U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Republican challenger Hung Cao clashed on the talk stage Wednesday night time on a variety of points together with immigration, schooling and variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) within the navy.
Kaine, who beforehand served as governor of Virginia and was Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential operating mate in 2016, made his case through the hourlong showdown at Norfolk State College on why he ought to hold his seat within the higher chamber of Congress. The one debate of the marketing campaign targeted on nationwide points and issues that resonate in Virginia and the coastal metropolis of Norfolk, which is residence to the nation’s largest Navy base.
Cao, a 25-year Navy veteran endorsed by former President Donald Trump, criticized COVID vaccine mandates for service members and the Biden-Harris administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal when requested in regards to the navy’s collective failure to not too long ago meet recruiting targets. He additionally criticized DEI efforts.
“While you’re utilizing a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the folks we would like,” Cao stated. “What we want is alpha males and alpha females who’re going to tear out their very own guts, eat them and ask for seconds. These are the younger women and men which might be going to win wars.”
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U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, left, debates Republican challenger Hung Cao at Norfolk State College in Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday Oct. 2, 2024. (Nextstar/WAVY-TV by way of AP)
Kaine, who’s on the Senate Armed Providers Committee, responded by saying that railing at DEI “is a crimson herring” and the true problem is informing extra Individuals about the advantages of the navy when solely about 1% of the inhabitants serves within the armed forces. “We have to do a greater job of speaking in regards to the G.I. Invoice and different advantages in addition to the super management coaching that you simply get within the navy,” Kaine stated.
Cao, in the meantime, introduced up the G.I. Invoice when difficult Kaine on pupil mortgage forgiveness. The incumbent Democrat had praised the Biden administration for having forgiven “the loans of greater than 1,000,000 public servants in thanks for the general public service they supply, whether or not it is within the navy, whether or not it is educating, whether or not it is working as a frontline well being skilled or working for a neighborhood or state authorities.”
The moderator then posed a query to Cao on how the Republican candidate would ease the burden, noting that the U.S. Division of Training experiences greater than 1,000,000 Virginians owe a collective $43 billion in federal pupil debt as of final October, impacting their capacity to contribute to the state’s economic system.
“In the event you’re struggling to pay in your college, then get a G.I. Invoice,” Cao stated. “Meaning exit and serve within the navy. You may get a stipend in addition to tuition. We have to repair schooling, and we have to do it now. However this is the factor with folks like Senator Kaine, you’ve got been an officer for 30 years in varied places of work, within the U.S. Senate for 12. Why have you ever not fastened it but?”
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Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., left, is going through a problem from Republican Hung Cao. (AP Picture/Susan Walsh | J. Scott Applewhite)
Kaine responded by saying Virginia “was named one of the best state for a kid to be raised in america” and “one of the best managed state and one of the best state to do enterprise” when he was governor from 2006 to 2010.
“Oh, once more, he says what he’ll do,” Cao shot again. “Truthfully, of the 227 payments that Senator Kaine has proposed, solely three of them made it via… That is a 99% failure price.”
“Verify the tape on that. That is fully incorrect,” Kaine insisted.
Nonetheless, Cao retorted, “There’s two truths on the planet, okay? By no means stroll right into a goal retailer carrying a crimson shirt and by no means go in opposition to an Asian with regards to math. Belief me.”
“He is bought a 99% failure price,” Cao added. “If I simply had 99% failure price, and I defused bombs, I would not be right here proper now.”
Hung Cao, left, speaks on stage after an invite from former President Donald Trump throughout a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, on June 28, 2024. (Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune Information Service)
The moderator additionally pressed Cao, whose household fled Vietnam through the Nineteen Seventies, on whether or not he helps the mass deportation of “all undocumented immigrants.”
“When Vietnam fell, we had nowhere to go, and America had introduced us in and my mother and father waited in line for seven years. All of us did for seven years to get our citizenship. The very last thing that my dad had [hung] over his mattress when he handed away two years in the past was his naturalization certificates. I really like this nation a lot that I wrote a clean test – as much as together with my life – to defend it for 25 years in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and different components of the world,” Cao stated. “Here is my factor to anyone who desires to come back right here, do not ask for an American dream. In the event you’re not keen to be American legal guidelines and embrace the American tradition, as a result of I did.”
“In the event you come right here illegally, then that you must depart, particularly when you’re a violent crime individual,” Cao stated, citing new Immigration and Customs Enforcement knowledge supplied to lawmakers final week.
“There are 13,000 convicted murderers and 16,000 convicted rapists that got here throughout beneath their watch. That is unacceptable. We have to defend Individuals each single day,” Cao stated.
“In the event you got here right here illegally, you’ve mainly screwed up the entire system,” Cao stated. “You may’t soar the road – I imply, you go to Costco and soar the road, what do you suppose goes to occur? You may’t come right here and count on the American dream when you’re not keen to obey the American legal guidelines and embrace the American tradition.”
“Deport anyone that is committing crimes proper now,” he added. “That is the very first thing we want. Safe the border.”
Kaine stated he by no means supported mass amnesty however believes it will “devastate the economic system” to deport the ten million unlawful immigrants who crossed the border through the Biden-Harris administration – a determine the moderator cited and the Democratic candidate echoed. He additionally slammed former President Donald Trump for asking Republicans to oppose the final congressional border deal.
“We not too long ago negotiated a really powerful border deal that might have put a variety of assets on the border to cease unlawful immigration,” Kaine stated. “President Trump requested for Republicans to oppose it, though it was supported by the border management union.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a marketing campaign occasion on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Walker, Michigan. (AP Picture/Carlos Osorio)
One other topic was Trump’s proposal to position extra tariffs on imported items.
“What we have to do will not be tax our business right here,” Cao stated. “What we have to do is tax different international locations bringing in items.”
Kaine criticized Trump’s proposal. “The Trump tariffs can be a large tax that might trigger costs on all of these things which might be imported to go up,” Kaine stated. “On that, I differ strongly from my opponent.”
With Kaine’s seat thought-about solidly Democratic, the race has not seen the sort of dead-heat polling because the nationwide presidential contest or the high-stakes drama of different Senate races comparable to these in Montana and Ohio, the place Democratic incumbents face powerful re-election bids, in response to The Related Press.
Trump has endorsed Cao, and political scientists say his path to victory is slim given Virginia’s average citizens, aversion to Trump in 2020 and Kaine’s salience with voters, in response to the AP.
Kaine received his final race in 2018 by 16 proportion factors, though he stated he was getting ready for a tricky race this 12 months. The newest Republican from Virginia to carry a U.S. Senate seat was the late John Warner, a centrist with an impartial streak who final received in 2002.
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Republicans have received statewide places of work in Virginia. Glenn Youngkin was elected governor by two factors in 2021, together with a Republican lieutenant governor and legal professional common.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
