By Barrett Seaman–
Most of the current discourse about Artificial Intelligence (AI) focuses on its threat to subvert humans’ control over their own destiny, if not their very existence. Watching Wednesday night’s News12 debate between incumbent Congressman Mike Lawler and his predecessor, Mondaire Jones, inspires a much more practical use of AI: real-time fact-checking for the benefit of those of us trying to make sense of the fire hose of contradictory assertions by political candidates.
In the hour-long debate, the first of three televised exchanges Lawler and Jones will have before November 5th, hardly a single assertion by one candidate or the other went unchallenged by his opponent as a lie or a distortion. Even the most observant local journalists, let alone anyone lacking fingertip knowledge of individual voting records, could be expected to judge the veracity of claims without digging into the Congressional Record.
From the get-go, the two rivals traded allegations: Jones accused Lawler of wanting to cut Medicare and Social Security benefits. Lawler claimed that Jones supported cashless bail in New York, which he later called “the single stupidest piece of legislation that has ever been enacted into law anywhere.” He went on to charge that Jones supported defunding police and was willing to allow “cop killers and rapists the right to vote from prison,” and that he was an avowed socialist.
Jones responded by saying he never called cops racist, never voted to cut funding for law enforcement, and “never called myself a socialist.”
As a member of Congress, Lawler went on, “Mondaire was the third most radical leftist in congress, voting with AOC (Alexandria Ocasio Cortez) and The Squad over 97% of the time. By contrast, I’m the fourth most bipartisan member of Congress, standing up to my party on issues of SALT, access to IVF and opposing a federal ban on abortion.”
Jones later blamed Lawler for the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. “Mike Lawler is not pro-life when it comes to women, because women all across America are bleeding out and they’re dying in hospitals where physicians are afraid of criminal liability, so they don’t provide the abortion care that these women deserve,” he said.
Lawler responded by repeating a pledge to vote against any attempt to ban abortion nationally and accused Jones of lying about his position. “The only extremist here is Mondaire Jones,” Lawler said. “He supports abortion up till the moment of birth; he supports gender-selection abortion; he opposes parental notification, and he is fine with non-doctors performing abortion, which makes abortion less safe.”
Jones claimed that Lawler voted “at least ten different times” to restrict women’s reproductive freedom and recently told the Journal News “that he wants to see nearly all abortions eliminated, including here in New York.” Lawler’s response: No, I didn’t; that’s a lie!”
Asked about the economy, Lawler accused Jones of increasing spending “by $5 trillion in just two years, which is why you are paying through the nose at the grocery story, the gas station, your mortgage…,” said the incumbent, without explaining how a single member of Congress could accomplish that. Jones countered by noting that the Biden-sponsored Inflation Reduction Act capped Insulin costs at $35-a-month, to which Lawler retorted, “Leave it to a Socialist to praise price controls.”
The two repeatedly talked over one another, causing moderator Tara Rosenblum to admonish them—without much effect. “He’s not the bipartisan he says he is,” Jones said of Lawler. “He joined with Mike Johnson, the most radical speaker of the House in history of American government,” prompting Lawler to bring up Jones’ brief attempt to win the Democratic nomination in New York City’s 10thDistrict. “You’re the one who packed up and went to Brooklyn,” he barked.
And so it went in response to questions about public safety, the Middle East, immigration, affordable housing and the events of January 6th. The two could not even agree on whether crime in New York had gone up or down.
The last question was about divisiveness, which seemed a fitting finale. Lawler re-touted his rating as a bipartisan, noting that “We have so many challenges [but] “unfortunately we spend so much time on nonsense.”
On that, there was little disagreement.
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