Harkey, Levin clash over Trump, impeachment in first debate of congressional race

Oct. 03--With Election Day just over a month away, 49th Congressional District candidates Diane Harkey and Mike Levin met for their first debate Tuesday night, where they sparred over a wide range of topics from President Donald Trump and immigration to Medicare and student loans.

The debate, hosted in studio by NBC7, ran for an hour and painted a picture of two candidates who other than agreeing on a best president of all-time -- Abraham Lincoln -- offered few similarities and no shortage of differences.

Harkey, a member of the Board of Equalization and former assemblywoman from Dana Point, was unabashed in her support of Trump and his policies, offering scarce criticism of the president and frequently praising his handling of most issues, especially those related to the economy. She said she supported his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords and the Iran nuclear deal and supports the building of a border wall.

Harkey supported the president's tariffs imposed on China, said she'd support funding Trump's proposed Space Force and expressed opposition to medical care for all or setting up a nationwide single-payer healthcare system.

"Some people don't like his style," Harkey said of the president. "But on substance, on the economy, which hits people's pockets, we need to keep that going."

Meanwhile Levin, an environmental attorney from San Juan Capistrano, said that in withdrawing from the Paris climate accords and Iran nuclear deal, the president has the U.S. abdicating its responsibility. He also opposes the building of a border wall and said he would not support funding the president's Space Force.

Levin also criticized the GOP tax overhaul as harming Californians, argued against the president's recent string of tariffs and expressed his support for protecting the Affordable Care Act and the College for All Act.

"I was born here, raised here and I am so proud of our state now more than ever," said Levin, adding he wanted to bring California values to Washington D.C. "I think it is critically important to have a member of Congress who is not just a rubber stamp for the Trump administration."

Among the few areas the candidates agreed on were their opposition to offshore oil drilling in California, the need to improve transportation and infrastructure in the state to address the region's traffic congestion issues and the need to renegotiate student loan interest rates.

The debate also featured several jabs and more charged moments. The sharpest involved special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump campaign dealings with Russia and whether the president should be required to testify before Mueller.

Harkey said that she didn't think the president should testify and that he had immunity from being compelled to so. She also said that while it was important to get to the bottom of potential Russian meddling, the investigation in ways had become "much ado about nothing," and the purpose of it for Democrats was to "conduct impeachment proceedings."

She argued repeatedly that Levin would want to impeach Trump and seemed to suggest that regardless of what is ultimately found out, impeachment hearings would be a waste of time.

Levin said that if Mueller's investigation is a "witch hunt" as the president claims, it is "the most successful witch hunt in history." He said that president should have to comply with a subpoena to provide testimony to Mueller and stressed that he believed Congress had a responsibility to be a check on the executive branch, even citing Congressman Darrell Issa's book that spoke to the issue.

"I worry a lot about the House not upholding its constitutional responsibility," Levin said.

In response to Harkey's claim that his goal if elected would be to impeach the president, he said, "I'm not running an impeachment platform."

All in all, the debate mostly saw candidates hold positions residents would come to expect and sets the stage for a dramatic final month of campaigning.

Harkey and Levin emerged from a crowded primary of 16 candidates, garnering 25.5 percent and 17.1 percent of the vote respectively in June, and thus earned the right to advance to a runoff election for the soon-to-be vacated seat held by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista.

Issa, who has represented the district for nearly two decades, announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election in the district, an area where a re-election bid was looking increasingly difficult.

Despite the number of registered Republicans far exceeding the number of registered Democrats in the district, the race has long been viewed as one of the most competitive in the country.

In 2016 Issa won his re-election bid by 1,621 votes, the closest contest of any federal race in the country that year. Trump is unpopular among voters in the area, and actually lost the district to Hillary Clinton by 7.5 percentage points.

The district includes parts of northern San Diego County and southern Orange County. According to August reports from both county registrar of voters, the district has 140,488 registered Republicans compared to 122,252 registered Democrats.

Internal polls conducted by both campaigns in June and July showed the candidates to be in a very tight race, usually within three percentage points of each other. The nonpartisan site Inside Elections has the race rated as "Lean Democratic."

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