Gallego, Lake accuse each other of changing stances on hot-button issues

PHOENIX — U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake accused each other Wednesday of trying to conduct extreme makeovers of who they are — at least for voters.

During their televised debate in the race for U.S. Senate, Lake said Gallego has a record on border security that included deriding the “‘dumb, stupid border wall’.”

“That border wall keeps us safe,’’ said Lake, the Republican contender seeking to fill the seat being vacated by independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Lake said Gallego, a Democrat who has served in the U.S. House for a decade, has supported President Joe Biden’s “open border policy.”

“You’re going to watch somebody who has tried to reinvent himself,’’ Lake said to the TV cameras.

Gallego countered that he does not support an open border, which is why he said he supported a bipartisan plan that would have included funding for some additional barriers as well as technology and additional Border Patrol officers. But he said Lake opposed the measure, which eventually died in Congress earlier this year.

For his part, Gallego cited Lake’s history of statements on abortion, including one where she said she was “thrilled’’ when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in 2022 because it would allow Arizona to once again enforce its 1864 law that made it a crime to perform an abortion except to save the life of the mother. She referred to the ban dating back to territorial days as “a great law.’’

“This is who Kari Lake is,’’ Gallego said. “She has told us what she would do.’’

Lake has since said, as she did during the debate, that she supports the state’s current ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which contains no exception in cases of rape or incest.

But she sidestepped the question of whether she would support Proposition 139, a measure on the Arizona’s November ballot that would provide a specific right to abortion in the Arizona Constitution. Instead, Lake said she will abide by the decision of voters.

She did say she believes the U.S. Supreme Court made the right decision in 2022, a move that left it to each state to decide what restrictions to place on women’s right to terminate a pregnancy. Gallego, for his part, said it is unacceptable that the question of whether a woman can get an abortion — including in instances of rape or incest — turns on where she lives.

And, he said of Lake, “Now we’re going to trust her?’’

“This is the same person that’s still lying about winning the 2022 (gubernatorial) election,’’ he said. “She’s failed the basic test of honesty.’’

Lake still has a case pending before the Arizona Supreme Court where she wants another bite at the legal apple, after lower court rulings affirmed Democrat Katie Hobbs defeated her in the governor’s race. She claims she has new evidence and she wants the 2022 governor’s race rerun in Maricopa County.

Lake brushed aside a question from Gallego in the debate about whether she really believes she won the race.

But it was the issue of border security that took up half of the 53 minutes the two Senate candidates had in their first — and only — debate.

That is not surprising, as polls say the issue is second in importance for Arizona voters, behind only the economy. And Republicans nationwide have sought to make illegal immigration — and crimes they say are linked to those who crossed the border illegally during the four years Joe Biden has been president — a key in winning races like this one.

“They’ve done nothing to secure the border,’’ Lake said of Democrats.

As to Gallego, she acknowledged he introduced a piece of legislation on border immigration. But that was a 2015 proposal he co-sponsored to strike the words “illegal alien’’ from federal law and replace them with “undocumented foreign nationals.’’

“He’s more worried about semantics than our security,’’ Lake said.

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Gallego said he supported the bipartisan 2024 plan he says would have helped stem the flow of people across the border, a measure that was supported by the National Border Patrol Council. It died amid Republican opposition as well as presidential candidate Donald Trump urging members of his party not to support it.

“And Kari Lake ... she can’t explain it why she was against that bill,’’ Gallego said.

Lake countered there were good reasons.

“It’s because it would codify into law 5,000 people every day coming in illegally,’’ she said.

That’s not exactly true. The legislation would have given the Border Patrol the authority to summarily remove migrants after a certain number had crossed the border. That was an average of 5,000 a day for a week or 8,500 in any single day.

Lake said she also was troubled by the fact that the provision, at least at one point, was attached to a $150 billion appropriation “that was going overseas to kill people.’’

When that package didn’t fly, she said, it was separated out.

“And Ruben Gallego voted to send another $60 billion to Ukraine,’’ Lake said. She said that, after the vote, he and other members of Congress were walking around the House floor with Ukrainian flags.

“He sold us out to Ukraine,’’ she said. “But he would not help President Trump build the border wall.’’

Gallego said there had been a deal when Trump previously was president to give him money for a border wall in exchange for providing a path to citizenship for “Dreamers,’’ as people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or DACA are known. They arrived in this country as children and under an order by Biden have been allowed to remain and work, but with no legal status beyond that.

Trump then changed the terms of the deal, Gallego said.

That relates to campaign promises by Trump to engage in wholesale deportation of people not in this country legally. Lake added her support, saying she is particularly targeting millions of people who came in during the Biden presidency.

“In order to save our homeland, we must send them back to their homeland,’’ she said.

Gallego said that still leaves unanswered whether Lake wants to send back about 530,000 of those with DACA status — including about 22,000 in Arizona — as part of that. She did not provide a direct answer, instead repeating her claim that could have been done if Democrats were willing to deal with Trump.

Gallego said much of this would not be an issue if Trump and some other Republicans had been willing to work on comprehensive border legislation, legislation he said Lake opposed “not because it wasn’t a good solution’’ but because it would have eliminated this as a political issue.

“She needs this talking point,’’ he said.

“This is the difference between me and Kari Lake,’’ Gallego said. “I actually try to work on things. She just has talking points, just talk and not really know what she’s saying.’’

Gallego took several questions from reporters after the debate, something that has been a fairly common practice of participants for years.

Lake did not, instead sending in surrogates to boast how well they said she did. They included John Barrasso, a Republican senator from Wyoming, and Charles Kirk, director of Turning Point USA, which has been trying to organize conservative students on high school and college campuses.

The debate was sponsored by the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission.