Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego participated in their only U.S. Senate debate Wednesday evening, hosted by the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission. Lake hit the issue of border security repeatedly, referencing Gallego’s “dumb stupid border wall” comment, while Gallego, who referred to “illegals” when discussing the border, tried to pick apart previous statements she’d made based on technicalities.
Gallego provided his opening statement first. He criticized Lake for saying she is the authentic governor since there was fraud in the 2022 election, and complained about election officials receiving threats. However, Lake herself and many election integrity investigators regularly receive death threats, but these threats are not reported in the media.
Lake criticized Gallego’s record in Congress, where he represents much of west Phoenix and Glendale, in her opening statement. “We’re going to be hearing tonight from somebody who’s undergone an ‘extreme makeover,’ to quote an old TV show, somebody who has voted with the most radical Democrats in Washington, DC, to tear open our borders that were delivered to him in a safe way with President Trump securing our border, who has torn apart our economy and who has made our children and our lives less safe,” she said. “And so tonight, we’re going to watch as somebody tries to reinvent himself, somebody who used to be a member in the Progressive Caucus, somebody who has destroyed the very congressional district that he has served for the past 10 years, where homelessness is on the rise. It’s the fastest growing homeless population, where quality of life is diminished.”
For the first question, the moderators asked Gallego if he had backed off on his open borders position. “Mr. Gallego, you were one of the earliest and most emphatic critics of a border wall. Has your perspective changed on that?”
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