Democrats turned to a man who wanted to be president , the democratic primary voters did not share that desire so former Governor John Hickenlooper is back running for the senate, the job he said he didnt want and wouldnt be good at. Two men coloradans know well with clear disagreements on healthcare, the economy, immigration, the supremecourt and how to handle the pandemic. Now all thats left is for them to debate and you to decide. In association with colorado politics and broadcast statewide by stations in every corner of colorado is a live from the campus of Colorado State university in fort collins, next presents race for the senate, here are your moderators, kyle clark and marshall bellinger. Next expands to a commercial free our statewide this evening. For this u. S. Senate debate. We are following Public Health guidelines as well as guidance from our host set Colorado State university we are holding this debate with an without an audience, with social distancing and Health Checks for everyone here including our candidates for u. S. Senate, republican Senator Cory Gardner for the remainder of this debate we will refer to as Mister Gardner and his democratic challenger John Hickenlooper who will we will refer to as mister hickenlooper. The topics that have been selected, colorado politics. Com and the colorado and have not been shared in advance with anyone to read the candidates will have one minute for answers, 30 seconds for rebuttals with extended discussion at our discussion. Us voters deserve a debate filled with clear answers to clear questions and for the candidates to have an opportunity to speak without interrupting one another. We will also have one opportunity this evening for the candidates to post direct questions to one another. Lets get started. Colorados covid19 hospitalizations are at their highest point sincethe initial wave of the pandemic in the spring. Artest Positivity Rate today hit five percent. Thats a warning to Public Health experts. Same question to both of you to begin. What is the single most important thing we can do to improve our Pandemic Response and what or who is standing in the way . Gardner. Thanks to Colorado State university, its great to be back on this as a graduate, great to be here and all the other responders. We must have a to really package out of the United States congress, this follows up on the relief packages we alreadypassed. This package includes people with unemployment benefits, additional dollarsfor vaccines, dollars for childcare , dollars for education as help for Small Businesses allowing paycheck perfect attention dollars to be back into the hands of businesses, keep their doors open to make sure that we have a second drop on the loans. These are the kind of things we need to be pursuing and we need to make sure where following socialdistancing , making sure people are practicing good hygiene including wearing a mask but i will say this and start this evening with what john hick and looper would have done had he been there. He would have voted against this, the very bill i described was he said he would, a bill that would have provided unemployment relief and relief for education, for childcare, new dollars for vaccines area we cant afford to havesomebody who refuses to support the people of colorado in the senate. After hickenlooper, if we want to have a long discussion we can and ill restate thediscussion. What is the single most important thing we can do to improve our Pandemic Response and who or what is standingin the way . We did see an introduction that will see a lot, theres been a fair amountof time on the attack. I think there will be a fair amount of distortion and exaggeration ill go to the question. The most important thing we can do is tax relief, a nation that again, corey and i agree on this. Four days ago, corey was emphatic that he thought that covid relief should be a higher priority than making sure that we rush through this Supreme Court nomination which is where the senate focus seems to be and i think the question has to be asked , if covid relief is the most important thing and the protective equipmentfor everyone , he could just say i will not vote to support this thing, if the , if indeed the relief act doesnt get past first andthere are two senators that said yesterday they were not going to vote for it. If his priority would be a strong point towards getting relief. Your hearing here in Northern Colorado where we saw one of thelargest outbreaks in the state. Mister gardner, you brag about gds workers, and leaders say those tests never arrived. Kds also didnt test all its workers before reopening as it has promised. Mister gardner, gds is a significant donor. That company protect its workers did you deliver a 5000 taxipromised. I worked closely with the state of colorado and if you look at the record will see the governor said every employee at jds who want to test can get a test. Thats not me saying it, thats not the new saying it, thats the governor saying there were tests if they wanted them. We have to make sure we have personal protective equipment for our employees whether theyre working at a restaurant or working at a meatpacking plant and we also have to recognize the challenges that our food supply system went through when we had the initial stages of the pandemic hit. Our workers were heroes thats why i worked closely with the governor to make sure we had those tests that they needed to make sure we had them. We need to continue that effort to provide a secure food chains and provide secure Food Supplies for our country area but when governor hickenlooper was in office he had a chance to get a personal protective equipment we needed for the state and yet he refused to provide the personal protective equipment stockpile that could have protected us. Before i read a lot a rebuttal to the 5000 arrived and. You would have to begin check with the governor, the governor said they got allthe test they needed for every employee. Humor name checked in this, did you fail colorado by nothaving proper ppe years earlier . Thats ridiculous. The governor has done a remarkable job and we should recognize that his efforts have been probably, i talked to a number of the workers at jdf and they are in fact they do not get testing capacity. They were asked and forced to go back to work withouthaving that knowledge of who is infected and who isnt. And i think thats a question of willful negligence. He asked them to go back and protect our source of food without giving them the protections any of us would expect. Again, what you heard from a former governor is that he takes no responsibility for failing to prepare colorado or a pandemic. We actually have a state audit that shows while he was governor they failed to prepare the state of colorado for a pandemic. Documentation problem exists today, the same medication problem he had when he was governor so we dont need somebody in washington dc thinks about himself and refuses to take responsibility and will do the job for colorado. He wont do it here and he certainly wont do it in washington. Question for you as we continue our discussion about the best way to get relieffor people who need it. Democrats in congress have loaded up some of the relief bills and economic stimulus bills with a bunch of goodies for political allies of their whether or not you agree with that approach is tough to say that hasnt slowed things down but for the sake of speedalong to democrats doing . I think what we need to get in washington is the ability to actually negotiate. Whats been to me most frustrating is we havent seen any willingness on the republican or democrat side to find where do we agree, where do we disagree and begin looking at. We got six months now since we had any really and people stop getting their Unemployment Insurance in july, their rent protections have gone by, they dont have healthcare in many cases. This has gone on long enough yet on one side or the other continues to say their and their pointing fingers. This is that the status quo, this is what i want to go to washington to change because we need negotiation. We need to sit down and work out what the differences are but corey said four days ago in our debate he would place a priority on this and he stood up and said im not going to vote for justice until we get relief. Then we get negotiations, thats what we need to move forward. I didnt hear an answerto the questions i asked again. I asked you about your side, aside you might haveinfluence with. Do you think that democrats should stop loading up the economic billswith duties to get them through faster . I was in washington i would do everything i could to make sure there was a process to get a leading buildable forward. Thank you very much. Afew times tonight youre going to respond. Were going to talk about the associated issue of healthcare , if you want to talk about health topic. Reference disparity in chicago. And that is healthcare. The person black and latino coloradans with Health Insurance almost doubled with the expansion of medicaid coverage in the Affordable Care act. Mister gardner, if you succeed in getting ready read of the Affordable Care act the loss of Health Insurance would disproportionately fall on black and latinocoloradans at the same time a pandemic is affecting those communities. We will focus on patientcentered care system in the low people to increase the quality of care by decreasing the cost of that care we will do so through risk pools. We have to recognize the work that has been done for communities across colorado by growing our economy. If you are a black family in the state in you have senior wealth grow by 33 of hispanic families have seen their wealth grow by 65 as a result of the economic policies. What im concerned with is governor hickenloopers governmentrun program that would take 176 million americans insurance policies away from their workplace. Thats his plan. Thats irresponsible to destroy americans insurance. Thank you mr. Gardner. Mr. Hickenlooper described this with governor kasich and its come up in a number of discussions of 30 seconds for you to tell us what is that plan and are you still pursuing it and what would it mean to coloradans . I have 30 seconds and you want me to. This is your rebuttal and he is describing your plan and im giving you 30 seconds to tell folks what that plan is. John kasich the republican governor of ohio we came together not to replace the Affordable Care act. I never said that and he never said that. We are looking at ways to improve it especially poking out focusing on ways we can make exchanges more costeffective for people. The Affordable Care act the republicans tried to take it away and never allowed us to report to repair it or improve it and again and again these attacks are threatening to dismantle it completely without any kind of a suitable fix. Mr. Gardner the Affordable Care act some might call it preexisting. If youve introduced an eight line bill did that you say will require Insurance Companies to cover preexisting conditions. What part of that though requires an Insurance Company to offer me coverage in the first place . The bill requires coverage for people with preexisting conditions. Maybe only eight lines and i remind you we are here today under the First Amendment radium of speech and freedom of press freedom of religion freedom to assemble. Obviously it was 45 words long in the First Amendment got a pretty doggone right through this as a guiding principle that the democrats and republicans agree to that will provide coverage for people with preexisting conditions and we will make sure the Insurance Companies and thats what my bill does is provide that coverage. There may be some who disagree. Lets work on it together to make sure that its right. Thats the guiding principle as her First Amendment is the guiding principle for freedom of speech. Lets make sure that protection for preexisting conditions continues. What you heard governor hickenlooper say was he didnt want the Affordable Care but hes on record saying he wants to go to the governmentrun health care system. The danger of veteran harm it would have barbour hospitals. We are at the bottom half of access to Health Care Thanks for his leadership role he was governor. I didnt hear the answer mr. Gardner that requires the bill that requires insurance for everyone including a section that included guarantee availability of coverage. If the Affordable Care act were to be repealed that guarantee goes away with it. Where is that exist . The bill requires people to be covered if they have preexisting conditions. It is a bill that provides that guidance that principle that we will cover people with. Existing conditions. You may have a different interpretation. Every single one of the 11 bills that passed and signed into law have changed from the time they were in committee to the time they got signed into law. The guiding principle remains i support and will be demand covers for people with preexisting conditions. I will not like governor hickenlooper take coverage away from 17 million americans. If this bill exists does everyone get coverage you want to . Thats my goal. Preexisting conditions you say . My bill were choirs people do get coverage for preexisting question coverage. Mr. Hickenlooper youre the purse person held in contempt by the Ethics Commission and accepting illegal gifts. You blame the republicans. You misleadingly claimed you were exonerated on dozens of allegations and you told marshalls journalist should be protecting you on this. Do you regret breaking the lawn perhaps more importantly would you change your behavior voters return you to elected office . While i recognize that there were two reporting errors in the Ethics Commission and found this in violation on those two occasions. They referred to it as a relatively minor mistake and i guarantee you they were inadvertent. Get inadvertent. We had a team of people worked on this but they obviously werent perfect. I think we should recognize these allegations came from a dark money Republican Organization that was created two days before those allegations were filed and their soul purpose was to try to create material for attack ads. C this summer those attack ads were relentless and thats bringing washington politics to colorado. Again i paid a 2800dollar fine and i take responsibility for that. I certainly will make sure that never happens again. I testified for three hours and from the commission and told the truth to every question they asked. Mr. Hickenlooper another question about honesty and ethics come from earnest a recorded question and hes a partner at cover politics. Com. Of them even endorsed by all the leading gun safety legislation and after signing those bills you told colorado sheriffs that you had expected the magazine ban to be so controversial and you only signed it because of a staff member committed to using one thing publicly and privately saying the opposite that something you accused senator gardner of doing. Let a be very clear i stand by my record on gun safety. We are the first purple state to roll up our sleeves and do personal background checks. To this day cory gardner a Mitch Mcconnell dont think universal background checks worth work. They no one can get it onto the floor as long as Mitch Mcconnell as Mitch Mcconnell as the majority leader of the senate because they dont think its effective enough. The bottom line is and you can step back and look at this cory gardner has received almost 4 million in support from the nra and gun manufactures. Mitch mcconnell received even more. This is big money at play in politics and cory gardner has received more corporate pac money 5. 7 million in any elected official and colorado history and suddenly the corporations get these massive tax breaks. Thank you mr. Hickenlooper. If we could target the question to what coloradans know. Coloradans know what art gun control landscape looks like so perhaps you could explain mr. Gardner would gun control laws do we have in colorado but you dont think apply or should be passed nationwide . Could you compare what we have here to a elected scene nationwide . I also want to reply to the governors attacks because he is attacked quite frequently in this debate and ive had always had a chance to respond. I believe we have laws in place the need to be enforced but i dont think when it comes to prohibiting the sale between a father and a son interfering at that level that is a good thing for our country. Colorado may be handling this in a different way but i dont think we should infringe on those rights that are family sales if i want to give my son the 12gauge i grew up learning to hunt with i would not feel it to do that but if you look at the bands the governor put in place they had limited effect and he lied to the county sheriffs about that. He lied to the county sheriffs about that effort. He wants a national gun license. He wants everybody in the state to have a National Federal license for a firearm infringing on our 2nd amendment rights. What he is saying is here is different than what he had to want to do in washington. Its to John Hickenloopers. One wants to do something here in one wants to do something there and