Iowa secondhe Congressional District debate. Your voice, your vote. Moderator welcome to the second Congressional District debate in cedar rapids. This is the first of a twopart set of debates. The next debate will be next thursday, october 15. Focus on a few different topics and we will tonight such as education, but still, weve got plenty of subjects to work through for the next hour. James lynch,y longtime political reporter with the gazette in cedar rapids, also to serve as moderators tonight. Audience. Hout an we are trying to keep it socially distanced with the candidates and now it is time to meet our candidates. Democrat rita hart is a former served as iowa state senator in the 49th district six years, covering clinton and scott counties. On the right, Mariannette Millermeeks, ophthalmologist from a tumwater ottumwa. Soft for 60ead a seconds to talk about why you are the best choice for this seat in congress. Ms. Hart thank you so much and it is a pleasure to be here. Im rita h
Like economic development. I know we are not going to agree on every issue tonight, but i want to go to washington to find common ground. We are facing some tough problems right now with the pandemic, the economy, with health care, and with education. The way to get to the best solution is to do it together. Moderator senator, 60 questions for you seconds for you . Ms. Millermeeks i would like to thank the cedar rapids gazette. , am Mariannette Millermeeks my father was a Master Sergeant in the air force, my mother had gotten a ged. No one in my family had been College Educated though they valued education. Burnt in a16, i was kitchen fire and in that hospitalization, i had an epiphany about my future. I was going to become a doctors i left home at 16, got a job, and rolled in san antonio junior college, enlisted at 18 and worked and went to school until i got a degree in nursing, masters in education, and was able to go to medical school and i came to iowa to do my residency in ophtha
To the stories that you have told, including the story of veronicas family. Very moving. If i were a justice, the commitment i would make to you and to all people affected by follows is that i would the law as you enacted it, and i have no agenda. I would not be coming in with any agenda. I would do equal justice under the law for all, and not try to force or disrupt in any way the quality choices that you and your colleagues have adopted. Sen. Hirono so are you saying that the impact of the Affordable Care act on the millions of people who rely upon it, that you would deem to be policy considerations that we should address . Sen. Hirono senator, i think that you choose the law and you have structured the Affordable Care act. You set the policies. And i think when a court has to interpret those statutes or decide how it applies in a Certain Circumstance, the court looks to traditional legal materials, looks to the briefs, listens to the real world impacts on the litigants before the co
Democrats and republicans are vying to replace him. Tv nine and the gazette, this is the iu second Congressional District debate, your voice, your vote. Welcome to the second congressional debate here in cedar rapids. This is the first of a twopart debate. We are also partnering with the gazette and quad city times. Is october 15. We will focus on different topics. We have plenty to work our way through the next hour. Lynch,ined by james longtime political reporter with the gazette. We are moderators tonight. Because of the pandemic, we are without an audience. We are trying to keep socially distance with the candidates. Now its time to meet our candidates. Rita hart is a former teacher and served as an iowa state senator for six years, covering clinton and scott counties. On the right, republican marion , current state senator. Thank you both for joining us tonight. We appreciate it. You get to lead us off. For 60 seconds, talk about why you are the best choice for this seat in congre
[inaudible] senator blumenthal. Thank you very much. Thank you for being back. You very much, mr. Chairman, thank you for being back, your honor, and thank you to your family as well. I want to begin by saying, perhaps not surprisingly to you, that i was really disappointed by your responses to a number of my colleagues most recently on the coons issue of whether you would purchase fate in a decision involving the upcoming election if you were confirmed. I continue to believe that if you were to participate in a decision involving that enduring,it would do explosive damage to the court. I think you know it would be wrong, not because of anything you have done. Fact, i am not raising the issue of whether you have done any sort of deal or commitment because of what donald trump has and my republican colleagues, because they have indelibly put at issue your integrity through their statements. The president has said that he is putting you on the court as the ninth justice, so you can decid