By Barrett Seaman–
The second televised debate on Wednesday night between incumbent Republican Mike Lawler and Democratic challenger (and former incumbent) Mondaire Jones on CBS’s local affiliate station, Channel 2, was in most ways a repeat of their contentious meeting on News12 the week before .
Alleged facts and refutations filled the air, along with repeated accusations that one or the other was lying. There were several lengthy episodes in which the two candidates talked over one another as hosts Marcia Kramer and Maurice Dubois struggled futilely to rein them in. For those who have been following the campaign, this was a movie they had seen before, but the exchange did clarify their essential campaign positions on the issues.
Lawler repeatedly described Jones as someone trying to escape his radical leftist past by painting himself as a moderate for the sake of this election. Drawing largely from statements Jones made in 2020 or earlier, Lawler cited Jones’ previous support for defunding law enforcement, cashless bail in New York and allowing “cop killers” to vote from prison. “If it talks like a socialist, votes like a socialist; folks, it’s a socialist,” Lawler said at one point, repeatedly tying Jones to “failed Biden/Harris policies” and ultra liberal colleagues like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and The Squad.
Jones’ counter-accusation was that Lawler “lies just like his mentor Donald Trump. He’s doing it to hold onto power so that he’s in place next January to vote for Donald Trump’s dangerous Project 2025 agenda…There’s not a problem he claims he is trying to resolve that he’s not in some way shape or form responsible for helping to create in the first place.” However bipartisan and moderate Lawler claimed to be, Jones warned, in the end he would support Trump and his henchman in Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson.
The Republican candidate’s relationship with Trump was the topic that left Lawler sounding the most defensive. Jones was right in pointing out that Lawler seemed unable to bring himself to say Trump’s or his running mate JD Vance’s names out loud. His admission that “Joe Biden won the 2020 election” and that January 6 was “wrong” came off as less than a robust condemnation of Trump’s anti-Democratic tendencies. Echoing Lawler’s “walks like a duck” analogy, Jones said, ““If it talks like a fascist and supports a fascist for president for the third presidential election, then it’s a mini fascist.”
Jones seemed weakest in his explanation of previous liberal positions. Where Lawler directly apologized for his college blackface imitation of Michael Jackson, Jones seemed unwilling to confess that he once held more liberal positions that he has since repudiated. Other than tying his opponent to the Trump-dictated demise of the Senate bipartisan immigration bill, he fell short of presenting a nuanced position on immigration reform, while Lawler managed to offer specific recommendations, such as requiring rulings on asylum applications within 60 days.
On reproductive rights, Lawler charged that Jones supported abortion up to the moment of birth while his own position was that he accepts New York State’s current law legalizing abortion, adding that he would never vote for a national ban.
Plunging headlong into the treacherous Middle East maelstrom, Israeli security and the war in Gaza, the pair’s acrimonious accusations and interruptions all but drowned out attempts by either party to articulate a policy. In a district with one of the highest proportions of Jewish voters in the country, each strained to convey his solidarity with the Jewish State.
Lawler’s case was that no negotiated settlement would be possible until and unless Arab nations collectively recognized Israel’s right to exist. Jones argued that the goal should be a two-state solution and that negotiations would settle the question of whether a land swap would entail the sacrifice of some or all of the West Bank settlements.
Lawler struck back, accusing Jones of advocating a return to pre-1967 borders, which would require Israel to give back significant chunks of real estate to surrounding Arab countries. When Jones said that question should be the subject of negotiation and as such not something to pre-judge, Lawler shot back with his most forceful response of the evening: “You just said you are a staunch supporter of Israel and yet you are calling for a negotiated settlement and land swaps. Are you out of your mind?”
In a race in which both sides are claiming to represent the politically moderate middle ground, the two repeated evidence now widely familiar to observers. Jones says he was responsible in part for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed into law during his term in Congress while Lawler claimed a host of legislative contributions.
“I’ve passed ten bills through the house, five of which were signed by President Biden,” Lawler claimed. You passed one bill to rename a post office. Give me a break, dude!” He repeated that he was rated the fourth most bipartisan member of Congress while Jones was 381st. Jones’ retort: “No one’s at risk of believing that you have been part of a productive congress. In fact, it’s been the least productive congress since the Civil War.”
The two will participate together in one more live event at the New City Jewish Center on November 1st. Beyond perhaps some detail on their respective Middle East policy recommendations, however, it is difficult to imagine what might be said that will change voters’ minds.
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