no fly list that likely goes against 4th Amendment protections.
At the same time Williams lost me because he focused on the 2nd Amendment as a right to hunt. The main two school of thought as to the 2nd Amendment say it is either to protect the rights of the people to overthrow a corrupt government, or to form militias to defend the country. Both viewpoints have been and will continue to be debated. But, it is only recently that certain politicians have tried to make the 2nd Amendment about hunting rights.
ISIS
Thune
Thune mentions ISIS attacks in Europe and ISIS-inspired attacks in the US. He says we have to bring the fight to them. Thune says the people coming into this country need to be vetted better. He says there needs to be a security test. Thune also says there needs to be focus on keeping air travel safer. At the same time he says the intelligence community needs more support.
Williams
Williams says we are doing all the things Thune mentions. He also mentioned he is glad to hear Thune say there shouldn’t be a religious test to get in the US, which Trump has supported. He also applauds the NSA doing more to monitor the internet.
My Thoughts
The civil libertarian in me shuddered when Williams spoke happily about the NSA spying on people online… Both candidates appear to support domestic spying.
Social Security
Williams
Williams says the simple fix to SS is to remove the cap on SS taxes. After that he says there is possibilities to increase benefits.
Thune
Thune mentioned Williams first instinct to raise taxes. He called Williams “the most liberal democrat I’ve ever met that’s running for statewide office in South Dakota.” He pointed out Williams wants to raise state income tax, property taxes, sales taxes, big gas tax increase, and a large carbon tax. He says there isn’t a tax he can think of that Williams doesn’t want to raise. To keep SS solvent Thune would reform it by phasing in an increase in retirement age. He also says there should be income testing.
Williams
Williams is not in favor of phasing in an age increase at this time. Williams says he is “actually the most practical man he as met” in regards to being called most liberal. Williams says he wants taxes to be fair.
Obamacare
Thune
Thune says this is an example of failed liberal economics. He noted top Democrats saying Obamacare is no longer affordable. Thune noted Blue Cross Blue Shield is leaving the individual market in SD. Thune says more Obamacare will not fix Obamacare. There needs to be competition across state lines to bring insurance rates down according to Thune. He noted some states have only one insurance carrier left on the ACA marketplace.
Williams
Williams says Obamacare is the first national healthcare policy, but unfortunately it was done with a Republican plan. He notes though that more people are now insured. Williams also said people know the insurance will be there now with no more lifetime limits or preexisting conditions. Williams says Republicans don’t want social programs at all. He says ACA needs to be improved, but cannot be repealed. To fight rising premiums he would like there to be a public option.
Thune
Thune noted he voted to repeal Obamacare.
My Final Thoughts
I think Williams really tried to bring it to Thune this time, and succeeded more than the last debate. I don’t know if there was an actual winner that would sway votes; rather I think each side came out of this debate thinking they won. Personally I came out of this worried both candidates want to increase domestic spying on the American people.
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