Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / 'Shut up' Senate debates in Maine & Alaska get personal

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'Shut up' Senate debates in Maine & Alaska get personal · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: We had debates in two races that could not be
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  Speaker 1: further apart when it comes to distance, but are equally
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  Speaker 1: important to the balance of power on Capitol Hill. And
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  Speaker 1: the debates got personal. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Pertola is
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  Speaker 1: squaring off against Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in one of
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  Speaker 1: the country's most competitive Senate races. President Trump campaigned there
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  Speaker 1: for Sullivan just this week. Even though a Democrat has
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  Speaker 1: not won a Senate race in Alaska in almost 20 years,
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  Speaker 1: Sullivan went on the offensive last night, repeatedly referencing a
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  Speaker 1: New York Times report that accused Pertola of being abusive
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  Speaker 1: towards her staff.
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  Speaker 2: Take a look at how she treats Alaskans when the
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  Speaker 2: cameras are off. Look at that New York Times story.
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  Speaker 2: She treats young Alaskans horribly. 25 staffers quit on Mary
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  Speaker 2: Peltola because she abused them physically and emotionally. And then
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  Speaker 2: she slanders every other group, African-Americans. special needs individuals. It
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  Speaker 2: is a character flaw.
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  Speaker 3: This campaign is not about me on my worst day,
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  Speaker 3: and I think it's a real sad statement that I'm
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  Speaker 3: such a threat as a candidate that they're just willing
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  Speaker 3: to do and say anything about me to help Dan win.
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  Speaker 1: In Maine, at the fourth and final debate between incumbent
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  Speaker 1: Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson, the
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  Speaker 1: war in Iran loomed large in that debate, as well
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  Speaker 1: as AI data centers, a big focus for many Maine
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  Speaker 1: voters that led to a protester actually interrupting that debate
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  Speaker 1: and prompting this tense moment between Collins and Jackson.
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  Speaker 2: Senator Collins, I'm so sorry to interrupt.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry somebody's interrupting.
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  Speaker 4: We'll have our security deal with that.
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  Speaker 5: AI data centers are destroying our climate. They are poisoning
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  Speaker 5: our water.
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  Speaker 3: So this is obviously one of Troy's supporters.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, shut up.
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  Speaker 6: I didn't know that kid.
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  Speaker 7: Never a dull moment these days, that's for sure. Another
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  Speaker 7: key theme we should point out of last night's debate,
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  Speaker 7: President Trump. who, of course, is figuring prominently. The president
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  Speaker 7: wants voters to act like he is on the ballot
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  Speaker 7: when they go to the polls. Collins, though, is really
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  Speaker 7: trying to distance herself from the president. His approval rating
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  Speaker 7: is in Maine. He stands at 36 percent approval. Jesse,
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  Speaker 7: is the key to a Republican win in Maine to
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  Speaker 7: distance from President Trump, as Senator Collins is trying to do?
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  Speaker 8: Yeah, probably. I mean, Susan Collins has a record of
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  Speaker 8: running in Maine as an independent, as a moderate, as
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  Speaker 8: something of a maverick within her own party who is
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  Speaker 8: totally willing to to break ranks. And we saw this
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  Speaker 8: scene at the debate last night where two kind of
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  Speaker 8: far left people lost their cool, one in the audience
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  Speaker 8: and then the other candidate who's running telling her to
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  Speaker 8: shut up for suggesting that this race is getting rancorous
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  Speaker 8: because of Jackson supporters. So I think Susan Collins is
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  Speaker 8: actually in good standing precisely because main voters understand that
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  Speaker 8: she is a very different kind of Republican who is
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  Speaker 8: willing to break ranks with her party. And voters have
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  Speaker 8: an appetite for that in Maine. They have for a
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  Speaker 8: very long time. I anticipate that they'll probably return her
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  Speaker 8: to office.
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  Speaker 7: You anticipate she'll return to office. We just showed the
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  Speaker 7: numbers there, as you noted. No clear leader. But what
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  Speaker 7: is interesting is that Jackson's fundraising numbers have shot up
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  Speaker 7: a bit. They show he's out-raising Collins nearly four to one. Luke,
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  Speaker 7: how much do you think that is a concern for
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  Speaker 7: the five-term senator.
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  Speaker 9: It's got to be a lot, although she has proven
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  Speaker 9: to be surprisingly durable. I mean, ProPublica had her dead
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  Speaker 9: to rights with reported bribery, and there's been almost nothing
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  Speaker 9: that has happened with it. And you just showed the
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  Speaker 9: polling there. It's actually kind of neck and neck, I mean,
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  Speaker 9: within the margin of error, certainly. In terms of getting
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  Speaker 9: the Trump side of the equation, I mean, obviously he's
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  Speaker 9: upside down in Maine. And even with, we don't have
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  Speaker 9: polling as of October, but the late one we have
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  Speaker 9: from late summer showed that even his base, the people
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  Speaker 9: who sort of strongly identify with President Trump, that has
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  Speaker 9: declined as well. I actually agree that probably not running
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  Speaker 9: in a direction towards Trump for Susan Collins works for her,
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  Speaker 9: but the problem is she's up against a progressive something
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  Speaker 9: of an insurgent. I don't think that's quite the right word,
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  Speaker 9: but something of someone who's trying to promote a vision
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  Speaker 9: of leadership, the kind that Collins, in terms of the
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  Speaker 9: legislative side, has simply failed to do.
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  Speaker 7: There's also this idea that there are a lot of
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  Speaker 7: Americans who want change, and those people are in every
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  Speaker 7: state across the union. When we look at this AP poll,
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  Speaker 7: most Americans want substantial change in how the country is run. Isaac,
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  Speaker 7: how much do you think this is going to be
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  Speaker 7: a storyline post-election?
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  Speaker 5: Well, we'll see what the results are. But what I
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  Speaker 5: can tell you, when I, I've said this before on
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  Speaker 5: the air, when I am traveling around the country, what
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  Speaker 5: is the consistent theme is that many Americans feel abandoned
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  Speaker 5: by both parties. They feel like there's a lot of
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  Speaker 5: politics going on and they are not getting things that
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  Speaker 5: actually matter for their own lives while prices go up
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  Speaker 5: for them in every which way and life gets harder.
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  Speaker 5: And so it will be a question post-election. not only
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  Speaker 5: who wins, but what those results mean about what the
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  Speaker 5: Democrats and Republicans try to do to address that.
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  Speaker 4: We are 18 days out to Election Day, and there's
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  Speaker 4: new data out on how much money the candidates have, well,
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  Speaker 4: to burn in these final days. Fundraising numbers just out
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  Speaker 4: from last quarter. In Minnesota, Republican candidate Michelle Tafoya out-raised
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  Speaker 4: Democrat Peggy Flanagan, but it's close in this one. Tafoya
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  Speaker 4: raised $ 4. 9 million, Flanagan $ 4. 3 million. In Texas, the Senate
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  Speaker 4: race between Democrat James Tallarico and Republican Ken Paxton, I mean,
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  Speaker 4: the numbers are just wild. Tallarico raised a record-breaking $ 64 million.
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  Speaker 4: But there's also the news that Elon Musk has contributed
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  Speaker 4: more than $ 150 million alone to boost Ken Paxton. In Kansas,
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  Speaker 4: The Democrat running for Senate there, Adam Hamilton, is far
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  Speaker 4: out-raising Republican Senator Roger Marshall. Hamilton, with $ 9. 4 million raised
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  Speaker 4: last quarter. The senator, Senator Marshall, raised $ 866, 000. To Georgia now,
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  Speaker 4: Democratic Senator John Ossoff is also dramatically out-raising the Republican challenger,
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  Speaker 4: Mike Collins. Ossoff, with $ 33 million raised last quarter. And
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  Speaker 4: Collins bringing in $ 2. 8 million. Today, the president's focus is
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  Speaker 4: turning to that state. He's holding a rally in Dalton, Georgia,
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  Speaker 4: this afternoon. Let's get to seeing Zelena Trin live at
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  Speaker 4: the White House for much more of what is to come.
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  Speaker 2: Take us.
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  Speaker 4: Take us there.
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  Speaker 8: Yeah.
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  Speaker 6: I'll take you there. He is back on the campaign
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  Speaker 6: trail again, Kate. And look, I mean, I was just
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  Speaker 6: catching up with some people in the press shop here
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  Speaker 6: at the White House who said he's basically going to
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  Speaker 6: be on the campaign trail every single day for the
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  Speaker 6: next three weeks or so in the lead up to
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  Speaker 6: November 3rd. But what's interesting about his trip today is
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  Speaker 6: that it is to Dalton, Georgia. I should note Dalton
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  Speaker 6: is a more conservative area within Georgia. But unlike some
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  Speaker 6: of the places we know Trump has really been spending
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  Speaker 6: his time in recent weeks, he's been going to a
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  Speaker 6: lot of red states, places like Alaska, where he was
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  Speaker 6: on Tuesday, Montana, Tennessee, Alabama, the list goes on. Georgia
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  Speaker 6: is different. It is actually a battleground state. And the
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  Speaker 6: candidates that he is there to boost for, one is
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  Speaker 6: the Republican Mike Collins, the Senate candidate there, he is
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  Speaker 6: a congressman. And then the gubernatorial nominee, Rick Jackson, both
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  Speaker 6: of them in tight races. One, Collins is running up
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  Speaker 6: against the Senate incumbent, Democrat John Ossoff. And then Jackson
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  Speaker 6: running against the former Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. So
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  Speaker 6: interesting to see how the president might try to massage, change,
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  Speaker 6: modify some of the aggressive rhetoric he's been using on
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  Speaker 6: the trail lately when talking to a more, you know,
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  Speaker 6: to a state that is a battleground, to a more
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  Speaker 6: purple state.
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  Speaker 1: I will note.
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  Speaker 6: As well, that he has a lot of travel, like
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  Speaker 6: I said, coming up tomorrow. He is going to be
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  Speaker 6: in Kentucky Monday. We're going to see him in Kansas Tuesday,
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  Speaker 6: North Carolina. So a lot to expect from the president
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  Speaker 6: in the weeks ahead, Kate.
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  Speaker 4: That's absolutely right. It's great to see you, Elena. Thank
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  Speaker 4: you so much.