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are always there. right when you need them. how do you know what is great internet? because it works. we are spark light and we're alwaysorking for you. spark light supporters c-span as a public service, giving you a front r seat to democcy. >> democrati representative glusenkamp perez is running for re-election in washington's third congressional district. she faced her republica allenger joe kent in the debate that focused on abortion, federal tax policy and infrastructure among other topics. the nonpartisan cook political report with any walter rates the race as a tossup. $7.9 million have been raised in

the race. this is an hour. >> thank you both for being here and your willingness to participate in this essential and hopefully dynamic dialogue tonight. let's begin with our first question. since the supreme court decision to overturn roe v. wade in the dobbs case, abortion has remained one of the most divisive issues in the country, driving turnout on both sides of the debate. congresswoman, you have stated you support protecting abortion access in light of the dobbs decision. how do you plan to represent the views of your constituency support these rights and are there any restrictions on abortion you would consider? >> thank you very much. thank you to all of you for being with us tonight. democracy doesn't work without people showing up in being involved, so thank you and thank you to law enforcement.

before being elected to congress i ran a repair and machine shop with my husband. we built our house ourselves because my husband had a great drafting teacher. this is top of mind, how drastically things can go wrong when you're pregnant. we are giving birth at older ages and things can go terribly wrong. these laws are written with staffer bros who don't know what it's like to be pregnant or what preeclampsia is. the idea that we need federal regulation that accounts for all of that difficulty and nuance is not reality. that's why a support a woman's right to access health care. i don't want to see our limited resources and law enforcement spent figuring out having the

sheriff show up on your porch and have you prove whether your miscarriage was intentional or not. that's not good for democracy. my values as a business older and a woman who lives on a gravel road in a rural community is the same ones you all share. the same local issues we need to see reflected in washington, d.c. a ran for congress because i'm tired of d.c. politics inflicting themselves on our communities and priorities. i want to see our value and culture and southwest washington reflecting the priorities and policies in d.c. and not the other way around. >> thank you. mr. kent, your stance on abortion has drawn attention in recent months with some voters questioning changes in your position over time. how would you clarify your current stance, particularly on issues such as late-term abortions and exceptions for cases like rape or incest? >> thank you so much for having me.

i'm won't have. i had the honor of serving our country a little over 20 years as a green beret. i am a father and a culture husband, my late wife was killed fighting isis in syria. i recently remarried so i've been blessed twice with two great women in my life. this topic i think it's very divisive and i think it's important to discuss upfront so i appreciate you bringing it up right away. i 100% support the supreme court's decision to return the issue of abortion down to the state level. i would not support a federal abortion ban, i support full access to ivf and contraception. what i want to focus on is bringing down the cost of raising children. i want to make it much easier and less costly to give birth. i want to make things like baby formula and diapers tax free an

expand the tax deduction for working families and work on fostering a culture where it is easier to raise a kid. right now with this inflation that unfortunately my opponent has voted for, working families are hurting. it's important if you represent people that you listen to everyone. a diversity of opinion. that's why i support the supreme court decision to return the issue of abortion back to the states. my opponent, one of the very first votes she took in congress was against the born alive a bill. she voted to deprive lifesaving care to a baby outside the mother that survives an abortion. what i support is a culture of life, i support the supreme court decision and i would not support a federal abortion ban. >> thank you. your response? >> joe kent has played both sides of this card. he has shifted and will say what posters tell him to say to get power because that

is what is important to him. the vote i took, it is already the law that if a child is born, you have to give the medical care, that's already the law. this law also would have required that you are immediately transported to a hospital. i know in a rural county, a doctor should make a decision whether that child has the best chance of living if they are treated at home as opposed to dying in the ambulance on the way to a hospital in portland or seattle. those choices should be made by the doctor, by the woman. i've been consistent, i haven't needed to flip-flop. i have stood for a woman's right, for the rights of families to make their own decisions on health care. >> your response? mr. kent: my oath is to support and defend the constitution of the united states, i took that oath when i was 18 years old and that is something i live by. i support our system and the supreme court has made this

ruling. regardless of my personal feelings, going to congress, i number one duty would be to uphold the constitution just like when i was in uniform and when i served under president to work republican, democrat, who i may or may not have agree with, i still obey the constitution. that would be my job in congress as well. abortion is no longer a federal issue. it is back down here at the state level. i don't support a national abortion ban and you can count on me, my word is my bond. >> thank you. >> next question, we will start with mr. kent. the presidential debate on september 11 made little or no mention of budget deficits and the national debt. that debt hit $35.3 trillion on the day of the debate. it goes up by about $1 million every 30 seconds. in 2023 the annual federal deficit was about $1.7 trillion. a 23% increase from the prior

year. how to each of you propose how to control spending and get our fiscal house in order especially if you are advocating tax cuts or new programs? mr. kent? mr. kent: this inflation that the biden-harris administration my opponent has fully supported is hurting working families right here. in my small community we have a food pantry. people bring in eggs and lot of folks are bringing in fruits from their gardens. a lot of people are having hard times making ends meet. that is beautiful to see but we shouldn't have to do that. my opponent would say she is forgetting the budget under control but that's not what her voting record indicates good she voted to give a biden and harris no caps on spending, putting $4 trillion in new spending, new inflationary spending, driving the cycle of inflation that

hurts everyone's bottom line. did we get infrastructure improvements? no. we got overseas inventor more foreign wars. $86 billion printed in the dead of night. that really only enrich defense contractors lining her covers of her reelection campaign. we need to do the individual appropriations bill as a constitution dictates. no more omnibus spending, no more continued resolutions, put an actual cap on spending. this is what american families have to do every month. you see how much money you take in and see how many bills you have and then you go from there. congress must do that. she directly voted against a cap on spending, individual appropriations bills, make sure we pay medicare and medicaid and veterans benefits upfront. run the government on the rest of that. it is simple to say and hard to do. i'm going to go to congress and its my number one promise to balance the budget and stop

spending future generations into oblivion. \[applause] >> folks, we have a lot to get through and our goal is to provide relevant information for voters. which side can clap the loudest is information but probably not relevant so please hold it for the end of the debate. i know you're passionate, thank you for being here, keep it in. -- down. rep. perez: thank you for your enthusiasm, i think the national debt doesn't get the attention it is merited. we're on an unsustainable path with the federal deficit. i'm proud to have introduced a bipartisan constitutional amendment to balance the budget. i take this seriously. i'm a small business owner. i would never run the shop we have seen federal dollars being run. we have got to balance both sides of the ledger congress has got so learn to live within its means which is why i vote for a 12% cut in the appropriations bill, foreign and

state operations. i'm proud of the work i've done to build the economy and support small business owners and having a level playing field in tax rates. we know how byzantine the ta code is, especially for small business owners to navigate. the next congress they will renegotiate tax cuts. one of the things i've seen, if you file an earned income tax credit, you are being audited at a much higher rate. a higher rate than people who earn 20 times more than you and that is not right. when working people are footing the bill for our taxes and billionaires with teams of lawyers are not following the law, that's not right. that's why it's critical we have a level playing field. the laws we have are being enforced in tax code that we are

supporting a simplified tax code that small businesses can navigate not weaponized against us to give us a disadvantage. it's why i've been leading the charge to ensure schools are funded through the secure rural schools act. i'm proud of the work i'm doing on behalf of going the long term economy and providing a level playing field. >> any response? mr. kent: if she were serious about balancing the budget she wouldn't have voted on no caps on spending. it's great to have these ideas but when you've been in power for four years and approved budgets that have done nothing but increase inflation we have to take you on your word and voting record. when people vote, that tells you exactly how they will conduct themselves in congress. the current path is unsustainable. she shaved a little off here and there, she is voting to give benefits to illegal immigrants brought into our country. she is voting to send $86 billion overseas, all new inflationary spending. that's what we are getting started with. this spending by this democrat

administration with democrats in congress is unsustainable. it is 2 to 2.5 trillion over tax revenue. we have got to codify it. we need to put a concrete cap on spinning soda matter who is i the wow, they have a budget they are forced to live with. rep. perez: i've been in office for two years, not four years. i've been rung a family business and raising a son and doing work to ensure that americans can invest in things that last month that we have the right to fix our own stuff. farmers are being box out of fixing their own equipment.

just like we see in the automotive industry, like you see with consumer-electronics or home medical equipment. it's could go we are supporting families to own their own homes, build their own homes, have the skills to do that by supporting shop class in junior high. that's a long work of building an economy that works for all of us and builds a durable wealth in the middle class. i have fought against the biden's tax credits for things like solar panels imported from china. i want to see that when we are investing in our businesses, w have the long view of supporting domestic manufacturing. >> you have differing views on the war in ukraine. congresswoman glusenkamp perez, what is your rationale for supporting continued u.s. assistance and what limits if any would you place on further involvement? rep. perez: ukraine was attacked by russia. we have seen an encroachment and a growing lust for power in russia. my interests are the interest of the american people. ensuring we are able to exercise influence and support peace.

that we are growing the domestic capacity for manufacturing munitions. those are family wage jobs. we've seen that in europe. they are not limited in their access to dogs that shoot lasers from their eyes, they are limited by the ability to manufacture munitions, the nuts and bolts of domestic manufacturing, which support a family wage income. i think it's critical we are supporting our allies and we are standing up to nepotism. i'm proud to introduce the bills that became the vehicle that was voted on later in congress among the only bipartisan bill that was -- would fund the serious demand for a secure southern border, that would provide military aid to allies. i took on the biden administration when they fail to secure our southern border. i know this is serious.

i fought for giving law enforcement the resources they need to stop the flow of fentanyl. that's why on the only candidate on this stage that has the endorsement of washington states oldest police organization. they saw i was listening and fighting for them. i'm endorsed by independent and republican sheriff's. i'm proud of my work to support our capacity as a country that can defend itself and secure its borders. >> thank you. mr. kent, you have expressed opposition to u.s. involvement in ukraine. how do you address concerns that russia's actions in ukraine may violate international norms and fears that president putin's actions could extend beyond ukraine, with risks to broader europe security? mr. kent: that's a great question, but

let me address what my opponent talked about. the only vote she took in congress was to leave the biden harris border wide open. we see a massive uptick in fentanyl in this district. we recently had a toddler killed in vancouver via fentanyl overdose. overdoses are up 21% according to the colombian. i've been on ridealongs for about the entire district and they will all tell you, fentanyl is coming from the wide open southern border. i put boots on the ground and went down to the southern border myself to witness this. this is a direct result of one of the first votes that she took. the so-called bipartisan legislation she's talking about the proposed securing our border but also at the same tim sending $66 billion to foreign countries to fund wars didn't close the border or close

the asylum loophole. if my opponent had gone to the border she would see the millions of people flooding in to our country are claiming asylum because biden and harris made that your golden ticket into american. then the fentanyl comes across. my priority before we start talking about defending other countries' borders is defending our nation's borders. we are $36 trillion in debt, growing every day. we cannot afford to fund other people's border security. as for the war in ukraine, if the proposed plan was going to work it would've worked by now, a generation of young ukrainian men have been killed. russia currently controls more territory inside ukraine than they did at the start of the war. american missiles are being shot into russia and we are on the verge of world war iii. my one goal is to get both sides to stop the killing, get to the negotiating table so we don't blindly march into world war iii. >> in response?

>> there's only one candidate here who has the endorsement of the police union. when i heard from farmers that the bill proposed to close the southern border would have crushed them, i listened to them. i waited to get a better deal that would've not disadvantaged are farmers and would have supported securing the southern border and stopping the flow of fentanyl. we've seen how communities are being harmed and there's no one here tonight who hasn't been hurt by fentanyl whether you know it or not. it is hollowing out our communities. people overdosing in their cars at lunch break, putting families at risk. i'm here to stand up for that and ensure we have the resources to secure the southern border. >> your response? mr. kent: you just heard it right there.

she said in order to get cheap labor that undercuts american labor, we had to leave the border open to make the farming lobby happy. that is who is also funding her reelection campaign. we can't allow our citizens to be killed by fentanyl. our duty, we took the same oath is defend our country, so we can't be talking about which corporate paymaster we will make happy or who we will send billons of dollars to to make contractors happy before we close our border. illegal criminals continue to come into our country. it was exposed last week that w had about 13,000 convicted murderers come into our nation that is been released in the united states. we have another 60,000 i think sex offenders now in our country and that's just what we know of. we have to secure the border. >> thank you.

in a related issue and after hearing from various communit members, many have asked why foreign aid is prioritized while domestic issues struggle with underfunding. how would each of you balance foreign aid with addressing critical needs at home? congresswoman glusenkamp perez? rep. perez: federal appropriation bills are set aside for different programs. when i think about our national security and national interest, i know it is by supporting our allies and following through and ensure a liberal democracy in the middle east. the fastest way to end the war would have been for hamas to release the hostages took on october 7, they would have ended the war at any point. we need to make sure israel has tools to defend itself. i ran for congress because i care about our local issues. a county just went down to a four day school week because

revenue went down and i want to make sure we are able to sustainably harvest timber and we are not losing more mills and importing lumber from overseas, but building our homes ourselves. that is what matters to me. supporting a level playing field for small businesses. we've seen -- d.c. does not have the same interests. they are not running small businesses or family businesses. i ran for congress to represent our values to, focus on schools and business and the public infrastructure our businesses rely on. i'm proud to have brought back to million dollars for the i-5 bridge, that is money that would've gone to california or joe's home state, oregon. federal tax dollars came home to us in washington state to build our infrastructure with southwest washington labor,

american-made steel, so we can be a country that can take on the tough jobs and build the best info structure. to advance our pride in being tradesmen. to make sure we are not handing off decrepit infrastructure to our children. i'm really proud of having brought back the federal tax dollars for the infrastructure we rely on to fight for our schools, and sustainable timber harvests. that's what i will focus on. >> thank you. mr. kent, your response? mr. kent: i went to combat 11 times for this country, the greatest honor of my life and i have strong feelings about how our country was lied to by people like dick cheney who i guess are now democrats. i have strong feelings about how our country has prioritized foreign aid and foreign were over american citizens. one of the things that hurts me the most as a veteran, when you think about how much we sacrificed overseas, how much blood was spilled on foreign soil, how many of our best

friends like my late wife are buried in arlington cemetery right now. you walk down the street and you see american citizens squalor, addicted to drugs, homeless, struggling to get by, when we always have enough money to send billions overseas. you see it right now, we have a major crisis on the east coast with this hurricane and we have military bases that could be giving aid but instead they are postured for all of these different engagements overseas. i'm not saying we should stop doing these different things overseas but we've got to start prioritizing actual american citizens. we've got to get this balance right where we are prioritizing our own citizens ahead of the next war. i am not a pacifist by any means, i've spent most of my adult life in combat. i know what fight is and i'm not afraid of a fight and the only place we should be looking for a fight right now is the southern border. fentanyl is coming across the border and killing our citizens.

our country is actually being invaded right now. it's wanting to say it's complicated washington, d.c. that is nonsense, it is our money, we pay taxes and washington, d.c. chooses how they prioritize it. look at her voting record, sh is prioritizing foreign wars and foreign aid in her corporate paymasters, you can see who is funding her reelection campaign. she is prioritizing that and expecting us to be happy with table scraps and that has got to stop. >> thank you. congresswoman, your response? rep. perez: i'm really proud to be ranked in the top 3% of most bipartisan members of the u.s. house of representatives. i am the one who has upheld my pledge not to take corporate tax money. he reneged on that.

this idea of corporate paymasters is not based in reality. look at my voting record you can go to the federal website to see how i voted in line with our values. not the values of a political party. joe moved here to run for congress and purge the republican party of people like my parents, who i love and respect. that's his idea of how politics will work, not standing up for our fight to get sea lions out of the columbia river, not our fight to make sure we have sustainable timber harvest, not our fight to stop wildfires or get shop class back in junior high. i'm proud to have brought a million dollars back to the technical problem right here at lowe columbia college because respect people who work for a living. >> american industry has been reassuring or returning to the united states rather impressively, which we hasn't

seen in decades and it raises two questions, addressed to both of you. first, what effects with a tariff proposed by former president trump have on those reassuring efforts, and ultimately what consequences do you see to reassuring from vice president harris's proposed corporate tax increases? we'll start with mr. kent. mr. kent: let me go back and address some of that. she said she doesn't take corporate pack money, you can see who funds her, it is the military-industrial complex, big pharma and big tech, even astrazeneca has given her nearly $1 million. maybe she will tell us tonight was she promised those big corporations to fulfill their needs. i think you can see that by her record, you can see what she is prioritizing. in terms of trade we have to prioritize american labor and actual american manufacturing. i was disappointed to see when my opponent voted to ship high-paying american manufacturing jobs overseas to china. she gave biden the permission to go to the chinese communist party to source the electric vehicle charging stations. those could have been high-paying american tech jobs

we could've manufactured here in the district. i've talked to actual entrepreneurs here in the district like at united precision, a family-run technology company that does american manufacturing. right now they are working competitively as a small shop in the defense space. however, their business has been hurt by votes like the one she took to ship those jobs overseas. she can say she's for the working class and maybe some unions endorse her but her voting record tells a different tale just like her financing. that's why we had to establish a watchdog site so you can do your own homework and see what her actual voting record is. the tariffs are a strong policy. we've got to reward bringing back american manufacturing and penalize companies that want to ship manufacturing overseas. tariffs are fair, when we ship our goods overseas they tariff us and and we need at least reciprocal tariffs on goods coming back here and we've got to give american workers and

american manufacturing a competitive edge. we can't compete with the slave labor from the chinese communist party or other countries. we got to prioritize american workers and jobs. rep. perez: you don't need to go to joe's website, you can check the federal website where my votes are clear and recorded opposing the tax breaks for solar panels manufactured overseas or the batteries we cannot recycle here. i've opposed the california emissions standards that would have made it impossible to buy internal combustion engines. i support an all of the above energy policy that make sure we have access to clean, renewable energy from all sources. i will always vote to support the infrastructure small

businesses rely on and what our community needs. expwroands a lot of time talking about foreign policy. the reality is, there are things very close to home that need supporting. i'm proud to have stood up to these policies that would have hurt domestic manufacturing. it's one of the reasons that i supported getting money back to the lower clump he a technical program. one of the reasons i've been fighting for shop class in junior high, the right to fix our own stuff against mandates that would create monopolies, in our tablesaw industry. i'm so proud of who we are and what we believe in doing. its critical support domestic manufacturing and support the next generation. we bought a machine shop that was closing down because we know our customers rely on high-quality parts. junkyards are getting shut down. when i get stuff from overseas, they fail. right out of the box.

the way you get a honda civic to 300,000 is by having high quality parts to keep it running. and ensuring we have the right to fix and maintain our own stuff. that our programs are supporting diagnostic skills in young technicians, not just plug and play part swapping. >> mr. kent, any response? mr. kent: well, sounds great, doesn't it? there are links to her house.gov voting record for this reason. she says i talk about foreign policy a lot because we are getting scammed by foreign policy the military-industrial likes that supports her reelection campaign. washington, d.c. can always find money for the next war, there will always be a next war, there will be annexed for in crisis because that's one of the best ways the beltway has to take our taxpayer dollars and ship them overseas. so that firsthand for well over 20 years in special forces and the cia. i want to make sure we the taxpayers are getting what we need in return from the federal government, not more foreign

adventurism. we don't need jobs shipped overseas, and she voted to ship those jobs overseas. records matter more than her rhetoric. she has a voting record and you can see exactly how she will continue to conduct herself in congress, especially if hakeem jeffries is given the gavel. every vote she's taken has been directly in line with the democrats. >> representative glusenkamp perez? rep. perez: facts don't lie. i'm not top 3% of the most bipartisan members of the u.s. house of representatives and that cannot be refuted. that is not driven by partisan politics but loyalty to my community. i don't care what the beltway things, i care about my reputation at the gas station, the grocery store, daycare drop-off. we drive like 30 minutes each way to drop kids off at daycare and that's like four hours each day when you account for all of the car seat stuff. that's a lot of gas money. i focus on how we can support

more competition. get in-home day cares back. so when companies are thinking about bringing back and working with the best labor in the world they know they have a predictable, reliable, clear regulatory environment to come back into. as a small business owner i navigated that. i had osha show up at my shop and ask me if an ac machine was a welder, this is a guy that can shut down my business. i'm proud of my work. i fight for us. >> based on the responses you both given up to now, our southern border is an issue. both of you have run television ads in which you pledge to end -- pledge to "secure the border." what do you mean by secure the border and what actions do you intend to take to live up to that pledge? we'll start with you representative glusenkamp perez. rep. perez: from day one i took

on the biden administration on their failed policies to secure the southern border. i demanded they continue stay in mexico and move legislation to fund border patrol. i voted for the highest workforce at the border we've ever seen in our nations history. i hear our community when they heard from fentanyl deaths. that's real and is hurting us right now. it's the kids my sons play with, their families, our families, people i love. it's critical we secure the southern border. that we are thinking about how we support people in having a better path and that young people have hope to own a home and raise a family. that they can do as well as their parents, own farmland again. these are things up and policies i've been supporting to stop the demand from fentanyl and the border policies up and supporting to stop the flow of fentanyl. that's why i have the police

endorsement, i listen to them and i support policies that create more assets and accessibility for law enforcement to intersect the trafficking of fentanyl and humans and defund cartels that have their boot on the neck of some any small businesses in mexico. that fund themselves through human trafficking. that's the smaller picture of humanitarianism, not letting cartels run wild but funding border patrol and ensuring they have the technology to intercept fentanyl whether it comes through legal ports of entry or our ports. i don't think people really care if the fentanyl that killed their kid comes from the northern border or the southern border, they both need to be secure. and take it very seriously in ensuring it's easier to get into rehab than it is to get high. those policies that can go back the middle class and the people who make and build and grow and fix things in our communities. >> thank you. mr. kent? mr. kent: let's clear some things up here.

when she says she has voted across party lines, every so-called bipartisan vote she took was immediately preceded by a vote on strict party lines. every time on the rules vote, the procedural votes, to kill republican legislation to secure the border, to prevent illegals from voting in elections, she voted straight party lines, which indicates exactly how she will vote if we don't take back at this seat and if we lose our majority in the house of representatives. we will get just four more years of chaos working against the trump agenda and we will continue to have our southern border wide open. one of the first votes she took was against hr2 which would have finished construction of the southern border wall, and increased resources down there and most importantly would have stopped this foolish asylum process we have right now where we let people come directly into the country to claim asylum and they are paroled into the interior of the country and given a legal status. in the bill she proposed, it said the words remain in mexico but if you read the next paragraph, it says unless they are seeking to claim asylum, if

they say they are being persecuted. based on their political affiliation, six, gender, etc. basically it just said the words remain in mexico. much like her so-called standing up to president biden on the border. she wrote a strongly worded letter. she voted to leave the border open and then did a little performance saying she disapproves of it. her vote was to leave the border wide open. we've got to get our military off of other people's borders, get them on our southern borde finish the wall to stop the flow of fentanyl, close the asylum loophole, stop giving these people that want to claim asylum direct access into america, make them receive vetting elsewhere in the first safe third country. that need to be restored. people have come into our country illegally, we got to find them and get them out of our country. we've got to secure our borders. she and her party have proven time and again that they are unwilling to secure our border. rep. perez: for joe, this is all about party politics.

he's talking about with got to take this seat back. and about these weird procedural votes he's tried to go after me on. that's not real. what's real is our values here and advancing those and voting in line with our communities values to fund securing our southern border, to ensure our police officers have the resources they need. this is not about partisanship, this is not about political football, is not about going to the southern border and live-streaming yourself for likes. it's about taking real action and showing we have the resources -- and ensuring we have the resources we need. i'm proud of upholding our community's values. >> procedural votes get bills on the floor, she doesn't want you to know that but that is the truth. you can go ahead and look the up. procedural votes matter very much, they actually probably matter more than policy. if you control procedure you control what is written and that's why she doesn't want you to focus on her procedure votes. yes, i went to the southern border, i've been twice, i want to see what is actually taking

place. that's what i did in the military and what i will do in congress. it's important to see the actual carnage inflicted on our nation and how it reflects here. that's why i have done ride-alongs and been throughout with police officers hunting down fentanyl dealers. she has proven time and again with her voting record and more important, i would say, the way her party wants to govern, that they are completely unwilling and incapable of securing our border. this invasion they want to codify into law. they've been in power for four years and she's been in for two years and they've done nothing but flood our country with illegals and fentanyl. >> this is your second time squaring off in a congressional race. given your shared history, what question would you pose to each other that might not have come up in round one?

we would like you to limit your question formulation to about 30 seconds so you can hav a succinct response. we'll start with you, mr. kent. mr. kent: i have two sons and i also have a young niece who is getting ready to play sports in schools. why did you vote to allow biological men to compete against women on the athletics field? why did you allow them to have biological men enter women's spaces like locker rooms, dressing rooms? why did you vote to allow men into women's shelters and other protected spaces? can you please explain that to the people here tonight who may have daughters? >> as a woman, my views on this issue are libertarian. i believe these are decisions best made at the family level and local and school level, t

ensure that there is fair play in sports competitions. here is the reality, the bill that joe is nailing me over, the reality is that bill would have opened the door to genital examination of girls as young as 5. >> do we really have to go through this? do we really have to go through this? >> yes, we do. >> no, we don't. the one thing i'm telling you not to do is to not interrupt. can we please stop? ok. here is what we are going to do. \[indistinct yelling]

rep. perez: i promise i have heard way worse on the shop floor. sorry. \[applause] >> now if we can remember where we were. rep. perez: joe spends a lot of time talking about this issue. he also spends a lot of time talking about not supporting kitchen sink bills. the bill voted against was a kitchen sink bill that would have infringed on the safety and security of families and girls

in sports, it would have opened the door to genital examinations of girls as young as 5 years old. that's not the america i believ in. it would have treated a mechanism to track menstrua cycles in athletes. that is weird, ok? it's not normal. i support in public education bringing back penmanship and geometry, those are the things we want to see in schools, not genital examinations. >> thank you. your question for mr. kent. rep. perez: earlier this year after being contacted by a lot of people who are carpenters and woodworkers, i introduced bipartisan legislation to stop a new federal law that would have required table saws sold in the u.s. come with costly, expensive saw stop technology.

technology that only one corporation holds the patents to. on may 15, you tweeted your opposition to my bipartisan bill to stop this federal overreach. you said it was a waste of time. given how often you talk about getting the federal government out of the way, i would like to know why you support letting a federal agency impose a new government mandated monopoly on table saws, jacking up the price of each new tablesaw by hundreds of dollars? mr. kent: while our southern border is wide open and we have people dying from fentanyl-- [laughter] and while the price at the pum and the grocery store is really hurting working americans, congress is doing these performative measures. we have major problems in our country and when we have congressman out there talking about these tiny minuscule bills that don't affect the vast majority of the country when our southern border is wide open, while in the dead of night the

are voting to send $86 billion overseas, new inflationary spending that will only make the world more dangerous. it is safe for us to say why are we worrying about tablesaw regulations when most americans can't afford groceries and when we literally have toddler's dying from fentanyl overdoses after she voted to leave the southern border wide open. maybe there is a good part of the bill. maybe there is a bad part of that bill. it is a great discussion to have at the state level. maybe once we get our out-of-control government spending out of control we ca address things like that. but we have the federal government absolutely failing us. this performance and entertainment is nothing but pure distraction to keep our eyes off of the border, putting men into your daughter's dressing room, and all the other problems we have. i want to get the federal regulatory system out of our natural resources industries. i want to protect american manufacturing jobs.

marie perez voted to allow to continue d.c. bureaucrats to regulate the timber industry. the same guys that killed off the timber industry and the spotted owl. to don't regulate the columbia river and tributaries to prevent us from killing predators to prevent us from putting more hatchery fish into the columbia river so we can continue to have a vibrant and thriving columbia river and forest. we need to get federal bureaucracy out of our daily lives, secure our border, stop the out-of-control spending. then we will talk about tablesaw's. >> thank you both and we will take a break. we are taking just 10 minutes, so please take a look at your clock and be back in your seat 10 minutes from now. [applause] >> thank you. the recent shooting at apalachee high school in georgia has re-stoked the national debate on gun violence.

with the surgeon general declaring firearms a public health crisis and gun violence now the leading cause of death for children and adolescents aged zero to 19 in the united states according to the cdc, what specific legislation would you propose or support to address the issue while balancing public safety with second amendment protections? congresswoman glusenkamp perez? rep. perez: i own a firearm. i support the second amendment. it is clear to me that we have that right. these deaths are tragic in schools. it is a moral stain that we have let things get this bad. they are young people. but that data that is being cited, the reality is if you lift the hood up on that, the majority of them are suicides. they are not homicides, especially for young people. and so i think we think about

how we can address gun violence and death. we have got to be thinking about the driver of it. that is why i sound like a broken record in the fight to get honors level shop class back in junior high. because every kid has got to have a chance to be the smartest person in their school at some point during the day. they have to be proud of what they are doing. i cannot think of a more toxic thing to tell a kid than what they are good at is not good enough. your value is based on your grade in english class. that is not right. that is not productive. you can be blessed wit intelligence in so many different ways. turning back our academic programs to ensure we have the full spectrum of intelligence being supported, also mechanic genius, spatial brilliance, kinetic genius, those other things i want to see manifest in our public education system and

those other things that can drive down the systemic rise in death from firearms. but they are a tool that needs to be used responsibly. where i live, i know it will be about half an hour before the sheriff can make their way out there. so i don't support what is commonly referred to as an assault weapons ban. i believe firearms are a tool that need to be used responsibly. >> thank you. mr. kent? mr. kent: my heart breaks for all these parents who have had to go through the tragedy of losing a child, especially for something as preventable as violence. i know my opponent is a parent as well, so this is something we can really unify and agree on, we need to protect our children. unfortunately we have not been prioritizing our children. we have money for wars all over the country all over the world outside of our own borders. for a small amount of money compared to what we spend securing other country's borders and on foreign aid, we can put

more armed security, trained police officers in our schools. it has been proven that when schools actually have an armed security, school shooters not target that school. we saw that recently with the tragedy down in nashville. that shooter went to a few othe schools, cased them out. they had armed security so they went on to a safer target. we have to guard what we love, and we all love our children. we have to prioritize that. that cannot just be words on paper. we have to allocate resources to defend and harden our schools. infringing on the second amendment is not something we can do. we have to address the mental-health crises. the way that we have heavily medicaided our children. in some crazy circumstances, even this chemical castration we are giving our children. we have to prevent that. unfortunately we have to protect the second amendment at the same time.

my opponent said she had guns and all that. she voted to make anyone who owns a pistol brace a felon overnight. we have to actually protect the second amendment. we cannot trust her because she is taking money from big pharma. she took nearly $1 million from astrazeneca that is pumping these narcotics into our kids. that is how we address the mental health crisis. we get them off the drugs and prioritize what we love and stop prioritizing foreign aid in foreign wars and prioritize our children. >> congresswoman glusenkamp perez, washington recently enacted new gun-control laws including a ban on high-capacity magazines. should congress enact some of these restrictions in the name of reducing gun violence? rep. perez: i think that washington state has done some things that are productive and they have done some things that are going to be overturned in the courts. the second amendment is clear in

our right to bear firearms. those discussions and a top-down solution i do not see as productive. there is not a pill that will fix the suicide rate in our children. the things that fix it are getting back to the kind of economy where you can raise a family. we have to rebuild the middle class. right now it feels like the middle class is an endangered species. the reason we had to build a home is because banks don't like loaning to self-employed people in the trades. we have to empower people to be able to own and build their own homes again, ease the regulatory and permitting. these issues that take away hope of economic sufficiency in young people, give them something to look forward to. so i think it is critical that we uphold the second amendment. >> your response, mr. kent?

mr. kent: what is very clear is we have to uphold the second amendment. she voted to make people who may have a disability, like a wounded veteran, to make them felons overnight if they did no register their pistol brace with the atf. records matter far more than rhetoric. we also need to increase the amount of school resource officers and police officers we have here. unfortunately in lockstep with washington state democrat like bob ferguson, marie is taking money from this pac that wants to defund the police. this is what they are openly advocating for. they have given her tens of thousands of dollars paid we have to actually secure our children, protect the second amendment, and we need people who are committed to this, not merely the rhetoric. it is very simple and easy to do as long as we prioritize it. we can allocate funding to secure and harden our schools. we have no reason to infringe in an unconstitutional way like bob

ferguson is doing right now on all of your individual rights. we have to uphold the constitution. not only as she voted against the second amendment, she has voted to allow the federal government to infringe on your right not to have your property searched and seized. she has voted for infringements so the government can with no permission whatsoever go ahead and search and seize your digital data. we need people who actually mean what they say. i took an oath to defend the constitution. when i say i will not touch anyone's second amendment rights, i am going to make gun ownership much more codified into law, while at the same time prioritizing the protection of our children, i absolutely mean it. >> congresswoman. rep. perez: listen, i have been clear in my record. it is illegal to own a sawed-off shotgun. the bill joe is talking about on pistol braces, there is half a

year in which you can say you have modified a firearm and added a pistol brace to it. there are exemptions to mak sure you not paying any fees to do it. supporting the rule, ensuring there is clear communication and uniform standards, those things are important and that is what i have supported. >> thank you. >> probably no public works project has attracted the kind of controversies as columbia river crossing. it's an important project for freight mobility. for southwest washington economy. congresswoman glusenkamp perez, you support her the interstate five bridge and in july announced a $1.5 million federal grant, which will cost between $3 billion and $4 billion to build. mr. kent, you suggested adding a third bridge, and you oppose inclusion of light rail. whoever wins this election obviously is going to be a major payer in the future of the

project so we would like each of you to explain your position and defend it. mr. kent, we'll start with you. mr. kent: look, we need an actual third bridge. the current plan right now the democrats in washington state have proposed, it spends a lot of money and replaces a three lane bridge with a three lane bridge that does nothing to alleviate congestion. by the way, we are going to get light rail that dumps downtown portland's problems into downtown vancouver. it is not just me that dislikes light rail. the snroarts clark county have shot down light rail and tolls every time it has been on the ballot. we cannot let the federal government say we give you some money so therefore you are just going to have to accept light rail. that's a great deal for oregon. my opponent, her business interest is over on the portland side of the river. the light rail and the tolling is a great deal for portland. it is a horrible deal for washingtonians.

we need to make the improvements necessary to keep the historic bridge safe and secure and that needs to be a local bridge between portland and vancouver and then we need to do the federal government to do something radical which is actually prioritize american citizens and interstate commerce. unfortunately for over a decade we have ahead oregon and washington fighting over table scraps while the federal government says sorry we have a couple wars to fund in corporate interests to pay. absolutely not. this is about priorities. let's get the federal government to do something the federal government is supposed to do. build us a third bridge that alleviates congestion and provides a bypass south of portland and allows all that through traffic to bypass vancouver and portland. we maintain our bridge and if we want to do tolls and light rail has to go back on the ballot in we the people get to have a say. i reject that we have to pay fo

this with our federal tax money, state money. if we have the audacity to use the bridge with a toll that is completely unacceptable pretty know tolls and no light rail. third bridge. rep. perez: you really have to reach deep to call a 107-year-old decrepit, obsolete bridge a historic bridge. that is a new one. i love that. i did not bring back $2 billion to replace the decrepit bridg by sending an email asking for money, please. no, i had the secretary of transportation stand on the bridge in the rain and say this bridge is rated as functionally obsolete. it is 107 years old. would you bring your three-year-olds in a car over this? no. you wouldn't. we have to make sure we have the infrastructure our small businesses rely on. $132 million of freight crosses that bridge every day. we cannot let them afford to collapse into the columbia river.

joe said he would have it jump out somewhere around richfield. what he is actually proposing is eminent domain and farmland, adding another third bridge. joe is literally trying to sell you a bridge. that is crazy. my work is to ensure our federal tax dollars come home. that we have the resources necessary to give small businesses the support they rely on for commerce. i am fighting to ensure that when the bridge is built, it is built with southwest washington labor and american steel, and we are growing the next generation of tradesmen who will fix the bridge and go on to address the big projects that demand our attention in this country. i believe in america that can take on the big projects, that can build beautiful things that last, that are proud of what we do. not trying to push it off to the next generation to deal with.