Thread by @asanderford

I apologize in advance for the brain cramp I’m feeling today in advance of the second #NE02 debate.

If the technology holds, I will live tweet the noon-hour debate put on by the @lwvne, @omahapressclub and @WOWT6News.

It’s Round 2 of @karaforcongress vs. @DonJBacon.

Here’s a recap of what happened in the first #NE02Debate.

From my friend @MortonOWH:

omaha.com/news/local/gov…

WOWT’s @brianmastrewowt is getting started. There is only a minimal audience, essentially staff.

Q: Mr. Bacon, you tear off a mask in one of your ads as if it’s almost a burden. Why have masks become so political?

Bacon: On that commercial, the main theme was that it was my bill that enabled mass production of masks.

Bacon: Last year, I put a bill in Congress that would give liability protections for mask makers in a pandemic. It sat there for several months. The Speaker eventually put it in the bill. I got an important piece for our safety in for our country.

Bacon: Got masks mass produced. We want to get vaccine produced. We have to keep our targeted businesses who are struggling. Support targeted relief to those industries.

Eastman: You might want to re-watch that ad. It was clear to all of us that you were trying to make fun of mask wearing. This is like what the president does. 200,000 people have died. I know people who’ve passed away from COVID.

Eastman: We needed leaders who would prepare us better by providing the proper PPE. We frankly need that. It’s why we should elect Joe Biden and me.

Bacon: I want to show people we were getting things done. We got that bill passed before there was a pandemic to worry about. We were taking credit for the job we did. Only the fringe left sees that as making fun of masks.

Eastman: 200,000 dead. There’s no room for making light of masks.

Q: Would you be first in line to get the vaccine?

Bacon: I’d be first in line, arm or cheek.

Eastman: I’d be there as an example.

Q: How would you pay for your health care plan?

Eastman: We’re already paying 18 percent of GDP on health care. Predicted to spend 24 percent. I support, as Joe Biden does, expanding health care. (Biden backs restoring the ACA and adding a public option. Eastman supports Medicare for all.)

Eastman: I believe people would pay less for better care. I want a system where we have freedom to choose our provider and doctors have the freedom to practice medicine without interference from an insurance bureaucrat.

Eastman: I’m not for taking health care from people. I’m for making it better.

Bacon: This is a defining issue in this race. Eastman doesn’t want to stand by her Medicare for all approach. People don’t want a one-size-fits-all health care system. If you’re a plumber and you negotiated your insurance and you like it, you won’t be able to keep it.

Bacon: “If you like your health care plan, she says tough. She’s going to take it away.”

Eastman: “None of that is true.” The bill I actually support is a bill in the House. It would provide better health insurance coverage. 70 percent of Americans support universal health care.

Bacon: She knows this is unpopular.

Q: GOP lawmakers have been in power. Nothing has passed to change or improve things. A GOP-led lawsuit endangers protections for pre-existing conditions. Why should voters trust you’ll do differently?

Bacon: I support a GOP replacement that would protect pre-existing conditions (by shifting the role of protecting them primarily to individual states), reduce premium costs with co-ops, price transparency. This is a much better way to go than Medicare for all.

Eastman: Congressman Bacon voted five times to take away Americans’ health care. You just did it in the pandemic, voting to take away protections for pre-existing conditions (don’t know which vote she’s citing here, maybe lawsuit-related? Can somebody help?)

Eastman: Don Bacon has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from insurance companies and drug companies that is against the interests of Nebraskans. “Having expansion of health care would mean funded by the government but privately operated and delivered."

Eastman: Let’s talk about surprise bills from people who go to the ER thinking they’re covered.

Bacon: The GOP plan would reduce premiums by 20 percent. From CBO, not me. Her plan would gut research and development of new medicines.

Eastman: I’d like to ask you what’s your plan?

(Bacon doesn’t answer, rules don’t allow them to ask directly.)

(They let the candidates’ teams submit one question for the other.) Q: Will you join people defending Don Kleine against what Bacon’s camp called a slanderous attack?

Eastman: I’ve not had time to deal with this. It’s not going to help a sick Nebraskans get well, unemployed Nebraskans get a job. We are building a coalition and inviting people to come in. People are frustrated with the lack of bipartisanship.

Bacon: She didn’t answer the question. I’ve had many Democrats endorse me. Brad Ashford. Barry Rubin. “What happened to Don Kleine was a travesty.” Some of the members of her staff have joined in the condemnations of Don Kleine.

Bacon: What Kara does, they always attack people and call them racist. Racism is wrong. It’s evil. But to use it as a political club is wrong.

Eastman: If we want to talk about staff, I could talk about a staffer who dressed up like a chicken. Let’s talk about how we’re going to deal with white supremacy. Let’s talk about issues that matter.

Bacon is now talking about a pair of young female staffers her team called racist. Said she owes them an apology.

Q (from Eastman’s camp): Do other people not deserve the health care you get in Congress or from the military?

Bacon: I don’t use my health care through Congress. I served 30 years in the military. Just stuck with the VA.

Bacon: This is part of what you get from serving. That’s part of the benefits of serving. You need to have that. This is in a sense employer-provided insurance, which we don’t want to get rid of. This is a benefit they’ve earned from service.

Eastman: I have veterans on my team. When you attack my team, you’re attacking them. When you say you had the opportunity to refuse health care offered by Congress, that’s a privilege. It’s sad that somebody can stand up here and denigrate people for wanting health care.

Eastman: Tricare and the VA are government provided health care. It’s socialized medicine.

Bacon: She’d denigrating those who served by calling it socialist medicine (she called it socialized).

Eastman: It is government-funded health care. Yes. I’m not saying I want them to have military health care. I want them to have health care. I believe everybody in this country has a right to health care.

Q: Why shouldn’t the president and Senate move forward with a Supreme Court nominee?

Eastman: This is important for reproductive health, this is important for American belief in the justice system. That’s not what it’s become. It’s become a completely partisan body. It’s time to reverse that.

Bacon: I think it’s rich to hear her say that the way she and others attacked Kavanaugh. The president has a duty to nominate someone. In final year appointments, when the president and Senate are controlled by the same party they try to move that nomination forward.

Bacon: It’s part of our history.

Eastman: You like to use the word attack. I criticized. There’s a difference. You’ve put up ads saying horrible things about me that have led to death threats. We need to come together.

Bacon: Bacon: Making sure that people know Kara is aligned with Bernie Sanders and the Squad is not an attack. Those aren’t dangerous words. Let’s blame the individuals involved.

Eastman: You keep calling me a socialist and a Democratic socialist. Keeps showing up in the ads.

Bacon: Kara Eastman is a Democratic Socialist with her views.

Eastman: This is McCarthyism. This is trying to scare you into supporting him over me. Socialism is when the government controls the means of production. What am I arguing for? Roads?

Bacon: Four years ago, if you’d have said you were left of Nancy Pelosi, they wouldn’t have believe you. She is.

Eastman sharing a bunch of issues where people agree with her platform, from health care to no cost to you two-year college. He’s the radical.

Bacon: She supported $5 trillion more in spending this summer.

Bacon: Do you want affordable health care? Yes. Everybody’s for that. As soon as you ask them if they want to lose their health care to get it? The answer is no.

Q: Protests this summer aimed to bring attention to institutional racism. What plans do you have to address institutional racism?

Bacon: There’s two things here. First, Kara hasn’t condemned the violence of protesters (I think she has, at least to me.)

Bacon: I have a plan to do more career tech ed, I pushed the SBA to give loans that target our minority population who want to start businesses, I worked on juvenile justice reforms. I have proposals to get rid of the inequality we see.

Eastman: In no way do I condone violence of any kind. I’ve worked in violence prevention in my career. The fact that this has at all been politicized is awful. Of course the peaceful protests have been productive.

Eastman: When it comes to addressing systemic racism, none of that gets to the heart of the problem, income inequality. We need to start invest in neighborhoods.

Eastman: Like what I did raising money to invest in healthy homes in Omaha. (She led the Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance to address lead poisoning.)

Bacon: You said incendiary things against Don Kleine when you called that case cold blooded murder.

Eastman: You haven’t said the words Black Lives Matter. I’d like to hear you say it.

Bacon: Black Lives Matter. I don’t support the organization, but I support the sentiment.

Q: Do we need another stimulus bill?

Eastman: Yes. We do. The restaurant act was embedded in the HEROES Act and Don Bacon voted against it. So many businesses will go under by the end of this year. I am a champion for small business, unlike him who caved.

Bacon: I’m endorsed by the small business association. Chamber ranked me their No. 1 leader in Congress. The heart of small businesses really drives me. This March we passed the CARES Act. Had money to help hospitals. Paycheck Protection Program saved 51 million jobs.

Bacon: Kara Eastman called it a corporate heist. (She did criticize the bill’s lack of accountability, to follow the money.)

Eastman: Why did Trump hotels need a bailout? Why did the LA Lakers?

Eastman: Instead of providing help directly to small businesses. I’m talking about mom and pop shops.

Bacon: Larger organizations got loans they’ll have to pay back. Our airline industry is struggling. I want to help them.

Bacon: The HEROES bill, only 1 Republican supported it. "She supports the partisan bills, but not the bipartisan bills.”

Q: Do you believe climate change is serious enough to move from fossil fuels to renewables?

Bacon: I’m a Republican on the climate change caucus. (He is.) We worked hard to get the money to rebuild Offutt and Camp Ashland. I support incentivizing behavior to lower emissions.

Bacon: I support incentives for wind and solar, expanding battery capabilities. We’re the largest energy producing country in the world today, but we’ve cut emissions more than the next 12 countries combined. The Green New Deal will make it more expensive to fly or drive.

Eastman: I have been very transparent and up front about supporting aspects of the Green New Deal, and they’ve reduced it to somehow banning air travel, which is ridiculous.

Eastman: Climate change has impacted our water, our crops. Don Bacon has a 14 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation. (I don’t know this. Can somebody check?)

Eastman: I will work to address climate change in a meaningful way. I was endorsed by the Sierra Club.

Bacon: Groups that support her oppose the USMCA and farm bill.

Eastman: I’m endorsed by the Nebraska Farmers Union because they know he’s bad for their business and the planet.

Q: How do you encourage people that voting is secure when the president keeps telling people about the risks of voting by mail?

Eastman: We as a campaign have been working hard on telling people how to vote by mail, making sure we reach out and explain how to do this.

Eastman: There are so many ways people can be confused. Nebraska really does this really well. We’re really good at elections. Unfortunately we have to undo a lot of misinformation out of the president’s mouth. Don Bacon supports him 92 percent of the time.

Bacon: Nebraska has a safe system. You have to request a ballot. Bob Evnen and local election officials have done a good job. Pelosi wants taxpayer funding of congressional races and a federal takeover of elections. He says Eastman supported that bill. (@MortonOWH is this true?)

Live feed broke briefly. Give me a minute. Missed some of that exchange. Sorry.

Eastman: Corporate PAC and outside dark money are powering his campaign. I do want campaign finance reform.

Bacon: She has her own outside groups that support her, including with corporate PAC money. She likes to forget that.

Q: Should college (or community college) be free?

Bacon: I don’t like that word free. I’m a big believer in community colleges. My wife and I attended there to reduce our costs. I served in the military. There are a lot of options. Nothing is free.

Bacon: It costs money. Free college education is a $49 billion a year deal. That’s something we don’t want to pay.

Eastman: As a former board member at Metro CC, I’ve talked to students who had to leave because of costs. They left in debt. We’ve got $1.5 trillion in student debt. Do we think the federal government should profit off this. It’s time to tackle student debt in this country.

Eastman: I’m proud of the @u_nebraska for helping students with families earning under 60k. I support Joe Biden’s plan for families to get debt free community college educations if they earn under 100k.

Bacon: I think we can do more with career and technical education. I want to encourage more CTE. She raised the rates. She admitted it last election.

Eastman: The problem is when we have an all-GOP delegation, they don’t invest in public education to fund tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. We have to decide whether to raise property taxes or tuition.

Q: Do negative ads work?

Eastman: We don’t engage in it. It’s not the Nebraska way. (Some groups have on her behalf.)

Bacon: That’s a lie. All but just a few of her ads have been negative. I would ask the media to point this out tomorrow.

Eastman: Pointing out policy is fair game. We have never personally attacked him.

Bacon: People see through it. It’s a bunch of baloney.

Eastman now closing: I have worked in mission based work my whole career. Everything I have done from serving on the Mayor’s Fair Housing Board to nonprofit board, was to help people. My opponent takes money from corporate PACs and corporate interests.

Eastman: He doesn’t stand up to the president when he denigrates women and military members. Don Bacon has done nothing about that. He has defunded the State Department. Wasn’t able to get the president to stay in the Open Skies treaty. Don Bacon did nothing about that.

Eastman: He even downplayed the pandemic. Bacon fed into that with an ad that makes fun of mask-wearing. I’ve worked in this community to promote a safe and healthy community.

Bacon: People who were there have said those anonymous sources on the president were wrong. He’s criticizing Joe Biden for a similar criticism. The Green New Deal she supports and those policies like it will hurt our American way of life. We have gotten Offutt a new runway funded

Bacon: We invest in Omaha. We’re improving research funded. I’m rated 29th most bipartisan member of Congress. I’m going to defend your freedoms and your family, including against a government takeover of health care.

Q: Who said the sequel wasn’t better? (Brian making a statement.)

Bacon (on a hot mic): The Godfather (sequel) was.

Thank you all for following along. Sorry for some exchanges I missed. I couldn’t keep up in some spots and lost connection in others.

@threadreaderapp Please unroll.