Sharp lines, sharp words in crucial Kansas US Senate debate 

There were no spectators, but one forbidding specter at the final US Senate debate in pivotal Kansas Wednesday night: Chuck Schumer.

Democrat candidate Adam Hamilton admitted exaggerating when he groused that Republican rival Sen. Roger Marshall had mentioned the once-and-looming Senate Democrat majority leader 50 times – but Heartlander News’ count verified Hamilton’s more serious and accurate guess of nearly 20.

“My opponent’s going to say anything he can, to lie, to get into that office and give control to Chuck Schumer,” Marshall said at the very start of the one-hour debate on Fox4kc, which was streamed across the state.

“Every Senate Democrat voted against funding border security,” he warned later. “Every Senate Democrat voted against funding the military. Every Senate Democrat voted against lower taxes. Every Senate Democrat voted against voter ID. Every Senate Democrat on the AG committee voted against the farm bill.

“There’s kind of a ring going here: This guy is funded by Chuck Schumer. He’ll be beholding to Chuck Schumer for forever, and that’s why we need to keep myself in that Senate seat.”

Moderator John Holt began the evening by letting each candidate answer the other’s most pointed accusations: that Dr. Marshall once jailed debtor clients, and that pastor Hamilton – whose Church of the Resurrection in Leawood is known as the largest United Methodist congregation in the U.S. – failed to report a pedophile involved in the church’s youth summer camp and even allowed him to return to molest boys a second year.

Marshall explained that, like every business and “every hospital and every doctor,” his medical practice – which he said also provided up to $4 million in charity care – had to turn over some accounts to collections. He said no one goes to jail for debts, but noted one client had legal troubles in three counties with 16 missed court dates, a crime known as “failure to appear.”

“I went to Great Bend, Kansas, because I wanted to take care of patients,” he said. “It was a mission field. One out of five patients we took care of received free care, millions of dollars of free care.”

Meanwhile, Holt played a portion of a CNN interview in which Hamilton admitted he didn’t report the first year’s alleged molestation to police because “that was not our policies 21 years ago.”

“Yet,” Holt pointed out, “that same volunteer was allowed to return as a camp leader the following year. More allegations surfaced against him. … Obviously it’s your responsibility to take care of these kids. Why not override that policy back in 2005, when you had to know that police or law enforcement are better at investigating these kinds of things than [church] staff?”

“That’s a great question,” Hamilton responded, explaining “we did change our policy after that,” and that police later found the first year’s allegations “inconclusive” and “they refused to press charges [for that year’s accusations].”

“I will tell you that ultimately, we helped get this man put behind bars, and the policies that we developed are used by 10,000 churches across America. When the Kansas City Star investigated what Roger Marshall said about this, the Kansas City Star said his allegations are false and misleading. Every journalist who looked into this said the same thing.”

On other issues

Iran

Hamilton said he hopes to be part of a Democrat Congress in January that is “going to bring a bill to really force the president to bring this war to a conclusion very quickly,” claiming Marshall has failed to support an end to the conflict.

“I hate war,” Marshall retorted. “I hate war as only a soldier who lived it can. … I served, my brother served, my dad served, my son is serving. I want this war to be over just as soon as possible. But we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, and I don’t think any of the listeners out there want it to have a nuclear weapon either.

“This is why we can’t have a weak Adam Hamilton with the weak Democrat policy, who only gives us war through weakness as opposed to peace through strength.”

Marshall noted that Barack Obama – whom Hamilton has said he admires and who inspired him to become a Democrat – sent $1.7 billion to the Iranian regime in pallets of foreign currency.

“Iran would have had a nuclear weapon by now if we would have used [Obama’s] policies today,” he argued.

Marshall also decried Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal, which he said opened the door for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Hamilton sharply distanced himself from those Democrat decisions.

“You were pointing at me as though I developed these policies,” Hamilton replied. “I just want to remind you: I’ve been a pastor for the last 38 years. I have not been a senator. I didn’t develop policies with President Obama or anyone else.”

But this year’s offensive against Iran, after having destroyed its nuclear capabilities last year, has made Americans less safe and “violates every principle of international law,” Hamilton told Marshall. “And you stand by it.”

Fuel costs

Hamilton has said he supports a moratorium on federal gas and diesel taxes. Marshall said he’s open to discussing it, but the real problems are the Ukraine war’s impact on refineries in that region – and Democrat policies regarding refining in the U.S.

“Why are we dependent upon diesel imports?” asked Marshall. “It’s because of the Green New Deal policy that my opponent supports. His policies would fit in just right with Chuck Schumer. So, if I would lose this seat, Adam Hamilton would give control of the Senate to Chuck Schumer, who would go back to his Green New Deal.”

The U.S. hasn’t built a new refinery since 1978, and “we’ve lost 90 refineries since 1990,” Marshall added.

“I don’t support the Green New Deal. Parts of it, yes,” Hamilton responded, adding that record diesel prices aren’t the result of “Ukrainians being able to defend themselves,” but instead of what he called the unnecessary war in Iran that Marshall supports.

Artificial intelligence

Holt, neatly prefacing his questions on AI, asked each candidate when they most recently used it.

Marshall quipped, “I’m sure it was in the green room,” moments before the debate, looking up how quickly Iran might’ve developed a nuclear bomb under Obama.

“Basically, every Google search you use, you’re going to get some AI responses to it,” Hamilton answered. “It has wonderful and amazing potential, and also a huge and terrible, devastating potential as well.”

Nonetheless, while suggesting a Nuclear Regulatory Commission-style body for AI, Hamilton had no suggestions on specific regulations that are needed – despite calling AI a “potential existential threat to the human race.”

Marshall suggested “light touch” regulations targeted at transparency and protecting children and privacy, while making sure China doesn’t get a leg up on the U.S. and its military. He warned that Democrats seek international restrictions on AI, something he said neither China nor Russia would likely abide by.

Illegal immigration

Both candidates expressed dissatisfaction with ICE raids in western Kansas last month that resulted in more than 100 arrests and disrupted cattle processing and shipments.

Hamilton characterized ICE raids as “people taken away,” claiming “people are terrified” of a “militarized, politicized” deportation process.

“Our people in Kansas are decent people,” Hamilton said. “We don’t want people terrified in our communities.”

Marshall noted the U.S. attorney for Kansas said the operations were “aimed at violent offenders and those who had skipped out on removal.”

Hamilton acknowledged that “Biden policies, when it came to the border, were a disaster. I believe in strong and secure borders. I think that’s very important. And Biden, it was a terrible disaster.”

Boys in girls’ sports

Both candidates were asked how many genders there are.

“Well, there’s two,” Marshall chuckled. “There’s a boy and there’s a girl. I delivered 5,000 of them, and almost half were boys and half were girls.”

“There are two genders: male and female,” Hamilton replied succinctly.

Both candidates say they oppose biological males in female sports, but the two parties’ approaches to transgender athletes are diametrically opposed: The Biden administration sought to make blanket bans on boys in girls’ sports a violation of Title IX, while the Trump administration has moved decisively to keep males out of female sports.

The midterm election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

(Image credit: Screenshot/Fox4KC)