Cunningham, Tillis spar over filling Supreme Court vacancy, COVID-19 relief in debate
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham sparred over confirming a new Supreme Court justice before the election in their second debate in North Carolina’s tightly contested U.S. Senate race.
President Donald Trump has said he plans to nominate a woman to fill the vacancy created by Friday’s death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Tillis, a Republican seeking re-election, said he would support Trump’s nominee and wants to fill the seat before the Nov. 3 election.
But Cunningham said the winner of the presidential election should select the next justice, adding Tillis has “written a blank check to the president.”
“There is an important role for a United States senator as a check and balance on the president of the United States,” Cunningham said. “Rather than act as a check and balance, Senator Tillis has written a blank check to the president. He has forfeited his right to independence of judgment here on behalf of the people of our state. And that’s wrong. That’s something I would never do.”
The fast-moving debate, televised on NexStar stations across the state, included questions about a number of topics, including coronavirus relief funding, the national debt, marijuana policy, providing health insurance to more North Carolinians, mail-in balloting, historically Black colleges and universities, renaming military bases and securing the borders.
Supporters of each candidate gathered outside the television studio in Raleigh before the debate, CBS17 reported.
The North Carolina race could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate in 2021, leading outside groups and party-affiliated groups to pour millions into the race. Cunningham leads Tillis by six points in polls released by Civitas and CBS 17 this week. Those are consistent with other recent polling that shows Cunningham with a single-digit lead.
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Supreme Court vacancy
As Trump did before the 2016 election, he released a short list of Supreme Court candidates earlier this month that he would choose from if there is a vacancy. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has not released a list, something Tillis attacked in Tuesday’s debate.
“Cal, that was a yes-no question and you did everything to avoid answering it,” Tillis said. “The fact of the matter is Joe Biden does not want to put a list forward. Why can’t the American people know now what Joe Biden is thinking with respect to the future of the court? It’s a court that will not defend our Second Amendment, it’s a court that will take us down a radical left path.”
Cunningham did not address whether Biden should release a list during the debate, but said during a press conference after the debate that he would advise Biden not to.
“I would counsel against it, because I think it injects further partisanship and further division into what is already now likely to be an extraordinarily divisive and extraordinarily partisan exercise,” Cunningham said. “We need to get past this election. It could be President Trump in January, sworn into office, if he’s successful with the ballot. He takes the oath, let’s proceed. Let’s proceed with the sobriety of having passed through the election.”
During the debate, the candidates had one minute to answer questions, followed by 30 seconds for a rebuttal. The format also allowed the candidates to ask each other one question.
Tillis asked Cunningham whether he supports expanding the Supreme Court from its current nine members, a plan some Democrats have embraced if Trump’s nominee is confirmed by the Republican-held Senate so close to the election.
“I don’t,” Cunningham said. “Justice Ginsburg herself said nine was the right number — and nine is the right number for our country.”
The current bitter fight over the Supreme Court has its roots in 2016 when the GOP-led Senate decided not to hold confirmation hearings on President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland. Then, Tillis helped Senate Republicans block the nomination, citing the ongoing presidential campaign.
Tillis repeatedly pointed to $80 million in spending from groups affiliated with Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and said Cunningham would be unable to stand up to him and others in his party.
“Cal Cunningham is going to get pressured, and after $80 million being spent to support his campaign, if he were to be elected, I think it’d be another campaign pledge he’d break,” Tillis said about Cunnigham’s response about expanding the court.
“Eighty million dollars sounds like Chuck Schumer is investing in a rubber stamp when you get up to Washington,” Tillis said at another point.
Cunningham said after the debate. he was speaking “to those voices within my own party” when he said the Court should remain at nine.
“Nine is the appropriate number. Nine is the correct number,” he said.
Cunningham used his question to ask Tillis what big pharmaceutical companies were getting in exchange for their donations to his campaign. Cunningham said Tillis was the top recipient of PAC money from “big pharma” last year.
“What they’ve been getting from him is his opposition to bipartisan legislation that would bring down the cost of prescription drugs,” Cunningham said. “This is just another example of Senator Tillis working for them, caving into those corporate donors rather than working for us.”
Tillis said “what they’ve gotten recently from me was something that they opposed and that was the pricing transparency bill.”
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Coronavirus concerns
Tillis and Cunningham had their first debate on Sept. 14, and Cunningham made headlines for saying that he would be “hesitant” to take a COVID-19 vaccine before the end of the year citing “political and financial corruption” in Washington and “political influences on our public health professionals.”
Tillis called the comment “irresponsible” during the debate, and the Tillis campaign released ads highlighting Cunningham’s comments.
In Tuesday’s debate, Cunningham said he would take the vaccine.
“I trust the science, I trust doctors and I trust public health professionals,” Cunningham said. “And when they sign off on the efficacy, the strength and the effectiveness and the safety of a vaccine, you better bet I’m going to take it. My family is going to take it and I’ll encourage all North Carolinians to take it.”
Cunningham said he supports a national mask mandate.
Tillis did not answer whether he supports a national mask mandate, but said, “We’ve got to have people understand wearing a mask is critically important. The more people that wear masks, the sooner our schools get to open, the sooner we go back to sporting events, the sooner we get back to life as normal.”
The United States passed 200,000 coronavirus deaths this week.
While the candidates generally disagreed on most issues, they found a few topics with a consensus. Both candidates said they smoked marijuana when they were younger.
“I fall far short of thinking it’s the right time to legalize it in North Carolina,” said Tillis, who said he supports looking at the drug for medicinal uses.
Cunningham said the drug should be removed from the federal schedule and states should be allowed to pursue different directions on the legalization of marijuana.
Voting is already underway in North Carolina. More than 153,000 voters have cast their absentee-by-mail ballots in the state, according to the State Board of Elections. Nearly 1 million absentee by mail ballots have been requested.
Both candidates said they support the state’s mail-in balloting process.
Cunningham attacked Tillis for North Carolina’s election legislation that a federal court struck down for targeting African-Americans with what it said was “surgical precision” and for not working to reauthorize the federal Voting Rights Act.
Tillis said that legislation included voter ID provisions that the majority of North Carolinians support.
Libertarian Shannon Bray and Constitution Party nominee Kevin Hayes will also be on the Nov. 3 ballot but were not part of the debate.
Marius Payton and Angela Taylor of WNCN and Bob Buckley of WGHP were moderators.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published September 22, 2020 at 9:29 PM with the headline "Cunningham, Tillis spar over filling Supreme Court vacancy, COVID-19 relief in debate."
