After a dispute over a COVID-19 check blew plans for a Friday night debate between Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and her Democratic rival, Jaime Harrison, the ongoing pandemic determined their television interviews separately.
Harrison criticized Graham for refusing to take a COVID-19 test, which led to the replacement of Friday’s one-hour screen format on WSPA-TV in Spartanburg and said Graham attended an audience last week with two senators inflamed by the coronavirus.
“All we’re asking is for one of the most sensitive leaders in this state to set an example,” Harrison said at the beginning of his 30-minute “conversation. “
Harrison said Vice President Mike Pence and two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Susan Collins of Maine, underwent COVID-19 testing.
“I just don’t understand why Senator Graham’s colleagues can do it, the vice president of the United States can do it, and why he thinks it’s special enough not to,” Harrison said.
Graham, who was interviewed after Harrison, defended his resolve not to be tested before Friday’s event and said he did so after last week’s hearing in Washington.
“Are you going to ask that all your colleagues be evaluated, whether they want it or not?You make that requirement. If you did, it would break our economy,” he said.
“I’m not going to live my life any longer than yours, ” said Graham. “There is no explanation for why review me. So it’s not a verification query. It’s a matter of political responsibility, and a wonderful loss is. “the night has been a debate. “
Harrison said during his interview that he would help a national mask mandate to curb the spread of coronavirus. He also said it would require students to vacute against COVID-19 once approved in order to attend school.
Graham said he supported masked dresses, but wondered how a national mandate would be enforced. He said the factor of requiring academics to be empted is left to state officials.
More than 7. 6 million Americans have been inflamed with COVID-19 and respiratory illnesses have been blamed for 213,000 deaths across the country. South Carolina reported that 150,000 showed infections and 3,325 showed deaths with COVID-19.
Here are some other topics from Friday night’s conversations with Graham and Harrison, who are caught up in a tight race according to a recent poll.
Graham, who is chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, promised to continue next week with a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and, if confirmed, update overdue Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“I’m going to lead the rate to verify Judge Amy Barrett in court and I can tell you this, if (the Senate minority leader) Chuck Schumer and the Democrats were in the rate, they would do the same. “
His comments came after a video clip of Graham’s previous comments saying he would not receive confirmation from a Supreme Court candidate in the run-up to the election.
Harrison quoted those comments in his interview.
“A boy and a woguy value his word, ” he said. ” And what is the value of Lindsey Graham’s word?”
Both applicants said they would accept law enforcement reforms, but all also said they did not make the police services’ de-financing proposals.
“We perceive the importance of surveillance and I don’t in that, you know, this tendency to dishonor the police. I don’t because the police play such a vital role in our communities,” Harrison said. “But what I believe is to bring more duty to this formula to make sure other people accept it as true that when they call the police officer, they don’t have to worry about whether or not they’re going to have their lives. “
Graham said: “I’ve spoken to police officers across the state, they feel abandoned.
“With me you’ll get a reform, but I’ll abandon the police. “
Answering a question about racial equality, Graham said no. South Carolina was a racist state.
“My opponent is going to lose not because of race, but because it’s aligned with the maximum liberalism of other people in the country,” Graham said.
Cover and policy of Kirk Brown. Follow him on Twitter @KirkBrown_AIM,