Sparks Fly Over Trump, Health Care in Heated Vermont Senate Debate

Vermont’s candidates for U.S. Senate sparred over former President Donald Trump and the rising costs of health care during a heated Oct. 23 debate.

Incumbent Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, is defending his seat against Republican challenger Gerald Malloy, a Trump-endorsed U.S. Army veteran.

During the debate hosted by Vermont Public and VTDigger, Sanders noted his opponent’s open support for the former president and asked him to explain how he could back someone who “lies all the time” and “fomented an insurrection.”

Malloy replied that he supports Trump because he has “looked at what the progressive left has done” over the last four years.

“We’ve had 40-year-high inflation, record high gas prices,” he said. “We have two new wars. We have a wide-open southern border. … We have a fentanyl crisis, right here, right now.”

The Republican said Congress had failed to address those problems and that Sanders, as a 34-year member of Congress, had a share in that failure.

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“You’ve watched this. People are dying, OK? It’s time for action, not inaction,” he said, suggesting that Trump would reduce inflation and secure the border.

Sanders, who is seeking a fourth term in the Senate, reiterated his claim that Trump is dishonest. Malloy interjected to say that was merely the senator’s opinion.

The candidates proceeded to talk over one another, disagreeing over the former president’s honesty.

Moderator Mikaela Lefrak then jumped into the fray to issue a rebuke: “We’re trying to have a debate here, not a shouting contest.”

Universal Health Care

Other topics the candidates discussed included taxes, climate change, abortion, immigration, and foreign policy, but health care was the primary issue on which they sparred.

Sanders, an avid proponent of universal health care, asked Malloy if he believed that the United States should provide health care to all people “as a human right.”

Malloy noted that efforts to do just that had failed in their home state.

In 2011, Vermont lawmakers enacted a law establishing the nation’s first-ever single-payer health care system. Just three-and-a-half years later, the initiative was abandoned due its monumental costs.

“One of the things the senator never talks about is, if [universal health care] were to ever happen, it would be a huge tax increase on all Americans. We’re already paying too much taxes,” Malloy said.

Instead, the Republican said he would support “fixing” the current systems in place, such as Medicaid and Medicare.

Sanders, however, said U.S. taxpayers currently spend twice as much as those in other countries on health care. “And the reason for that is our system is not designed to provide quality care, but to make huge profits for the insurance companies and the drug companies,” he said.

Malloy replied: “You’ve had 34 years to do it, and you have not.”

Absentee voting—both via mail and in person—is already underway in Vermont, where general election ballots are mailed out to all active registered voters.

Voters have until 7 p.m. on Election Day—Nov. 5—to return their ballots.