Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and his Democratic challenger Rep. Val Demings met for their first and only debate ahead of the midterm elections. With Rubio ahead of the polls, Demings went on the attack, accusing him of being a liar multiple times.
Abortion, gun control and inflation were some of the topics of the debate.
A tense exchange happened when the moderator asked if Rubio would support a federal abortion ban with no exceptions, as he has already suggested in the past.
The senator dodged the question and accused Demings of defending abortion “on demand, for any reason, at any time, including the moment before birth.”
She said she was in favor of abortion until viability, the parameters set in Roe v. Wade, which is considered to be around 24 weeks of pregnancy. The landmark Supreme Court decision that was used as the standard for abortion rights across the country until it was overturned in June.
Demings accused Rubio of lying about his position on abortion.
“What we know is that the senator supports no exceptions,” she said. “He can make his mouth say anything today. He is good at that, by the way. What day is it and what is Marco Rubio saying?”
When the topic was the economy, Rubio attacked President Joe Biden‘s approach to inflation. He criticized spending public money on many pandemic relief programs and the move to release more oil from the strategic reserve to bring gas prices down.
“Oil reserves do not exist to win midterms,” Rubio said.
