Harkey, Levin clash over Trump, impeachment in first debate of congressional race
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 --
Harkey, a member of the
Harkey supported the president's tariffs imposed on
"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
Levin also criticized the
"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
Among the few areas the candidates agreed on were their opposition to offshore oil drilling in
The debate also featured several jabs and more charged moments. The sharpest involved special counsel
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
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
"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.
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
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
The district includes parts of northern
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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