Senate candidates spar on Mideast, health care, Trump
Health care, war in the Middle East and former President Donald Trump divided the four top candidates for California’s U.S. Senate race Monday night as they sparred in their first debate of the cycle.
Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee and Katie Porter, as well as Republican businessman and former Dodgers star Steve Garvey, took a debate stage at USC where they traded jabs — and baseball references — for an hour and a half.
It was health care, specifically a question on “Medicare for All,” that caused the most fireworks among the four.
Porter, who has represented an Orange County district since 2019, expressed her support for what’s been dubbed a Medicare for All system.
“I think we need to pass a health care system that delivers the best quality care with the most choice at the lowest price point,” Porter said, arguing that’s Medicare for All.
Schiff expressed support for an opt-in Medicare for All system, calling it an “efficient … direction we need to go in.”
Health care, Lee said, “should be a human right” and touted her record of supporting single-payer health care initiatives.
Garvey, for his part, said Medicare for All would “be a strain on our economy.” When asked about the Affordable Care Act, Garvey said he believes it works for some.
It was during this time that Porter launched what became an oft-repeated criticism of her Democratic House colleagues: “Career politicians,” she said, hadn’t moved the needle on a better health care system.
“Others can talk about taking on corporations or taking on industries. Some of us have actually done things, gotten things accomplished,” Schiff shot back.
Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, was also the catalyst of some of the more tense moments of the debate Monday.
While Garvey has sought to distance himself from Trump throughout the campaign, that simply wasn’t an option as his three Democratic opponents aligned him with the former president’s agenda — and called him out for not unequivocally saying whether he’d back Trump in 2024.
Garvey said he did support Trump twice before but as for his vote this year, his answer was: “At the end of the day, it’s a personal choice. It’s my personal choice, and I will make it in the sovereignty of wherever that is.”
“Once a Dodger always a dodger,” said Porter, referencing his 14 seasons with the baseball team.
After the debate, Porter and Schiff resumed their criticism of Garvey for refusing to say if he would vote for Trump a third time. Garvey, however, climbed into a car and ignored reporters’ shouted questions as he left the venue.
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