McSally Flops in Only Arizona Senate Debate
By: Shay Khatiri (The Bulwark)
The Republican incumbent, far behind her astronaut challenger in the polls, squandered a chance to turn things around
Trump held a rally near Phoenix.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
US Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) removes her mask as she prepares to debate Democratic challenger Mark Kelly (not in frame) at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 6, 2020. (Photo by Rob SCHUMACHER / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ROB SCHUMACHER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
McSally, a former Air Force pilot—the first woman to fly in combat—served in the House for two terms before she ran for the Senate in 2018. She lost to Kyrsten Sinema. But she was appointed to John McCain's seat after Jon Kyl, the initial appointee, stepped down, and so had the strange experience of being sworn in on the same day as the woman who defeated her. She's now running to keep the seat she was appointed to.
Kelly served in the Navy—as a test pilot and a combat aviator—before becoming an astronaut. His wife, former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, had to retire from the House after a shooting almost killed her. Ever since, Giffords and Kelly have advocated for policies that restrict ownership of guns through an organization named after her.
McSally used to be a rising star and a McCain Republican: pragmatic, hawkish, pro-immigration, and moderate. Once the GOP became Trumpy, though, McSally—as Tim Miller has put it—maneuvered toward Trump.
During her failed Senate campaign in 2018, McSally attacked her opponent's flamboyance by dubbing her "Hollywood Sinema." It didn't work. And she's doubling down on the Trumpy name-calling this year: Mark Kelly is "Counterfeit Kelly," a phrase she used at least nine times during the debate. Counterfeit of what? Who knows! Perhaps his identical twin?
One thing was clear: Somebody was lying. McSally went after Kelly over things that Kelly had allegedly done and said, and, every time, Kelly responded that it had never happened and some variation on "I do not know where Senator McSally gets her information from." Toward the end, there was a clue as to who was lying: When the moderator asked McSally about her support for red flag laws—laws that let authorities temporarily confiscate guns from people who could be a threat to themselves or to others—McSally responded that the moderator was "misstating" a conversation. To which the moderator, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, with a good reputation in Arizona, responded, "I did not misspeak. We've had multiple conversations . . . with your office, so I just want to be clear on that."
McSally's broader strategy was to depict Kelly as a far-left candidate in bed with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, which is funny since Schumer, despite his countless flaws, isn't a far-left politician himself. She kept mentioning Kelly's support for the Squad, naming Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib but not Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley, and one wonders whether this has to do anything with the fact that Arabic names are scarier to Arizona voters. This particular attack isn't entirely baseless: Giffords, the organization Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords run, has endorsed Tlaib. And Kelly did participate in a 2018 gun-control panel with Omar, before she had become the most toxic, scandalous, and despicable politician in America not named Donald Trump.
But the problem with depicting Kelly as a far-left candidate is that he just isn't one. (In fact, the far left was trying to recruit Rep. Ruben Gallego to run in the primary against Kelly.)
McSally even smeared Kelly as a Red: She said that he was in the pocket of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the CCP funded a 2003 trip he took to China. Further, she said that Kelly had taken the CCP's banner on a shuttle mission. "Of all the things he could have brought to space!" And she mocked him for calling that trip to China the second-greatest experience of his life after going to space.
The truth is that the trip in question was funded by an American organization called the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, which has on its board retired American statesmen and members of the business community, not CCP members. The banner that Kelly took to space was the program's banner, not the CCP's. And the reason he described the trip as "one of the absolute highlights of my life, second only to flying in space" was that it was on that trip that he met his wife.
Toward the end of the debate, the subject of policing came up. McSally said that "I back the blue," objected to police reform, and charged that Kelly was anti-police. Kelly countered not by posturing but by calmly stating a simple, devastating fact: "Both of my parents were cops." He went on to say that there is a distinction between peaceful protests and violence, that the violence should stop, and that he supports police reform.
Kelly was not always on defense. He charged that McSally wanted to get rid of mandatory insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions, which she denied, as she has throughout the campaign—earning herself four Pinocchios and a Politifact slapdown. Kelly also called out McSally for flip-flopping: "Senator McSally used to support DREAMers, then she said DACA was unconstitutional. There was a bipartisan agreement on a pathway to a normal status for DREAMers; Senator McSally used to support it, and then when it wasn't politically convenient anymore she decided not to."
The examples go on and on. But the most interesting part of the debate was how McSally kept dodging questions on Trump's character. The moderators repeatedly gave her opportunities to say she disapproved of the president's reported remarks about fallen warriors—he allegedly called them "losers" and "suckers"—or to distance herself in other ways from Trump. Every single time, McSally refused to do so. She kept talking about what she had accomplished in the Senate, never engaging the president's character.
Kelly's only bad moment came in the beginning when he refused to pick a side on getting rid of the filibuster. Overall, he came off as personable, calm, and articulate—in a word, he was senatorial. McSally, by contrast, was obnoxious and spoke too fast. She had to be corrected on facts by her opponent and a moderator. The polls suggest that November is going to bring an unfortunate end to her once-promising political career.
Shay Khatiri is a graduate student of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He grew up in Iran and left the country in 2011. He is currently seeking political asylum in the United States. Follow him @ShayKhatiri.
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I would never have imagined that AZ could go blue. Some heads would certainly explode...
It will be a delightful vision.
The Libs are in the big cities: Phoenix and Tucson. Down in little Yuma, we're kinda outnumbered... But we'd really kike to do some partying!
Over here in Cochise County, it is pretty much a even split between the two. Tucson is only two hours North of me and is highly liberal Democrat just like Phoenix. Kelly has more sway in those metropolitan areas while McSally has more in the rural areas in this part of the state.
Nothing is written in stone. I cannot in good conscience vote for Mark Kelly. As a fellow Navy retiree, I highly respect his military and NASA achievements. But I highly disagree with his political views. I am highly against his anti-gun views.
Would you vote for Trump?
I don't think so, but I know for certain I will not vote for Biden/Harris.
Yep. 86 right now in Douglas with climbing to 90 in the next hour. I will certainly be glad to see winter. Never really liked the cold until I spent 4 years on going to Antarctica for 6 month out of the. Guess it did something to me.
Someone should alert the Deliverance Brothers (Eric and Don Jr) that there is a new endangered specie to hone in on.....republican candidates.
I've heard them called Udai and Ussay
That also.
I happened to watch this debate. Kelly was sharp and senatorial. McSally was not. She came off as uncaring, bitter and just plain old dumb. Mark Kelly has this and is probably going to run away with it!
McSally will probably never be heard from again...
Mark Kelly, the Democratic candidate running against McSally, said that knowing McCain was an honor, and he found it hard to understand why McSally wouldn't speak up to defend him to President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly insulted McCain, even after his death.
McSally countered that she had, both publicly and privately, asked Trump to stop attacking McCain.
"Quite frankly, it pisses me off when he does it," McSally said.
Oh wow, Trump will turn on her in a hot minute.
He is already warming up the bus.
Biden and Harris will be in Arizona together early next week.
A bit of a backstory on the 2016 election. The tribes of AZ requested that Hillary Clinton met with them or send a representative to meet with them. She did neither and basically ignored them.
The end result was that one county in AZ that is 98% native she received a bit over 5,000 LESS votes than Obama did in the prior election. The first excuse was that there were fewer people in that county now. The fact is the population had increased by a bit over 3%.
That was just one county. She lost AZ by 3.4 %. Ignore that Native Vote in AZ at your own peril.
Biden and Harris are not doing that and have paid attention to the Native vote.
Here is a list of tribal entities in AZ.
Ak-Chin Indian Community
Yavapai-Apache Nation
Navajo Nation, Arizona (Tribe)
Cocopah Indian Reservation, Arizona (Tribe)
Colorado River Indian Tribes
White Mountain Apache Tribe
Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation
Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, Arizona (Tribe)
Gila River Indian Community
Havasupai Tribe
Hopi Tribe
Hualapai Tribe
Kaibab-Paiute Tribe, Arizona (Tribe)
Pascua Yaqui Tribe
Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
San Carlos Apache Tribe
Tohono O'odham Nation
Tonto Apache Tribe
Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe, Arizona (Tribe)
Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe
San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe
COVID has been a disaster to Native American Tribes. The Navajo and many of the Pubelo tribes have been devasted by it with no help for the Covid in Chief or his fucked up administration. The Navajo have lost 500 members to COVID.
This is the latest tribe to be devasted by COVID.
‘A Devastating Blow’: Virus Kills 81 Members of Native American Tribe
I've seen lots of headlines about gravity of the pandemic, for Native Americans... but no explanations. Have you seen any?
Like blacks and Hispanics we are at a much higher chance to get the virus due to the very poor or no health care that many Indians receive or don't receive.. Underlying conditions such as diabetes which all of us (Indians) have to be aware of at all times in our lives.
Many Native families live in multi-generational homes thereby increasing the spread of the infection.
Many areas Navajo are without running water and all water has to be trucked into them.
Those are the usual observations about Native American health problems. Are you saying that Covid is "more of the same, but MORE"?
I was wondering if there was some special sensitivity.
Yes.
As in a genetic reason?
Perhaps. I don't think I've seen any explanation other than "the usual wretched health care conditions".
The impact on Native Americans is so great that it's hard not to suppose something out of the ordinary.
We are pre disposed to diabetes which in turn leads to numerous other serious health conditions.
That might do it. Thanks for the explanation.
I am so sick of her campaign calling and leaving me voicemails, interrupting my football, sending me fucking idiotic texts, and leaving her trash on my front porch.
Kelly has only interrupted my football.
I think we all know where my vote is going.