By Matthew Langston
Some presidential politics was injected into the special election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District after the first round of Democratic Party presidential debates for the 2020 election.
State Sen. Dan Bishop, the Republican candidate for the 9th District, put out a press release on June 27 in which he said, “The priorities laid out in last night’s presidential debate by McCready’s Democrat (sic) Party are downright terrifying.”
As that release said, his Democratic opponent Dan McCready has not said if he supports a particular Democratic presidential candidate.
McCready’s campaign has received support from several Democratic presidential candidates, though – including Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Cory Booker.
Bishop’s release also claimed the Democratic presidential candidates talked about ideas like a “70% marginal tax rate, abolishing private health insurance, free college, free and unrestricted abortion, legalizing open borders, and confiscation of guns.”
Is Bishop accurate with his characterization of the first Democratic presidential debate and his lumping in of McCready with such proposals?
Let’s examine what was said on each issue. (Since Bishop’s press release was just about the first debate, the second debate won’t be examined here.)
“70% Marginal Tax Rate”
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke was asked if he supported some Democrats’ calls for a “marginal individual tax rate of 70 percent” on those making over $10 million a year.
O’Rourke responded by talking about wealth inequality and unnecessary corporate tax cuts, but he did not address the issue.
When asked again if he supported a 70 percent tax rate, O’Rourke only said he “would support a tax rate and tax code that is fair to everyone” and never took a position on the proposal.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio later argued the Democratic Party was “supposed to be for a 70 percent tax rate on the wealthy.”
No other candidate in the first debate explicitly expressed a position on or even discussed a 70 percent tax rate for the wealthy, though some have previously said the wealthy should have higher taxes.
Bishop is correct in saying a “70% marginal tax rate” was discussed in the debate. His release does leave out some context though, like who a 70 percent tax rate would apply to and how much it was talked about.
McCready has never discussed a 70 percent tax rate, but he has previously been the subject of misleading attacks about his position on tax cuts, specifically those passed by the Trump administration. On his campaign website, McCready also says, “Too many loopholes and tax breaks have gone to the ultra-wealthy and the biggest corporations.”
“Abolishing Private Health Insurance”
The candidates were first asked to raise their hands if they “would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan.”
Of the 10 candidates on the stage, only two, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and de Blasio, raised their hands.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar was asked why she believed an “incremental approach” was better than a sweeping overhaul that involves abolishing private health insurance.
She expressed support for a public option, in which a government-run health insurance agency competes with private health insurance companies.
Klobuchar also said she was “concerned with kicking half of America off their health insurance in four years” and later criticized pharmaceutical companies and high prescription drug prices, which are both talking points used by McCready.
Warren was asked about her support for a proposal called “Medicare for All” that would potentially eliminate private health insurance.
The proposal has received support from many of the Democratic presidential candidates, though McCready has said he does not support it.
Warren criticized insurance companies for being too focused on increasing their profit margins, which she says they achieve by making people pay more out-of-pocket costs for health care.
She said this has resulted in rising premiums and co-pays for families and claimed “Medicare for All” would solve those problems.
O’Rourke was asked about his previous support for a bill “that would replace private insurance” and why he no longer supported that bill.
O’Rourke said he believes people who are uninsured, underinsured or unhappy with their health care plans should be enrolled in Medicare, while people who like their current plans should be able to keep them.
He also said private insurance should not be completely replaced, which sparked criticism from de Blasio over O’Rourke’s defense of private insurance.
Former Rep. John Delaney jumped in to argue that people should have the option to buy private insurance and claimed hospitals would not survive if all bills were paid at the Medicare rate, which he says “Medicare for All” requires.
Both Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Sen. Cory Booker also explicitly expressed support for “Medicare for All” during the debate.
Bishop is right that the Democratic presidential candidates discussed “abolishing private health insurance” but does leave out context, like the fact only two of the 10 candidates explicitly favored eliminating private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan.
McCready, who has described health care as the biggest issue in the 9th District, has talked about the need to lower prescription drug prices and other health care costs, along with the need to stop insurance companies from raising premiums. It is unlikely that McCready supports abolishing private insurance, given his opposition to “Medicare for All.”
“Free College”
In the second question of the debate, Klobuchar was asked if she thought proposals made by other candidates, like free college, were “giving voters a false sense of what’s achievable.”
Klobuchar, who has questioned the viability of free college, responded by saying she “was concerned about paying for college for rich kids” and promoted her plan to make community college free.
She also vowed to ensure everyone, besides the wealthy, get help with their education, and said she would increase funding for Pell Grants and make it easier for people to pay off student loans.
De Blasio later said Democrats were “supposed to be for free college, free public college, for our young people” but did not go into specifics.
Student debt and making college free or more affordable are both issues Democratic presidential candidates have talked about.
Again, Bishop is right that “free college” was discussed in the debate but does not mention the extent to which it was discussed nor the specifics of that discussion.
Student debt and college affordability are not issues Bishop or McCready have talked about much, though McCready’s website does say he wants to fund alternatives to four-year college degrees, like community college and job training programs, that he says will not leave people with “mountains of debt.”
“Free and Unrestricted Abortion”
Abortion was brought up when O’Rourke alluded to it by saying healthcare must mean “every woman can make her own decisions about her own body and has access to the care that makes that possible.”
Gov. Jay Inslee said insurance companies should not be able “to deny a woman coverage for their exercise of their right of choice.”
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro was asked if his healthcare plan would cover abortion.
Castro said he “absolutely would cover the right to have an abortion” and criticized recent laws in Alabama, Missouri and Georgia that have put new restrictions on abortion.
Warren said she would make sure all women have access to reproductive healthcare services, like birth control and abortion.
Warren also said Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that provides women with the right to an abortion, should be made into a federal law.
The subject of federal funding for abortion has been an issue in the Democratic presidential primary. Considering what was said in this debate, though, it might be misleading for Bishop to suggest candidates talked about “free and unrestricted abortion.”
The issue of abortion has come up before between Bishop, who is pro-life, and McCready, who is pro-choice.
“Legalizing Open Borders”
The first question on immigration went to Castro, who was asked what he would do about the issue.
Castro responded by saying he would first issue an executive order that addresses metering, a practice used by Customs and Border Protection that limits the daily number of people who can request asylum at a U.S.-Mexico border crossing.
“I would follow that up in my first 100 days with immigration reform that would honor asylum claims, that would put undocumented immigrants, as long as they haven’t committed a serious crime, on a pathway to citizenship,” he said.
Booker was asked next. He responded, in Spanish, by saying he would end policies by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that he claims violate human rights.
Booker also said he would reinstate DACA and pathways to citizenship for DACA recipients.
Castro jumped in to promote his plan – which he said Booker, Warren and Inslee support – to repeal the law that criminalizes entering the U.S. illegally.
He said the Trump administration used that law to justify its family separation policy and argued the U.S. should “go back to the way we used to treat this when somebody comes across the border” and treat entering the U.S. illegally as a civil violation.
Castro and O’Rourke later argued about repealing that law, as O’Rourke contended the law was necessary to prosecute both human and drug traffickers.
After that argument, Klobuchar was asked about Castro’s proposal. She said she would look at it but argued legal provisions are needed to go after human traffickers and other criminals.
Rep. Tim Ryan later expressed support for Castro’s proposal and claimed other legal provisions exist to prosecute people “coming over here if they’re dealing drugs and other things.”
Several candidates, such as Castro, Booker and O’Rourke, also expressed support for investing in countries like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, which they said would alleviate the conditions that have pushed people in those countries to flee to the U.S.
Castro’s proposal to decriminalize illegal entry into the U.S. is likely the source for Bishop’s claim that “legalizing open borders” was discussed in this debate. While the phrase “open borders” was never said, some might consider Castro’s proposal to be an example of that.
Regardless, it is likely misleading for Bishop to claim that McCready would be a vote for “open borders,” as McCready has previously called for comprehensive immigration reform that “secures our border, respects our laws, and protects our American values.”
“Confiscation of Guns”
Warren received the first question on guns when she was asked about the potential implications of an assault-weapons ban and what would be done about the guns that people already own.
Warren responded by calling gun violence a “national health emergency” and listed several ideas like universal background checks, a ban on “weapons of war” and a focus on research to find out what methods work to keep children safe.
Booker was asked next about his plan to have a government buyback program for guns.
Booker gave an anecdote about gun violence in his neighborhood, criticized the “corporate gun lobby” and said “bold actions and a bold agenda” are needed to address gun violence. He did not discuss the specifics of his buyback program.
Asked about school shootings, Castro mentioned concern for his daughter and said “common-sense gun reform” was necessary to reduce school shootings and overall gun violence.
Ryan expressed support for gun reform but also said more should be done about mental health in schools.
O’Rourke was asked what he would say to “a gun owner who may agree with you on everything else” but is still wary of voting for any Democrats because “they’re going to take my gun away.”
He responded by stating his support for universal background checks and ending the sales of assault weapons, which he called “weapons of war” that only belong on battlefields.
O’Rourke also talked about the benefits of red flag laws, which allow for the temporary removal of guns from a person who may present a danger to others or themselves, and said the public is broadly supportive of those laws.
Klobuchar was asked about a government buyback program of guns and how some might view that as gun confiscation.
She said buybacks would not be confiscation since they are offers only to buy a person’s gun.
Klobuchar talked about her support for an assault weapons ban while she was a prosecutor.
The last word on guns went to Booker, who said, “If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to buy and own a firearm.”
While the idea of gun confiscation was mentioned by one of the debate moderators, no candidate seems to have suggested they supported gun confiscation. Bishop has previously suggested that red flag laws are pushed by “the same folks who are interested in confiscating weapons.”
Regardless of Bishop’s views, his press release leaves out important context on what was said in the debate. It is also misleading for Bishop to claim that McCready would be another vote for “a trampling of the Second Amendment.”
On his website, McCready calls himself “a supporter of the Second Amendment” and says that he supports policies like comprehensive background checks. Despite McCready’s proclaimed support for the Second Amendment, Bishop has previously attacked McCready on the issue of guns.
Conclusion
While Bishop’s release is technically correct about most of the issues discussed in the first Democratic presidential debate, it leaves out needed context and details that should be noted to fully understand the nature of the presidential candidates’ discussions on the issues, as seen with health care, abortion and guns.
The release is also arguably misleading for suggesting that McCready supports “open borders” or “a trampling of the Second Amendment.”
