my secondma day of school. 9/11 happened and i do my life would a change. i got recruited by the cia, did three tours in iraq aside the military and then came home and worked for two democrats. i believe that service should be nonpartisan. i am really at the end of the day running for senate because i believe in my bones that we need a strong and growing middle class. that means jobs with dignity and making sure we attacked the cost center eating a hole in your pocket. i am really glad that we are having this debate. i think it is part of the democratic process to talk about the differences between us and we haveof a lot of differences. differences on the role of the middle class. bringing manufacturing back from china to the united states. the good news is, we both have records. i've been in congress for about five years. mr. rogers was an elected politician for 20 years. we do not have to guess about what we've done or what we will deal because we've had the

opportunity to be in the seat and cast important votes. i hope we can talk about policy issues and not throw insults at each other. at the end of the day it is really about who do you trust. listen learnrn and fight on your behalf in washington. thank you for having me and i look forwardeo to the debate. >> thank you for your opening statement. mr. rogers, it is now time for your opening statement for 90 seconds. .... .... s full-time at a small factory shop. in tears she described how she had to go in the last two or three days of the month to a food pantry to feed her four children. this is not the only time we have heard that story unfortunately across t >> policieshe coming out of washington, d.c. have been crushingci to our families. you think about the fact that i talked to a young police officer whose stepdaughter was killed by an accidental overdose of fentanyl with a cigarette that was laced with it because of a wide-open border that is

allowing in criminals and cartels to run the slow, 10 million illegals coming to the united states. i talked to auto workers all over the state and people who are affiliated with auto workers. they're number oneer concern ev mandates are killing their killing their jobs. listen, we need somebody that can go back and get busy on the very first day, to bring results on grocery prices, on the border, on killing ev planneddates. i look forward to having your vote and i look forward to having a discussion this evening.fi >> you do have a first question and it is about the economy. the economy continues to be top concern for voters especially right here in battleground michigan. 8 and 10 registered voters, 81% say the economy will be very important to their vote in this election. people are struggling as you know to pay for groceries, child

care, gas, housing, you name it. >> really important things that we have to do quickly. why you want to send someone with experience the first week. trillions of dollars of o spendg by the biden-harris administration, 100% supporteded by my opponent has driven up grocery prices, gas prices, energy prices, your housing prices have all gone up we must e outrageous and wasteful spending in washington. we have to make ourselves energy independent. all of those votes that tried to steer us away from having our own destiny decided by being energy independent is wrong and what it's done is raise your prices at the pump, your prices at the end of the month. all of that needs to be corrected. you have to do a few things. you have to undo the regulation

$1.6 trillion of regulation. new regulation in the last four years and you have to make sure we curtail spending to get our economy back on track. >> thank you mr. rock jurors. ms. slotkin you have the same question. how would your specific policies help working families in michigan. >> is the number one issue i hear about inflation and cost of living you can go to the grocery store gas station anywhere without someone pulling you aside and talking about how they are making choices around what they buy and save. for me if there was a silver bullet that could have been fired to solve inflation it would have been fired. i work on three things we have to bring supply chain's home in manufacturing back home to the united states. good paying jobs, benefits so we can afford more of what we want to buy. we have to attack the cost that are major parts of our budget. health care care, prescription drugs, child think of housing

and how much people pay, we have to attack those costs. lastly you have to save more of what you earn, that means a tax policy that supports the middle class, that promotes a strong middle class. these are three specific things i believe would help with inflation. >> thank you congresswoman preview of 30 minutes or. >> this is where my opponent and i differ most definitely. voting for increased taxes on the middle class does not help talking about supply chain but doing nothing about it. and then lastly when you talk about budgets in the u.s. government, voting for every big spending bill that came down the pike in support 100% of the biden harris administration has cost us all of these cost and our groceries, gasoline and housing prices. >> ms. slotkin's you now have 30 seconds for rebuttal. >> this is where i said it would

be important we understand and think truth about our records. mr. rogers has voted against middle-class tax cuts over and over again. 80's constant. to the idea that somehow he cares about the middle class, his voter record says the opposite. the most important thing is to be honest about the conversation and say we have a problem we know we need to deal with it, attack the biggest problem, people's budgets, prescriptive drugs and housing that's what people expect or washington. >> the second topic tonight, ev's in manufacturing. i will address this question to you first. in our competition with china, are we investing too much in battery plants and ev's that a majority of consumers are not willing to purchase yet? you have 60 seconds. >> i do not care what kind of car you want to drive. i do not drive on and ev. i live in a dirt road on a farm

that's not likely my future. the fundamental question is who'd we want to make that next generation of vehicles you better believe i want that to be michigan and not china. right now everyone knows china is eating our lunch on these vehicles. go to europe, they have 30% market share. american knows that we haven't always gotten it right and it comes to seeing the next generation of vehicles. in michigan in the 70's and 80's we did not think anyone would drive anything but a big vehicle. very fuel-efficient vehicles and then the japanese came in and ate our lunch. the koreans came in and ate our lunch. by the way, it also means saving auto jobs. it make sure in the heart of the district in lansing we save the 700 jobs that are at that plant because we are upgrading it. i want to build them. >> i will repeat the question for you mr. rogers. are we investing too much in battery plants and ev's that a

majority of consumers are not willing to purchase yet. >> thank you. this is really important. what a candidate says and what they do in office for the last five years is really important. voted for the ev mandate at least three times. as soon about four weeks ago doubled down on her position on ev mandates. i am telling you it is ruining our car industry. 5000 auto dealers wrote an open letter to the biden administration and said you are killing the car business, please stop with eeev mandates. if you think about what's happening, they mandated you have to drive that car and my opponent signs and nda that allows the chinese battery company to go -- outside of goshen to facilitate her votes on ev mandates. same with the $500 million rebuild of the gm factory. you're promoting chinese

technology in america. it is wrong, let's go to hybrids. people are buying them and you don't have to mandate the people drive them. >> 32nd rebuttal, miss slotkin. rep. slotkin: there is no ev mandate. my position of my opponent, says he cares about american manufacturing but doesn't want to compete against china. for those of us in michigan during covid, we learned our lesson that we outsourced too far to china. our supply chains. we made the decision to bring them back. i want that manufacturing here. i don't care what you drive. i want to build them. mr. rogers: nothing has happened since my opponent has been in office on bringing manufacturing back to the united states. she has lost 29,000 manufacturing jobs since she has been in office. 29,000. the ev mandates, they are going to cost, according to the ford ceo, about 400,000 manufacturing

jobs in the state of michigan that will go away with ev mandates. that is unacceptable. you don't have to do it. we can build hybrid cars in america and sell cars that people want to buy. >> let's turn our attention to foreign affairs, particularly international conflicts. the u.s. has spent nearly $18 billion on military aid to israel since the october 7 attacks. about $60 billion in military assistance to ukraine since russia's invasion. the united states senator, as elected, will you authorize more budget spending on two international conflicts where there is no cease-fire and no clear resolution in sight? esther rogers? mr. rogers: let's start with israel. we just passed that anniversary of the most brutal terror attack ever.

they were robbing people, kidnapping them out of their homes, brutally murdering them and their children in front of their families. then they drove these people into tunnels in gaza. you cannot have a cease-fire until we get the hostages back, pure and simple. then you can have a conversation of what comes next. hamas does not want that. they want to continue to fight in israel. and we have to pivot to the real problem in the middle east, which is iran. iran is funding hamas. they are training them, they are giving them weapons. the same with hezbollah in the north. they are funding them, giving them weapons. same with the houthis, they're giving them weapons, training, and even what ships to shoot. >> will you authorize more spending? yes or no? mr. rogers: i would make sure we

support israel, our great ally in the region, to support themselves and i would do a lease program with ukraine. >> same question to you. rep. slotkin: it is hard to understate how these conflicts have been roiling michigan. whether it is israel or gaza or what is going on in ukraine, we have a large polish american community watching this closely. these issues have come home. for me, i think it's important to have a strong american leadership role in the world. i work for democrats, for republicans, but the one thing that was consistent was the idea that there should be a strong american leadership in the world. what is going on in israel now is deeply painful. we need a negotiated cease-fire where hostages come home. we go to a different phase of the conflict, iran has complicated that by firing ballistic missiles, some of them hypersonic, at israel. putin invaded, the first

democratic state to be invaded since world war ii. i believe we have a responsibility to defend the democracies and arm the ukrainian so that they can push back on putin. >> to be clear, you are comfortable with the spending? rep. slotkin: i am comfortable with the spending and the strong leadership role in the world. mr. rogers: probably the biggest difference between my opponent and i, she is the architect of the nuclear iran nuclear deal. supported the fact that we released iranian oil into the market, gave them billions and billions of dollars, which is bad judgment, after bad judgment, after bad judgment. it was all on the heels of afghanistan, which was an embarrassment for the united states, which my opponent supported. if you look at the bad decisions, bad decisions, now we are engulfed in the middle east in a way that will be hard to extract ourselves, and still show engagement in the world but not entanglement in the world. rep. slotkin: there is one of us on the stage that has sat in a war zone and taken iranian

rockets and mortars, who have gone on dangerous convoys, dodging iranian iuds. one of us has studied the roles that they played in facilitating money and weapons to their proxies, to the terrorist groups around the region. i take a backseat to no one on how hawkish we will be on iraq. if they want to talk about long employments in the middle east, mr. rogers knows all about that. he authorize the war on iraq. i don't want to get into another 20-year war in the middle east. >> which is what we are doing now. >> the next question is for you, mrs. slotkin. it is about abortion. abortion and reproductive rights remain a hot button issue post-roe. how will you address this in a way that supports individual rights and differing viewpoints? rep. slotkin: this is very clear for me. i didn't support overturning roe. codifying roe v. wade came in

front of the u.s. senate, i would vote for it. i voted for proposition three in michigan in 2022. for me, it is crystal clear. mr. rogers has voted for every bill, every band, every restriction on abortion that came in front of him for 20 years. he had a 100% voting record with his party and never broke wants. now he will come out because he put his finger in the wind saying i need to win an election, so he has changed his position completely and wants you to believe that he will be a protector of women in the u.s. senate. i can't tell you how strongly i believe that you have people tell you who they are when they vote. he has shown us who he is. don't trust him on this issue. >> mr. rogers, how do you plan to address this topic in a way that respects individual rights and differing viewpoints? mr. rogers: this is the most

heart wrenching decision that a woman would ever have to make. i think it is best made with her family, with her partner, with her faith, with her doctor, where she lives. michigan came together in consensus. i know that my opponent wants to make this as divisive as humanly possible, and i get that. it's unfortunate. misrepresented so many of my positions on this issue. i will tell you this, the state of michigan and the people of michigan went to the polls and voted. they voted to make abortion legal, and they put it part of their constitution. our constitution. i won't do anything when i go back to the united states senate to undo the votes of the people, their position, their concession, their compassion when it comes to this issue. >> thank you so much, mr. rogers. ms. slotkin, you have 30 seconds for a rebuttal. rep. slotkin: mr. rogers voted

56 times for every bill, ban, and restriction on abortion that came in front of him. that is not misrepresenting. i am so sick of people who don't understand women's health, who don't understand reproductive rights, who don't understand that this is about the rights of our grandchildren having the same rights as their grandmother. saying one thing and doing another. michiganders do not believe him. he will not protect you. >> you have the final 30 seconds for rebuttal. mr. rogers: it is unfortunate she is taking the stone on something so completely untrue. i've stated my position clearly. if you care about all women, this is probably a great time to talk about title ix where my opponent said i'm not protecting girls in sports, and i'm not protecting girls by allowing men into locker rooms. both of which she voted for. if you want to protect women, there are other ways to do it. i think that is an outlier in

this particular debate and it doesn't put you on team normal. >> we have to leave it there. you have the next question. >> mr. rogers first. immigration has been another hot button issue in this election. it is complex. i will ask the next question with two parts in mind. what policies would you propose to one, enhance border security and, two, improve the legal immigration system? mr. rogers: it is hard to do in a minute, but the first thing we have to do is reinforce the remain in mexico. it has to happen. you have to take away the ability of people in other countries to fill out an app and come into the country. we are finding that 10 million persons coming across the border because of a wide open border. unfortunately my opponent supported all of it. we have criminals in fentanyl and human trafficking at unprecedented numbers coming across the southern border. you can see the problems

everywhere. the sheriff of oakland county was talking about another series of raids by illegal immigrants last night in oakland county. this is a problem that we have to deal with. we do remain in mexico. you can't have a discussion about what legal immigration and reform looks like until we secure our border and protect our citizens and make it easier for people who are here already trying to go through the system legally to get into the country. >> 60 seconds for mrs. slotkin on that. how would you enhance border security and how would you improve the legal immigration system? rep. slotkin: as a cia officer and pentagon official i spent my life redacting the homeland. for me this was easy. i have done more border legislation than any member of congress, democrat or republican, in michigan because no one is proud of what is going on at the southern border. what is going on is a symptom of a broken immigration system that is not working for anyone.

not for the people at the border, not for immigrants, not for businesses who need labor, not anybody. for me, it is every country in the world has the right to know who is coming and its borders. we have to do more to secure it. we had a deal on the table. the sad thing is we were actually doing what most michiganders want. democrats and republicans in the senate were sitting together, conservative members, bro members, and they were hammering out a compromise on the border. mr. rogers and his allies came out against it. they would rather have immigration and border as a political issue than actually do the real work and get things done. >> mr. rogers, 30 seconds to underscore the policies that you proposed for this. mr. rogers: quickly, the bill that my opponent talks about was voted down in a bipartisan way because it was a terrible bill. 2 million illegal immigrants guaranteed to come across the border every year.

that's nonsense. that is a nonstarter. if you look at all of the things that they say, we will work on it, we will send a letter, none of that worked. if you talk to the mothers or families of people who had children raped in this country by illegal immigrants, you would know how serious this issue is, and how office gating your position isn't going to get it done. -- obfuscating your position isn't going to get it done. rep. slotkin: if it was such a bad deal how come the people who work here in detroit who actually work on the border endorsed it? do you know better than they do about how to secure a border? that to me is what democrats and republicans are supposed to be doing. hammering it out, taking out the press and twitter and hammering out a compromise. that is what americans expect of their leaders and we were doing it. mr. rogers and his allies said this is too good of an issue to use. if i was back at the pentagon

where i used to work and i looked at a problem and i said it was really dangerous but i do want to do anything about it for political reasons, i would be fired. >> this next question touches home for many americans and many people right here in the state of michigan. the u.s. surgeon general has declared gun violence a public health issue. considering current gun death rates, mass shootings, and two recent presidential candidate assassination attempt -- thankfully, they were not successful -- do you believe america needs stricter gun laws? yes or no and why. rep. slotkin: yes. for me, i grew up in michigan. i grew up with guns. i have only positive memories of my dad teaching me how to shoot skeet and target practice with my brothers. it is part of our culture for many michiganders. i carried a clock -- eight glock in a war zone.

the idea we can't go after the number one killer in america is broken. i was representing this district where we had two school shootings in my district. oxford high school and michigan state university. there has been nothing worse, in my experience, then explaining ptsd to a 14-year-old who all he did was sit in his social studies class while one of his fellow students shot up innocent children. to me, we have to, as democrats and republicans, gun owners and non-gunowners, go after the number one killer of children in our communities and our schools, by suicide, by accident. it is the responsibility of leaders to protect children. >> same question. do we need stricter gun control laws to curb the violence in our society? mr. rogers: we need to enforce the gun laws that we have. we also need to deal with middle health issues that are happening in our schools. this generation of americans is

under mental duress and distress like i have never seen before. it means that we will have to come together on how we get ahead of these problems. banning guns is not going to do it. the two shootings that happened in michigan were handguns. everyone talks about the other kind of guns. we need to get at the root of the problem which is mental health. if we don't tackle the mental health issue, we will be in trouble. i will tell you the difference between where my opponent is on this. just cut 93% of all school resource funds and mental health funds, including oxford, by the way, where the shooting happened. this is unacceptable. there are other ways to do it. i did it my personal life when i was in the private sector trying to get dogs into schools so that they could be a deterrent to shootings happening in schools. there are things we can do. the notion that something your chest isn't going to get it

done. -- thumping door chest isn't going to get it done. >> your rebuttal? rep. slotkin: all you need to know is gun violence is the number one killer of children under 21 in our country. are you going to do something about it or not? my opponent doesn't want to do anything about it. why? because he has a 100% rating with the gun lobby and they give him campaign donations. it's really easy to understand why politicians in the face of murder children do not do anything. they don't do it because they receive campaign donations and they are scared. they are scared because they do not want to lose their election, and it's terrible. mr. rogers: with all that passion you would have thought my opponent would have introduced a series of bills in the u.s. congress. she did not. i am in law enforcement for a big chunk of my life. i was an fbi agent, i worked the

streets, everything from gun violations, human trafficking, drug cases, organized crime cases, and listen, i understand what victims are in the way we get at this problem. the way we do it is constructive dialogue with these schools, with mental health, and with smart precautions that save kids. not the huffing and puffing that you hear here and the name-calling. >> let's talk about education. mr. rogers, this is for you first. michigan's education system ranks 41st in the latest best states ranking. we underperformed in key areas like reading. how would you improve michigan's k-12 education system to ensure that all students, regardless of their zip code, have access to high-quality learning that prepares them for the future? you have 60 seconds for this question. mr. rogers: you could take an hour on this particular issue.

my wife and i have been very engaged in literacy efforts here in the state of michigan and elsewhere around the country. this, to me, may be the biggest civil rights issue of our generation. our kids are not learning how to read. in michigan, 39% of third graders could read at grade level. 39%. if you do not read in the fourth grade by the fourth grade you have a 70% chance of going to prison or being on welfare. this is so unacceptable. the good news is there are great ways that we can get around it. we support reading reclamation programs where they go into the school, they take these kids out for an hour a day for intensive tutoring. this is the secret sauce. they do it with phonics and get kids reading at grade level. the amazing progress that we could make if we invest in these reading reclamation programs to get kids reading again would change america. forbes said $1.7 trillion to our

economy if we have reading at the 12 grade by the 12th grade. >> how would you improve michigan's k-12 education system to ensure all students regardless of their zip code have access to high-quality learning that prepares them for the future? rep. slotkin: obviously, it is the responsibility of any leader to make sure the next generation gets educated. everyone has equal access to education no matter where you live, what community you are from, and it prepares you for the jobs of the future. that is the responsibility of any society. to me, the federal government is responsible for a lot of funding to make sure that we get our schools fully funded. we have a problem with that in michigan. we have a problem with how much we pay our teachers. they are making choices to leave teaching. there are places in macomb county where they have struggled to staff schools five days a week even after covid because they don't have enough staff. we have a generational problem with our education system. for me, i am a believer in public education.

mr. rogers and i may differ on this. one of his biggest supporters is betsy devos who is very clear about her theory of education. she literally wants to defund public schools. she was our secretary of education but now wants to get rid of the secretary of education position. for me, i believe in strong public schools. >> thank you, congresswoman. a rebuttal. mr. rogers: i am the youngest of five boys. my dad was a shop teacher at a public school. all five of us went to a public school. my opponent went to an elite private school. it is an experience you have to have to understand the challenges of public schools in michigan. this is the other thing. my opponent likes to talk about everything other than what we are talking about. betsy devos, i'm not sure how that has anything to do with us trying to improve education for our kids. i will tell you this. in the last five years, she voted 100% -- >> your time is up. mr. rogers: she voted 100%

biden-harris, by the way. had to get that out. rep. slotkin: it is clear how betsy devos is connected to education. she was the secretary of education come the longest serving under donald trump, and she end every member of her family have donated to you for years. it would make sense that you adopt her approach to education, demonizing public schools and public school teachers. i don't believe in that. every kid in every corner of our state should have their access to education. >> let's turn our attention to health care and affordability. i will address you for this first question. research from the cdc showed the high cost of prescription drugs has had adult skit medication, put off refills, or take smaller doses. it is heartbreaking. there are those worried