WASHINGTON — Jeanne Shaheen and Scott Brown, who are both running for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, had a heated debate Thursday about national issues like Ebola, the Islamic State, and how well President Barack Obama is doing his job.
The meeting, which took place in Concord, New Hampshire, was the second televised debate and the third time that incumbent Democrat Shaheen and her Republican opponent, a former Massachusetts senator named Brown, had met. Brown came out swinging right away. When he heard that a doctor in New York had been diagnosed with Ebola, he harshly criticised how the Obama administration was handling the virus.
Brown said that the doctor, who had just come back from West Africa, should have been quarantined when he got to the U.S. Shaheen, who was pressed by CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer, refused to say whether she thought the federal government should require quarantines for travellers from Ebola-stricken countries.
Brown kept pushing for a travel ban, and Shaheen has only said, “If they work, I’m all for it.” Shaheen said again that she was in favour of screenings for sick travellers, which are already in place at some of the biggest airports in the U.S. Brown, on the other hand, was called out by Shaheen for “stoking fear” about the issue.
“She calls it spreading fear, but I call it sensible fear,” Brown said in response.
As he has done in recent weeks, Brown linked Ebola to border security and defended his comments that the country wouldn’t be dealing with Ebola if Mitt Romney had won the 2012 presidential election.
Brown said that his comments from a Fox News interview last week were taken out of context. “I think that if Romney had been president, he would have had a clear plan. He would have given the American people peace of mind “Brown said.
Brown has also used his push for border security to talk about the rise of ISIS. The government’s response to ISIS was another point of contention for Shaheen. Brown criticised both the senator and the president, saying they didn’t take the threat from the militant group seriously.
Brown said, “ISIS is as big as New England right now, and you and the president have ruled out ground troops.” “I would not have taken the strongest fighting force off the table.”
ISIS, he added, “is getting bigger and badder.” Brown used what former CIA director and defence secretary Leon Panetta said about Obama’s handling of ISIS to make his point.
Shaheen again said that Brown was “sowing fear” and that it was wrong for politicians to “repeat ISIS talking points.”
“ISIS is a real threat, but we shouldn’t try to make people afraid of them,” she said. “The truth is that my opponent ran ads for weeks that said radical Islamic terrorists were a threat to the United States. That’s not true, though. We have the best military in the world, and ISIS or any other terrorist group won’t be able to bring this country down.”
Shaheen never missed a chance to make Brown look like a “carpetbagger.” She said, “I was asking questions about ISIS before my opponent moved to New Hampshire.”
Shaheen seemed more at ease defending the president’s record on domestic issues. She talked up her support for the Affordable Care Act and pushed back on Republican claims that she was the deciding vote for the health care law in 2010.
“We were 60 people. Each of us was the vote that made the difference, “Shaheen said, adding that Brown would make it hard for tens of thousands of New Hampshire residents to get health care.
Shaheen said again that she was for raising the federal minimum wage, which Brown had trouble with.
“At my first job, I cleaned the grease trap at Dunkin’ Donuts. I remember the smell even now, “Brown said.