Blackburn, Bredesen spar often in debate

Joel Ebert, Tyler Whetstone Natalie Allison

For the second time in three weeks, Republican Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Phil Bredesen traded barbs Wednesday at a U.S. Senate debate.

From start to finish, the nominees exchanged blows during the hour-long debate — which took place inside the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville — over everything from the Second Amendment and health care to sexual harassment and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The stakes for Wednesday’s debate were high: The race has repeatedly shown tight polling as national interests have descended into the state. Early voting starts next Wednesday.

Democrats are hoping to flip the seat currently held by Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker in an effort to retake the majority in the upper chamber. The GOP has a 51-49 advantage in the Senate and Tennessee is seen as one of a handful of battleground states.

Bredesen and Blackburn tussled from the first question, which centered on whether they believed the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh were unfounded.

Although both candidates briefly talked about the new justice, the debate quickly turned combative.

Bredesen, who answered the question first, said he hoped the debate would be civil. But Blackburn abruptly criticized the former governor for at-

tending a Tuesday fundraiser with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has progressive views on abortion and gun control.

Blackburn used the first two questions, both of which were about Kavanaugh, to criticize Bredesen’s handling of sexual harassment, noting some files on the issue were shredded during his time as governor.

“The voices of those women were shredded,” she said. “They died in that shredder.” Bredesen shot back. “That was possibly the shortest civil debate that we’ve had in a long time,” he said.

He later said Blackburn’s claims about sexual harassment issues were flat wrong.

“We had an issue with someone,” Bredesen said. “We got rid of that person the next day.”

Blackburn works to link Bredesen to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton

As the debate continued, Blackburn repeatedly tried to put Bredesen on the defensive, trying to align him with former President Barack Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, saying the latter’s name roughly two dozen times.

Unlike their first debate, Blackburn did not mention the name of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Wednesday — a fact that Bredesen briefly noted.

“I did not think you could possibly beat the number of mentions you made of Chuck Schumer than the last debate but I believe you have with Hillary Clinton here tonight,” he said near the end of the evening.

On immigration, Blackburn criticized Bredesen for not supporting a plan to build a wall along the southern border of the United States.

“You seem to have a crystal ball, talking all the time about what I’m going to do as a U.S. senator,” Bredesen said.

The former governor said he thought the idea of creating a physical wall on the border was an idea out of the last century and that he favored utilizing technology combined with having immigration agents at the border.

When asked if she supported funding the wall, which some estimates say would cost $70 billion, Blackburn said, “Walls work. Just ask Israel.”

She declined to definitively say whether she would vote to fund the proposal. But, Blackburn said, “If the wall ends up costing $70 billion dollars, what Tennesseans say is build the wall and secure our country because of the impact.”

Speaking to reporters after the debate, Blackburn declined to elaborate on how she would propose funding the wall.

On health care, Blackburn and Bredesen traded blows, with the congressman labeling her opponent as someone who supports government-run health care, citing a book he previously wrote.

Agreement on Sen. Bob Corker

While much of the evening featured significant differences between the candidates, they agreed on two things: enhancing some background checks related to gun owners with mental illness and approval of Corker, the Chattanooga Republican they are vying to replace in the Nov. 6 general election.

When asked to give a “show of hands” on who was in favor of enhancing the red flag system to identify those with mental illness during background checks for gun buyers, both candidates raised theirs.

Bredesen and Blackburn maintained they were in favor of protecting the Second Amendment, while keeping guns out of the hands of those who may pose a danger to themselves or others.

Both mentioned the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which they said they supported enhancing.

But Blackburn also used the question to go after Bredesen, pointing out again his fundraiser with Bloomberg and her endorsement by the Fraternal Order of Police and the National Rifle Association.

Bredesen said the NRA was merely mad at him for vetoing a measure to allow guns to be carried in bars. He called the proposal “crazy” and “stupid.”

Speaking to reporters after the debate, Bredesen defended his decision to go to New York for a fundraiser with Bloomberg, adding that he did not agree with the former mayor on everything, including guns.

“He’s one of the people who offered to help and I appreciated the help,” Bredesen said.

The candidates fielded a question about whether they supported Trump’s proposed space force — Blackburn favored it while Bredesen said he wanted more information — but were not asked about the ongoing opioid epidemic that has contributed to 1,776 overdose deaths in 2017 in Tennessee.

As the evening came to a close, both candidates painted different pictures of the race.

“I do think this is a very simple election,” Bredesen said, painting Blackburn as 16-year partisan congressman who “draws lines in the sand” while describing himself as someone who would bring fresh air to Washington, D.C.

“You’ve seen two very different visions for how Tennesseans would be represented tonight,” Blackburn said, vowing to take the state’s values to the nation’s capital, while saying Bredesen was part of the “Clinton agenda.”

Wednesday’s debate was the second and final head-to-head matchup between Blackburn and Bredesen. They previously clashed at Cumberland University on Sept. 25. It was sponsored by the Nexstar Media Group, which owns TV stations across the state.

Reach Joel Ebert at jebert@tennessean.com. Reach Tyler Whetstone at tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com. Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com.