(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Republican Blake Masters challenged incumbent Senator Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., in a debate covering legislation that would increase the IRS and the porous Southern border.
The two were joined by Libertarian candidate Marc Victor, the Daily Wire reported.
Masters challenged Kelly over the Democrat’s support for legislation massively increasing the reach of the Internal Revenue Service with 87,000 more employees, while voting against an amendment which would have funded 18,000 more Border Patrol agents.
“Mark Kelly said no to 18,000 more Border Patrol agents, but yes to 87,000 new IRS agents. That shows you what his priorities are,” Masters said.
“Mark Kelly left our southern border wide open, voted for all the trillions in spending that caused this massive inflation, and he thinks the fix is 87,000 new IRS agents.”
Kelly rebutted, stating that he voted for additional resources for the U.S. Border Patrol in other votes.
Masters continued, calling the situation a “humanitarian disaster” and mentioned his endorsements from the National Border Patrol Council and other law enforcement agencies.
He elaborated, saying border patrol agents were “disgusted” by the Biden regime approach to border security and pointed out the impacts this has on drug trafficking.
“It’s killing kids,” he said. “We’re losing 2,000 Arizonans every year to fentanyl.”
“Joe Biden and Mark Kelly are willfully ignoring federal law… they incentivize people to break the law,” Masters continued. “They laid out the welcome mat.”
Twitter users posted several other highlights from the debate, of which the clear winner was Masters.
Masters zings on water crisis: I’m tired of Kelly acting like the 3rd Senator for California.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) October 7, 2022
“Call me old fashioned but I think the correct amount of illegal immigration is zero.” -Blake Masters
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) October 7, 2022
Before the debate, Kelly held a 4.1% lead over Masters, according to RealClearPolitics
