Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand ducked and dodged an all-out attack from Republican challenger Mike Supply Cohn over her support for Proposition 1.
Supplycone took issue with Gillibrand's claims that Prop. 1 protects abortion and women's equal rights, saying the amendment would allow boys to play women's sports and allow young children to play their parents' They argued that the language was ambiguous, allowing people to undergo gender reassignment surgery without permission.
“It's not about abortion. Remember, this is New York state. For more than 50 years, our country has had some of the most expansive abortion laws in the country. This proposal It's not changing the way things are. It's just taking rights away from parents,” Supplykorn said in one of the most heated exchanges of the Spectrum News/NY1 debate.
“You're dead wrong,” Gillibrand quickly shot back, pointing to states like Connecticut and New Mexico that have Equal Rights Amendments like the one Prop. 1 calls for.
“We have the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution, which claims to cover all reproductive health care for men, but that doesn't mean all reproductive health care for women, including access to abortion, is fundamentally unequal,” Gillibrand said. he said.
“When I think about my daughter, what are equal rights when a man can walk into a locker room and say he's a girl and he's going to compete with girls?” Supply-Korn retorted.
“Do you know how many cases there are in our state? It's less than a handful. You're using a red herring,” Gillibrand responded.
Supplykone said he is “pro-life” but does not support a nationwide abortion ban.
Both candidates also fought over immigration issues.
Gillibrand called for “right-sizing” legal immigration to the U.S., in addition to devoting resources to clearing the backlog of asylum seekers using existing laws. .
“We need a system that actually works, and it's currently broken. ,” Gillibrand said.
Supplycone noted that Gillibrand has 15 years to work on immigration issues in the Senate, including a short-lived bipartisan agreement that was in the works in the chamber earlier this year.
“I'm sure you're a very powerful and influential person in the United States Senate. Why couldn't you even get that bill to the Senate floor?” he said.
Both sides had more similar attitudes toward Israel.
Supplykone said he would not object to Israel directly targeting Iran following a major missile attack earlier this month.
“I think we should support Israel as much as we can. We shouldn't micromanage what they're doing,” said the former NYPD detective and owner of a private security company.
Gillibrand took a more roundabout approach to her answer, but ultimately agreed that Iran had already attacked Israel and therefore warranted measured retaliation.
“If Israel decides it needs to target some of Iran's infrastructure for nuclear weapons, missile production, or cyber response, it is absolutely their right to do so because it has already been attacked.” said Gillibrand.
Recent polls show Saprakorn leading Gillibrand by a wide margin. A Siena College poll released this week showed Gillibrand leading with 57% of the vote, to Saprakorn's 31%.
If successful, Gillibrand will serve her third full term in the U.S. Senate.
Wednesday's debate was held at the University at Albany in the state capital.
