Elections

Sen. Loeffler welcomes debate request from Dem opponent in GA runoffs

Published

4 years ago

November 17, 2020

Incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) appears to have accepted her opponent’s request to debate him before their January 5 runoff election for the U.S. Senate race. This comes as Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), the Peach State’s other incumbent senator who also faces a runoff election on the same day for his Senate seat, declined to debate his respective opponent, Democrat Jon Ossoff, according to CNN.

Monday evening, Loeffler appeared on the Fox News program ‘The Ingraham Angle’ and said that she would “welcome” another debate with her “radical” opponent, Reverend Raphael Warnock (D), before the runoff of their special election for the Senate.

“We had a debate,” Loeffler said. “I had the opportunity in that debate to show how radical his agenda is, and we are just getting started. So I welcome that opportunity to also show what I’ve done for Georgians since getting into the Senate in January.”

“I’ve hit the ground running, delivered for Georgians during the pandemic to bring relief, and also holding people accountable, like Raphael Warnock for their comments supporting folks like Fidel Castro, inviting them into his church [while] at the same time criticizing police officers,” Loeffler continued.

“Georgians need to know who he is,” she added, “and I welcome the chance to debate him as many times as he wants.”

The twin runoff elections for Georgia’s two Senate seats will determine which political party controls the Senate for the next two years.

Ossoff had said that six media outlets invited him to debate Perdue, which Ossoff accepted, and then publicly called on Perdue to accept the challenge to debate him at the Atlanta Press Club on December 6.

Because none of the candidates in either Senate race got more than 50% of the vote, state law requires that a runoff election is held between the two highest vote-getters in each race.

In a statement, Perdue’s campaign manager Ben Fry said that there had already been two debates before people first voted on November 3 and that Ossoff can pay for himself to be on television.

“In each (debate), Ossoff lied repeatedly,” he said.

“If Ossoff wants to keep lying to Georgians on TV,” Fry added, “he will have to use his out-of-state money to pay for it.”

Both Ossoff and Warnock appeared together at an event on Sunday in Marietta, Georgia. There, Ossoff called on Perdue to debate him, saying, “Imagine being a sitting U.S. Senator, too much of a coward to debate your opponent in public.”

Ossoff also said that “we will proceed with the debate and Sen. Perdue will be represented by an empty podium.”

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

Elections

Canada Beefs up Border Security After Trump Threatened Sweeping Tariffs

Published

2 days ago

December 3, 2024

Sara Carter Staff

In November, president-elect Donald Trump announced on social media that he would impose a 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico if they do not take an active role in containing illegal immigration as well as the level of illicit drugs entering into the United States.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, after which the Canadian government vowed to secure the border. “We got, I think, a mutual understanding of what they’re concerned about in terms of border security,” Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc, who accompanied Trudeau at Mar-a-Largo, said of the meeting in an interview with Canadian media. “All of their concerns are shared by Canadians and by the government of Canada.”

“We talked about the security posture currently at the border that we believe to be effective, and we also discussed additional measures and visible measures that we’re going to put in place over the coming weeks,” LeBlanc continued. “And we also established, Rosemary, a personal series of rapport that I think will continue to allow us to make that case.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation reports the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is preparing to beef up its immigration enforcement capabilities by hiring more staff, adding more vehicles and creating more processing facilities, in the chance that there is an immigration surge sparked by Trump’s presidential election victory. The moves are a change in direction from Trudeau’s public declaration in January 2017 that Canada was a “welcoming” country and that “diversity is our strength” just days after Trump was sworn into office the first time.

The Daily Caller notes the differences in response from the Canadian government verses Mexico’s:

Trudeau’s recent overtures largely differ from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has indicated she is not willing to bend the knee to Trump’s tariff threats. The Mexican leader in November said “there will be a response in kind” to any tariff levied on Mexican goods going into the U.S., and she appeared to deny the president-elect’s claims that she agreed to do more to beef up border security in a recent phone call.