Lori townsend and mike ross. Mike good evening. Im mike ross with skis news source. Im lori townsend. Republican senator dan sullivan nd democratic nominee, independent dr. Al gross who is here in the studio and senator sullivan is joining us remotely from washington, d. C. Welcome to both of you. Mike you might have noticed were having some technical complications with this setup. If you hear a little screech every once in a while, dr. Gross is wearing an earpiece so he can hear what the senator is saying. Taylor perez will be getting questions from our viewers on social media. Were distanced here because of the pandemic. We are taking precautions. Well feature video questions from rural alaska and young alaska here in anchorage. Be sure to tune into Facebook Live immediately after this program for some debate analysis. Lori all questions and answers will be timed. A single bell will signal 10 seconds left and the bell will ring twice when the time is up. The candidates will have an opportunity to ask a question of each other during the debate. The candidate also start with a oneminute opening statement. The order was determined earlier by a coin toss. Mike dr. Gross, your one minute opening statement, please. Mr. Gross thank you for tuning in. Im al gross and a lifelong alaskan and independent. As a doctor, i have taken care of people. As a commercial fisherman i have worked to bristol bay. Alaskans deserve have to have a senator they can trust. Hurting alaska is his support for pebble mine to his billion Dollar Company doing direct business with the communist government of china. Tonight youll here dan say a lot about schumer and pelosi. But thats absurd. Im an alaskan. I will always put alaska first. Unlike dan, i have a plan to beat covid, lower healthcare costs and create new jobs. If youre ready for a doctor wholl always put your state over partisan politics, im your guy. Thank you. Mike we apologize for the audio screeching that youre hearing. Were trying to clear that up. Sen. Sullivan thank you and good evening, alaska. As your senator i promise to work for you to get big things done for our state and we have. Rebuilding our military. Cleaning our ocean. Protecting preexisting conditions and addressing drug addiction, Public Safety and Domestic Violence. We have made big progress. We face new challenges of covid19. We Work Together for alaskan families, schools, healthcare workers and Small Businesses. Keeping our citizens healthy remains critical. So too does bidding a strong economic recovery and more jobs for a brighter future. This election couldnt be more important. My opponent and i have very different visions for alaska. Im focused on my opponent wants to empower d. C. Politicians. Keep that in mind. Thank you. Lori thank you for those opening statements. Were starting off tonight with a question from the headlines. Senator sullivan, you rejected the idea of approving president obamas u. S. Supreme Court Nominee in 2016 because it was an Election Year but youre ok with the supreme Court Nominee advancing now. Why doesnt the same principle apply here . You have one minute. Sen. Sullivan in 2016 i mentioned the future direction of the Supreme Court was at stake because we had a white house and senate that were different parties. The people of alaska and america spoke electing a president and senate of the same party. The principle and the precedent is when you have a party of the same white house and senate during an Election Year typically a nomination for the Supreme Court moves forward and it doesnt when they are split. Thats what we have done today. I think judge barrett is going to be an outstanding justice for the u. S. Supreme court. She is somebody who is focused on the second amendment. She is someone who is focusing on limiting the power of federal gencies and i think she is going to be someone who is focused on making sure alaska has a bright future. Im proud to be supporting her in the next couple of weeks or next couple of days. Mike dr. Gross, if youre elected would you support expanding the u. S. Supreme court as some democrats in congress have called for . Mr. Gross no. I am not in favor of packing the court. We need to Work Together to make the system better. Back four years ago he talked about as the principle, not the person. And so to see dan in washington, d. C. About to confirm a justice who is going to strip away preexisting conditions, a womans right to choose and have government tear apart the a. C. A. , i dont support that. But i do not support packing the court. Mike thank you, mr. Gross. Lori thank you. Turning our attention to the pandemic. Senator sullivan, congress has been trying for weeks to put together a new covid relief package but has so far failed to do so. What are the most important elements you think should be included in this next round of relief . You have one minute. Sen. Sullivan you may have seen on the republican side a bill hat is very targeted relief. I asked many alaskans what they thought the Top Priorities were. Our bill has another p. P. P. Round for Small Businesses. It had almost 100 billion for schools, child care and of course for our hospitals. We think all of the provisions in the bill are bipartisan. I have talked to a number of my democrat friends. E problem is right now, senator schumer has filibustered this bill six different times. We think this targeted relief is what we need now. Schumer and pelosi are saying all or nothing with the heroes bill. That is 3 trillion. My opponent supports the heroes bill. There is a lot in the heroes bill i hope we get to discuss that would be really problematic for the state of alaska. Lori thank you. Mike on the same topic, dr. Gross, you criticize spend. Would you have voted against the package because of the elements you didnt like and what would you have done differently . You have one minute for your response. Mr. Gross i would have read the bill and seen that fisheries got half as much as the washington allet. Your oversight on the ambiguous language of the bill cost fishermen 60 billion. We only got 15 of the cares act money destined for fishermen across the country. Thats only twice as much as the washington, d. C. Ballet. The covid, you have been dishonest to the American People from the start and hid what you knew, that it was such a dangerous disease and you failed to deliver to alaska. So when i get to the senate, i will read the bill a lot more carefully than you did and fight harder for alaska to make sure we get what we deserve. Mike we want to give our candidates a chance for rebuttal. Senator sullivan, do you want to respond to that . Sen. Sullivan sure, i would care to respond to that. This bill saved 114,000 jobs in alaska. Thats an insult for families ho needed that relief. It is interesting when you talk about the alaska native corporations, the heroes act which you support has a complete discrimination against alaskan natives and claws back any money they get. Hundreds of millons of dollars. Lori we have to leave it there, sir. Mike there were special considerations regarding the cares act and rural alaska. We have a question on that right ow from henry hunter sr. Alaska tribes have received care about funding but there are so much restrictions and deadlines. How will you work with congress to ensure that our tribes receive extension to ensure these funds are given to the people in need . Mike senator sullivan, you have one minute for your response please. Sen. Sullivan im glad that was raised and i appreciate the question. The cares act had an 8 billion tribal relief fund. Senator murkowski and i worked hard to make that happen. We made sure in the language that all alaskan natives were covered. My opponent said only certain alaskan natives should be covered. Hundreds of millions should go to the lower 48. That is ridiculous and i dont think any alaskans support it. But he does. The question is a very valid one. In the bill that we put forward on the senate floor, there are flexibilities to extend the deadline in which that cares act money has to be spent into september of next year. That was something i heard from alaskans and that was something in the current bill and i hope we can get that in the bill as we continue to negotiate a compromise on this. But the focus on rural alaska wasnt just the 8 billion tribal fund. I was able to get an additional 100 million for hospitals that were playing such a Critical Role during this pandemic. Lori thank you, sir. We have to leave it there. Mike your response. Mr. Gross youre right. How it can be used and how it had to be tied to covid. Youre 100 right. When i get to the senate ill make sure that is not a problem when i sign the next bill. My opponent of course has been not a good advocate for people in rural alaska like yourself. And when he first came to alaska, he fought against the katie john case. He and his office were very disrespectful to fred johns when he was arrested out in front of his office. He has been enabling the pebble mine ever since he showed up here in alaska which of course threatens a rural subsistence priority. He has failed to address the high rate of Domestic Violence and sexual assault. It has gone up under his term. Not down. He is trying strip away the Medicaid Expansion and trying to help the Tribal Health system. It is chronically underfunded. Lori senator sullivan, republicans have repeatedly said hey want to do away with the Affordable Care about and havent yet come up with a plan to replace it. Do you have a viable replacement plan and if so, what does it contain and what does it do . You have one minute. Sen. Sullivan first of all, my opponent has no credibility on healthcare. You may have seen he charged he made 2. 5 million working three days a week as a doctor. He has admitted fleecing alaskans. Everybody go take a look at grosstapes. Com. I saw him recently talking about how he did that. It was really incredible to see his unethical behavior as a doctor, but he is also for medicare for all, which i oppose. We are focused on keeping the best parts of the Affordable Care act like preexisting conditions which we still have coverage on and i have voted to protect numerous times and getting rid of the other elements of the Affordable Care act. The individual mandate. The cadillac tax which would have really hurt alaska. Were going to have more government control, like medicare for all which my opponent is completely for or the patient is going to have the power. Lori we have to leave it there. I want to follow up quickly. Your campaign ads say you will always protect preexisting conditions. How will you be able to do that if the Supreme Court repeals the Affordable Care about . You have one minute. Sen. Sullivan is this question for me, lori . Lori yes. Your campaign act says you would protect preexisting conditions. How would you be able to do is that if the Supreme Court repeal Affordable Care act. Sen. Sullivan they are looking at severability. Whether the individual mandate is constitutional. As the whole a. C. A. Saw. It is quite unlikely. It is likely to be a severable provision in the Affordable Cares act and therefore the rest of the a. C. A. Would stay intact including coverage for preexisting conditions. The Supreme Court has said, Justice Roberts said the ustices looked for ways to protect the constitutionality of the statutes. I think it is unlikely that the whole Affordable Care about will fall. If it did, im a cosponsor of the protects act. We have moved on it in the past three weeks. Chuck schumer, my opponent has pledged allegiance to has filibustered that in the last three weeks. In the unlikely event that it is not severable, we would pass the protects act and protect preexisting coverage and thats how we would do it. Lori thank you, sir. Mike dr. Gross, lets talk about your position when it comes to healthcare. You advocate for a governmentrun single payer healthcare system. Now youre proposing a less comprehensive approach so people can buy into medicare and other reforms. Why did you change your plans three years ago . Mr. Gross first of all, i have to respond to my opponent. I have never once supported medicare for all. What i have done is studied and written about drivers of healthcare cost. Im going to be the doctor that gets the public option. I charged the same or even less than my peers. It is that healthcare costs are three to five times higher in alaska than they are in the lower 48. I dont support medicare for all. But you on the other hand have voted this many times to repeal the a. C. A. And get rid of coverage for preexisting conditions. You dont understand healthcare and how it relates to the alaskan economy and youre in washington, d. C. Now and about to confirm a Supreme Court justice that is going to create a tremendous problem for americans. Mike that is a rebuttal to senator sullivan. But my question was about your position. Just three years ago, you advocated publicly in the newspaper in anchorage for a governmentrun Single Health care pair care payer system. Why the change in position . Where do you stand . Mr. Gross i have studied the drivers of healthcare cost. I have written about medicare for all and single payers and dueling payers with a public system and a private system. What i think is best for a policy of alaska and our country is to have a public option where individuals and Small Businesses can buy into medicare at cost at no one elses expense. Thats what i think would work best for alaska and our country. Mike where does private insurance fit into this . One of the criticisms of the a. C. Sambings a lot of people lost the ability to keep their private policies and keep the coverage they wanted. Mr. Gross we have a healthcare exchanges with private insurance. I think we should have a public option on the exchange as well to compete with the private system. Many, many people wont want to switch but there are a lot of individuals and Small Businesses in our state and in our country who have been crushed by the high cost of healthcare. Buying into medicare will cost a small fraction of what it costs to buy into the private system and medicare covers preexisting conditions by the way. So i think it will be a way to create competition in the marketplace and drive down costs in the private system. Lori thank you for that. Lets turn now to the topic of Resource Development. Senator sullivan, you said you spend to make sure the pebble mine remains dead. What specifically do you intend to do to make sure that happens and what can you do to make good on that definitive statement . You have one minute. Sen. Sullivan lori, i just want to quickly touch on the exchange of healthcare. My opponent just looked alaskans in the eye and said he wasnt for medicare for all. That is completely false. Go look at his oped. Go look at his tweets. You have to fess up. Lori sir, lets move to Resource Development. Sen. Sullivan back the Resource Development. What i have said with regards to pebble is that pebble did not meet the high standards that we ave with regard to every resource project in the state. They went through the process. I oppose pebble mine. Im against pebble mine. If the core of engineers doesnt do their job, they shall do their job. To me, the issue that is an important one but there is a lot of other Resource Development projects being permeated in alaska and my pound lori i want to follow up here. Ill give you another 30 seconds but im looking for specifics about what you would do to make sure that when you say i promise to make sure the pebble mine is dead, what you can actually do to make good on that commitment. You have 30 seconds. Sen. Sullivan what i did throughout the entire process is making sure it was based on science and data and not politics. That alaskans have access to Decision Makers at the highest level of the federal government and when the decision came out that it was going to harm the critical bristol salmon industry, and if it moves through e. P. A. Where they have the ability for a veto, then i would encourage that. Made sure the process worked. Lori we have to leave it there. Thank you, sir. Well have to leave it there. Lets give him one minute to respond. Mr. Gross thank you, lori. No one believes dan for one second on pebble mine. He has been enabling pebble mine. He accepted 35,000 worth of Campaign Contributions from the pebble mine executives and their ubsidiaries. Their lead lobbyist sits on dans billionaire familys board of directors. The process is the permit. To stop it, you have to defund the army corps of engineers and the other is to activate section 404, the clean water act and the e. P. A. When i get to the senate, im going to take action to stop the pebble mine instead of dan who has been quiet in the corner trying to ride out the election. I have been opposed to pebble mine since i was in my 20s and i will work hard to stop it when lori we will give senator sullivan another 30 seconds to respond. Sen. Sullivan he is now saying he will defund the corps of engineers. This is what the people who are supporting him would want to do with all Resource Development projects in alaska. Right now, we have many projects and more. Project, the creek mine. Hemy opponent gets elected, will empower the antialaska will shut down every single one of these resources. The future of our state lori thank