In a heated debate Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Republican challenger Lawrence Zupan gave voters a clear sense of the gulf between their political views.
Zupan repeatedly slammed Sanders’ brand of democratic socialism and said Sanders supports the kinds of policies that led to North Korea’s dictatorship and Venezuela’s failed economy. Sanders dismissed the attacks and accused Zupan of echoing national Republicans.
The debate, jointly sponsored by Vermont Public Radio and Vermont PBS, covered a wide range of hot-button political topics, and the two candidates agreed on almost nothing.
Sanders responded to a question about the convoy of people walking through Mexico toward the United States by restating his support for comprehensive immigration reform and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA.
Zupan said he sees the convoy as an incursion.
“I’m asking who’s behind that, first of all — and what is the government of the United States supposed to do when there’s an organized invasion of the country’s borders?” Zupan said.
People living without legal status in the U.S. should be forced to leave and then apply for residency, he said.
If elected, the Republican real estate broker’s first move on immigration, he said, would be to “secure the border so that we could stanch the flow of blood, so to speak.”
Zupan repeatedly dodged questions from moderator Jane Lindholm about whether he agrees with established science that climate change is primarily caused by human activity. Zupan insisted that his push for smaller government and less regulation would foster enough innovation in the energy industry that carbon-heavy fuel sources would become a thing of the past, rendering the cause and severity of climate change an “academic” point.
“I have the same goals,” he said. “I have a pink pair of lungs that breathe air.”
Sanders emphasized that he agrees with established science and said he was “scared to death” by a recent report that says problems caused by climate change will become severe more quickly than previously thought.
The candidates were similarly divided on the issue of abortion.
After Sanders stated his support for women’s right to choose, Zupan countered with a question: “How far outside a mother’s womb does the baby’s skull have to be before you would forbid … the doctor from puncturing its skull and vacuuming out its brain?”
Zupan didn’t directly state whether he believes women should have access to abortions, instead discussing larger inequities between women and men in the health care system.
Both candidates initially seemed to agree on one issue: Each stated support for legal protections for transgender Americans.
Then Lindholm followed up by noting that the question was related to President Donald Trump’s recent call to remove a legal definition that protects transgender people. At that point, Zupan wasn’t so sure transgender Americans deserve legal protections.
“This is a complicated question that deserves a lot of study, because it’s clear … that people are usually born one gender or another,” he said. “What is the cost to society of having a third gender?”
Zupan repeatedly cast Sanders as advocating for socialism, which he views as a malicious and corrupt ideology. Zupan said Sanders’ campaign rhetoric was a “reinvention of the word ‘revolution’ to describe the post-Marxist ideas where government takes over everything and redistributes it.”
Sanders responded by accusing Zupan of echoing attacks Republicans made on the national stage.
“These are my thoughts,” Zupan replied.
“Well they’re pretty pathetic thoughts,” Sanders snapped.
Sanders and Zupan will face off again Monday evening in a debate sponsored by Burlington’s Channel 17. In that contest, the two will be joined by the seven other candidates running for U.S. Senate: independents Folasade Adeluola, Russell Beste, Bruce Busa, Edward Gilbert Jr., Brad Peacock and John Svitavsky, along with Liberty Union nominee Reid Kane.
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Zupan is echoing the anti-Semitism spread by the racist right and amplified by Trump that directly provoked the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre. He should have been kicked off the stage.
Credit to Zupan for honest express his thoughts on the issues. But Sanders is right, they’re pretty pathetic thoughts.
A_trout…Zupan is Jewish.
Excellent job, Lawrence!
You’d never guess that from his answer on the caravan in Mexico. It was all about fear mongering that it was paid for, and the only people spreading that garbage are ones associated with antisemitism.
My concern is the overall persuasion that says a woman has a right to blah blah blah. What about that innocent life? Any rights there? Is it any wonder that people are killing people every time we turn around? It should not surprise us that this disregard for human life has escalated to this point. Maybe if morals were turned around, we would start loving each other instead of fostering hate. As the song says, We Need to Get Back To the Basics of Life…..(4Him)
Sanders did not counteract Zupans categorization of Sanders position as post-Marxist, Sanders simply said everyone else agrees with that categorization and apparently Sanders does also. If you want dictatorial communistic government … with Sanders you will get it.
I saw Bernie and Jane Sanders in El Gato last night. Bernie looked rather dejected. Maybe it was due to the intellectual thrashing he received from Zupan.
Hey Repubs. Your guy’s a loser, just like all of your candidates. Since you’re the minority in this state and the country, you really should be nicer to others. What’s it like to be in the same party as the worst president in U.S. history?
“. . . you really should be nicer to others.”
Really? Your saying this in support of Bernie Sanders, known for being one of the meanest, nastiest politicians in Vermont history? Really? That’s funny.