Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton sparred over President Donald Trump, immigration, Iran, transgender athletes, artificial intelligence and personal controversies during a contentious Kansas Senate debate Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
The hour-long showdown came less than two weeks before Election Day as Marshall seeks a second term and Hamilton, a longtime pastor, tries to become the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate<\/a> from Kansas since 1932.<\/p>\n The race has drawn increased national attention as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the Senate, with Trump traveling to Kansas<\/a> earlier this week to campaign for Marshall \u00e2\u0080\u0093 a topic touched on during the debate.<\/p>\n Here are five moments that stood out from Wednesday night’s debate.<\/p>\n SLEEPER SENATE RACE EMERGES AS UNEXPECTED HEADACHE FOR REPUBLICANS AHEAD OF MIDTERMS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The debate wasted little time getting contentious, opening with questions about controversies that have fueled attacks<\/a> against both candidates.<\/p>\n Marshall was confronted with a New York Times review that found his former medical practice<\/a> sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills.<\/p>\n “Every year we gave away $3 to $4 million of charity, but we also had a business,” Marshall responded. “We had 300 employees, we had a mortgage payment, we had electric.”<\/p>\n Hamilton, meanwhile, was questioned about his handling of allegations involving a volunteer at his church’s summer camp who was accused of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n Hamilton acknowledged that he should have ensured the individual did not return to the camp following an initial investigation.<\/p>\n FROM ‘THIRD REICH’ TO \u00e2\u0080\u0098NOT THAT INFORMED\u00e2\u0080\u0099: SENATE DEBATES DELIVER FIREWORKS BEFORE MIDTERMS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n “I should have checked to make sure that he wasn’t going back,” Hamilton said. “That was a mistake on my part.”<\/p>\n Trump became part of the debate after moderators played footage from the president’s campaign appearance for Marshall in Kansas<\/a> earlier in the week.<\/p>\n “And at this election, I’m asking you to pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot. Just pretend,” Trump told the crowd.<\/p>\n Marshall was then asked whether Trump’s support meant Kansans should expect him to back every part of the president’s agenda.<\/p>\n “No,” Marshall responded, saying there had been “multiple times” when he objected to Trump.<\/p>\n Pressed to identify a specific disagreement, Marshall pointed to recent immigration enforcement in southwest Kansas and Trump’s approach to beef imports.<\/a><\/p>\n “Just like with my wife, I can disagree with her. My wife is always right,” Marshall joked. “And President Trump is not always right.”<\/p>\n Marshall nevertheless urged Trump voters to turn out for him, arguing that electing Hamilton could help Democrats capture the Senate.<\/p>\n The two rivals found themselves in agreement when the moderator asked each candidate how many genders there are.<\/p>\n “There’s two. There’s a boy and there’s a girl,” Marshall said. “I delivered 5,000 of them and almost half were boys and half were girls.”<\/p>\n “There are two genders, male and female,<\/a>” Hamilton responded.<\/p>\n TOP TAKEAWAYS FROM JD VANCE TOWN HALL: COSTLY GAS, DC CORRUPTION, IMMIGRATION HOT TAKES AND THE WAR<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The candidates then turned to the debate over transgender participation in women’s sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hamilton said decisions over athletic eligibility should generally be made locally but was unequivocal about whether biological males should compete against females.<\/p>\n “I have a 12-year-old granddaughter. I don’t want biological men or boys competing against her that could harm her,” Hamilton said. “It’s not a fair, fair fight.”<\/p>\n Marshall argued that by high school, “boys need to be in boys sports, girls in girls sports,” while accusing national Democrats of pushing “transgender ideology.”<\/p>\n Hamilton later accused Marshall of using the issue to “pick on” and “bully” people.<\/p>\n Hamilton called for greater federal oversight of artificial intelligence<\/a> and compared the emerging technology to the development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n “We developed a Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We need to do the same thing with AI,” Hamilton said.<\/p>\n But when the moderator pressed him to identify specific federal regulations he would support, Hamilton acknowledged he did not yet have an answer.<\/p>\n “You know what? I’m not sure, to be honest,” Hamilton said, arguing that even experts are struggling to understand the technology’s potential dangers.<\/p>\n Marshall advocated a “light touch” approach focused on national security, transparency, protecting children and privacy, while slamming a one-size-fits-all global order for artificial intelligence advancement.<\/p>\n Hamilton pushed back sharply.<\/p>\n “This is an existential \u00e2\u0080\u0093 potential existential threat to the human race,” Hamilton said. “We can’t just go with a light touch and hope everybody does their best.”<\/p>\n BIDEN CONSPICUOUSLY ABSENT FROM CAMPAIGN TRAIL AS OBAMA, HARRIS STEP UP FOR MIDTERM PUSH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Hamilton sought to put distance between himself and former President Joe Biden<\/a> when moderators challenged the Democrat over his claim that he would “lead from the middle.”<\/p>\n The moderator pointed to Hamilton’s past donations to Democrats, including Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> and Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., before asking him to identify a progressive policy he opposed.<\/p>\n “The Biden policies when it came to the border were a disaster,” Hamilton responded. “I believe in strong and secure borders.”<\/p>\n “I’m not somebody who favors the Socialist Party,” Hamilton added. “I’m somebody who stands in the middle.”<\/p>\n Hamilton also reiterated during the debate that he would not support Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> for majority leader if Democrats capture control of the chamber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton sparred over President Donald Trump, immigration, Iran, transgender athletes, artificial intelligence and personal controversies during a contentious Kansas Senate debate Wednesday night. The hour-long showdown came less than two weeks before Election Day as Marshall seeks a second term and Hamilton, a longtime pastor, tries to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}