Thread by @kohenari

I’m watching the #ne02debate with my family tonight on a 30 minute delay, as it’s my daughter’s birthday and she wanted a spaghetti dinner followed by cake...and she wanted to watch the debate with me. So, we finished our cake and now it’s debate time!

We’ve been going for one minute and @DonJBacon has already referenced @BernieSanders and called @karaforcongress radical while he pretends that voting with the GOP and Trump almost 95% of the time is what bipartisanship means.

A question on COVID, as Nebraska is struggling mightily under its Republican leadership’s failure to lead, gives @karaforcongress a chance to note that people need help. Bacon touts what Congress already did. Eastman notes that Bacon works to help corporations, not constituents.

The most interesting thing about Bacon’s COVID answers is that, if you close your eyes, he sounds like a Democrat. Eastman notes that her actions as a candidate got Bacon to sign on to a bill to help restaurants. Then he voted against the HEROES Act which included that funding.

Eastman notes that the COVID relief bills Bacon keeps voting against would mean assistance to people in this district. His answer, each time, is that there are things in the bills that he doesn’t like and can’t support. That’s exactly her point; it’s why we don’t have more relief

Bacon says he takes his marching orders from constituents and now they say they don’t want drastic change. This is after he repeatedly voted, extremely enthusiastically, to kill the Affordable Care Act and ran for re-election last time on having done so.

This is the GOP playbook in 2020: pretend they didn’t spend the past 10 years trying to torpedo Obamacare with no plan to replace it. They’re all running away from it, just as they’re running away from Trump.

Eastman notes that the AHCA, which Bacon supports, is and has been massively unpopular. It leaves people with preexisting conditions out in the cold. Eastman supports expanding access to health care. And says she’s not ideological about it. Strong answer by her. #NE02Debate

Eastman notes that we pay a massive amount of money for health care and our outcomes are poor. Bacon pretends he’s a union man but he doesn’t care about collective bargaining. He’s just happy to use them for their endorsement right now because unions worry about Medicare For All.

Bacon’s answer on social security is a mess. He wants to adjust caps and then, for young people, he wants to adjust the retirement age. Eastman says that the GOP wants to cut Social Security and that Bacon will end up voting in line with them if he’s in Congress.

Bacon thinks, apparently, that people who are 17 years old today will live to age 90 so we can raise the retirement age by one of two years. Eastman notes that all of this is a fiction designed by people who want to cut social security.

Bacon is now in the position of defending Trump’s trade policies toward China, which has been horrifically destructive of Nebraska farmers. I don’t think he can convince Nebraskans that Trump’s policies, which he supports, have been successful. She notes we’ve seen $1B loss here.

“I think we can run on this record,” says Bacon. He might think so, but the numbers don’t back him up. Nebraska agriculture has been hammered by Trump, which is why Bacon doesn’t ever mention Trump’s name. Not once. #NE02Debate

Bacon suggests he’s done a lot for North Omaha, in answering a question on race relations. Eastman notes that she’s endorsed by more than 50 leaders in Omaha’s Black community and actually spends time there, as opposed to her opponent.

Eastman notes that Bacon voted against the Voting Rights Act; he just can’t claim that he’s someone working on behalf of racial justice. It’s a tough look for him because he has to deal with his actual voting record and so he has to try to talk around it here and on health care.

Bacon brings up @BernieSanders and @AOC again. He’s running against them in this race rather than @karaforcongress herself because he thinks those people are very scary to Nebraska citizens. It’s probably one reason why he’s the Congressman most likely to lose his seat in 2 weeks

Bottom line: this election is about Trump and Don Bacon is a major supporter of Trump & Trumpism. If you want to support an impeached President who degrades our country & pits us against one another he’s your guy. For those reasons and more we’re better off with @karaforcongress.