different path from where the president is taking us. thank you. >> just five days remain until election day, and candidate are making their final pitches to voters in key battleground states today. president trump and joe biden are both hosting events today in tampa, florida. at 1:30 eastern, live coverage of president trump's rally. at 6:30 eastern, it will be joe biden and his drive-in campaign event. also at 8:00 p.m. eastern today, kamala harris will be speaking at an event with senator bernie sanders. watch c-span for life campaign campaignrage. -- live 2020 coverage. u.s. senate seats up for election this year.

in georgia, senator perdue is running for reelection. we will show you a debate where he squares off with democratic candidate jon ossoff. >> the georgia great television station presents republican incumbent david perdue and democratic challenger jon ossoff in the 2020 georgia u.s. senatorial debate. now, here is your moderator, mike cihla. moderator: good evening. thank you for joining us. i'm mike cihla. wtoc is hosting a debate for the senatorial race with candidates republican incumbent david perdue and jon ossoff. in addition to wtoc, this debate is also airing in acosta, columbus, albany, thomasville. the candidates are eight feet apart and as you can see, there is a plexiglas divider between them. we are following cdc

recommendations. here are the rules for tonight's debate. candidates will have 1:30 for opening and closing statements, 1:15 to answer a question when it is posed to both. candidates can request a rebuttal if they are named or attacked by the candidate in their answer. if that request is granted, the candidate will have 45 seconds for a rebuttal. we also have directed questions for individual candidates. they will have 1:15 for a response. the other candidate will have 45 seconds for comment if they choose to. rebuttal rules will go into effect about a direct attack. the candidates tonight are republican incumbent david perdue and democratic challenger jon ossoff. you both have 1:30 for starting statements. coinor perdue, you won the flip, so let's start with you. you fordue: thank hosting this tonight. my mom and dad were public school teachers in middle georgia and i grew up working on

our family farms. i worked my way through georgia tech and went on to have a business career and became a fortune 500 ceo and created tens of thousands of american jobs. i never wanted to be in politics, but when bonnie and i decided to get involved, we wanted to change the direction of the country and get real results for georgia. and from deepening the report to rebuilding our military and disaster relief for our farmers to help in this area to getting real covid relief, i think we have done just that. in contrast, jon ossoff has said he always wanted to be in politics. he is pushing a radical socialist agenda. he will be nothing but a rubberstamp to chuck schumer. he says one thing in atlanta and another in the rest of georgia. if you believe me, if you look at what he has said in the past, you can see that that is evidently the truth. listen to his words. he will not tell you why he

wants to support defunding the police, open more sanctuary cities or why he wants to close two military bases in the state of georgia or why he thinks it is a good idea to take away private health insurance from our own employers. the only reason bonnie and i are running for reelection is to continue to help change the direction of the country and to get real results for georgia. moderator: mr. ossoff, you have one minute, 30 seconds. mr. ossoff: typical statements. here with the opportunity to address the people of the state about the direction of leadership for the state, you would not know listening to senator perdue that we are in the midst of a pandemic that is taken nearly 250,000 american lives. senator perdue has not even acknowledged we are in the midst of a crisis that has touched

every family. we have lost parents, grandparents, neighbors, so many have been forced out of work, so many lives have been uprooted. we long for normalcy, leaders who are honest with us about threats to our health at a moment when so many of us need a government that serves us by empowering public health experts, medical doctors, and scientists to lead the public health response in a public health crisis. this virus that is accelerating across our country, hospitalizations increasing, nearly 1000 americans dying per day was dismissed by senator perdue as no deadlier than the ordinary flu. he told us the risk to our health was low, the impact on our economy would be little and this evening you will hear david perdue talk about everything but this crisis that has torn this country apart. he will seek to deflect with the false accusations but it will not acknowledge the devastation being reached across this country or present a plan to contain his virus. moderator: thank you both for being here tonight.

it is our hope and expectation that you can show voters in georgia and our families an example of what civil discourse is like and how to engage in passionate yet respectful debate. we thank you both in advance of that. we are joined by a live panel who will ask questions. it is made up of journalists from sister stations that serve viewers all across georgia. the panel includes don baker, barbara gotche, richard rogers, eden schultz, and jim wallace. we want to go for our first question. let's go to dawn baker. dawn: the first question goes to both candidates. despite america having far more time to prepare than china and

other countries for the coronavirus, the covid-19 virus has taken a greater toll on the u.s. what is your analysis of america's response and to look at what is happened and see a serious this virus can be would you change anything? moderator: mr. ossoff. mr. ossoff: protecting american people in a health emergency is a core function of our government and nurses and doctors like my wife who practices medicine in metro atlanta and have been doing their jobs to save lives and keep people safe. epidemiologists and scientists who know what they are doing in a crisis like this have been giving their best advice to political leaders to save lives and control the spread of this virus but senator david perdue and others in washington, d.c. systematically ignored, downplayed, and dismissed the best medical expertise. senator perdue insisted to us

this was no deadlier than the flu. what we need to do is empower public health experts and medical experts to lead on the response, and we have to do it now because this virus is not going away. it is accelerating into the winter months, killed nearly 250,000 americans and we will lose hundreds of thousands more unless political leaders step up, stop politicizing and downplaying the response and let the public health experts lead to keep us healthy, safe, and contain this virus. moderator: senator perdue. sen. perdue: again, we hear idle comments we have heard before. almost a dozen people in the state of georgia, 8000 people in the state of georgia. we all know them. this has been a tragedy of immeasurable proportion. it is easy to look back at the question, but one of the things we have to recognize in this virus is the earlier responsibility. china was responsible for this, and we have learned a lot about the virus, who is most

vulnerable, what we need to do to protect them. what we have to do is hold china accountable. jon ossoff will not be the one to do this. in the last two years, he has been working for a company owned by the communist chinese government, and in the last debate, he denied that. the question tonight is moving forward, instead of looking back, we have got to get a vaccine, accelerate it, and we have done this. we put money behind this accelerating treatment regimens and get the money back into the state. democrats are blocking the aid we want to bring back to the state in addition to what we have already done. moderator: you were named in that jon ossoff so you get a rebuttal. mr. ossoff: how about taking personal responsibility? senator david perdue told us this virus was no deadlier than the ordinary flu. senator, everybody has been able to watch in real time as this president, this administration

and his allies have systematically misled the people about the threat to our health. take some personal responsibility for what the whole country and a world can see is an abject failure of governance. step up, acknowledge what is being done wrong and chart a course forward, empowering medical experts, putting the cdc based here in atlanta in charge. let public health experts lead, not politicians. moderator: mr. perdue. sen. perdue: again, he did not answer the question or the issue and the real issue is did he work for a company for two years and failed to tell people in his primary filing and turnaround and admitted later? did he work for that company and will he hold china accountable? in the first debate, he acknowledged he did not work for them. let's step up. did you work for that chinese

communist company, tccw is a media company that is owned by the chinese government. the question is, that is on top of working for al jazeera. moderator: mr. ossoff, i will let you answer that. mr. ossoff: as predicted, senator perdue does not want to talk about covid-19, a pandemic that has killed nearly 250,000 americans. he will spend this entire debate deflecting from a substantive conversation about the most serious public health crisis in generations. he will launch false attacks, make outlandish allegations, repeat the same six words over and over again because it is what his handlers in washington, d.c. trained him to do, avoid responsibility and avoid a substantive discussion of where we go now to contain his virus. -- this virus.

put medical experts and public health experts in charge, not failed and disgrace politicians. moderator: we will move on to the next question. sen. perdue: i think i get a response. he named me in that answer. moderator: very quickly. sen. perdue: he talks about taking responsibility but will not do that. he misled the people of georgia. this is really important here, because it goes to trust and judgement. if you want someone to represent you in united states senate, you better hope you can trust them. he misled everyone in the primary. he refiled after the primary was over and now told the legal document he filed he worked for that company even though before he said he did not. if that is confusing, go to my website and you will get that cleared up and you will see why he is not answering the question, why he won't take his own advice about taking responsibility. moderator: we will move on to our next question, edan schultz. with wctv. edan: good evening, this

question is for both candidates as well and we want to get back to the pandemic. it has been hard to balance the health and safety concerns with the economic impact. what do you say to businesses and workers struggling, they need to get back to normal because their livelihood is at stake? moderator: senator perdue. sen. perdue: that is a great question, my answer would be to call every democrat because they are blocking the next round of aid for our cares act. we put $2.9 trillion at work. we brought $47 million here to georgia. another $15 billion for a ppp program that saved 1.5 million jobs in this state and yet jon ossoff opposed the ppp program and still does. he would have voted against that. in the united states senate, we have bills waiting to go on the floor that the democrats are blocking that would bring more aid. we need a couple of months of

immediate help for the smallest companies that average $103,000 per loan in the state and only 10 employees. these are people that would have lost their businesses to be -- we saved 1.5 million jobs. he would have voted against it because he is nothing but a rubber stamp for chuck schumer. he does it all the time. he is saying things that will disguise his real radical socialist agenda. moderator: mr. ossoff. mr. ossoff: well, it's nonsense. i have been advocating for months for renewal of the ppp program, which senator perdue allowed to expire in august. listen to his answers. it is always the other party's fault, somebody else's fault. no sense of personal responsibility. let's talk about who is hurting right now, because it's not senator perdue's donors. moms the corner mechanic,

restaurants, working parents who cannot figure out how they will afford the house payment and their health care because one of them is out of work. the senate has not delivered relief for georgia families for small businesses since august. they have been rushing through a supreme court nominee who they hope will help them overturn the affordable care act and repeal protections for pre-existing conditions. that is senator perdue's priority right now, not financial relief for ordinary people. senator perdue has been hard at work pushing through a judge in hopes she will roll on a lawsuit rule on a lawsuit she supports to take health care away in the middle of a pandemic and you voted four times to repeal protections for pre-existing conditions. sen. perdue: can i get a response? moderator: you do get a rebuttal, 45-seconds. due: i am proud of the

fact we voted amy coney barrett in as the ninth justice of the supreme court. he would have voted against her just like every single democrat did this week on monday night. that is why i say he will be nothing but a rubber stamp for chuck schumer. if you want results, you need to focus on the people of georgia. $9 of the $10 he has raised in the third quarter came from outside the state of georgia. who will he be accountable to, the people of georgia or the people of california and new york funding this race? moderator: mr. ossoff, 45 seconds. mr. ossoff: the question was about economic relief for the people of the state. senator, you are right. let's talk about results. where are the results? can you answer that question without blaming the other political party? sen. perdue: absolutely. ssoff: where in august, look, i was speaking to a young woman just the other day who started a car parking business near mercedes-benz stadium. she was just getting this business off the ground, making

good money, beginning to save. she is now out of work, car business is gone, she cannot make the car payment, the house payment. she fears homelessness and she cannot get ppp relief because you let it expire months ago and turned your attention to a judicial process. moderator: two are your time. sen. perdue: the reason it -- moderator: thank you for your time. sen. perdue: the reason it expired is your compatriots up there, the democrats would not -- mr. ossoff: there you go again. sen. perdue: that's the truth. let's take accountability. we have put bill after bill on the floor that would help give additional aid. that could've happened in july and you guys voted it down every single time. we also voted for a judge, but that was our responsibility. had you been there, you would have voted against amy coney barrett. that is clear. what is happening right now is on the other side of that, we had people like marissa, an ecuadorian international saved her business. friendly's restaurant would have lost their business without that

ppp help. we need both parties in washington to come together to get this next round of relief done. moderator: let's go to barbara, wvtm. with wvtm. -- wvtm.a, with barbara: on behalf of your constituents in columbus, i would like to welcome you. thank you for answering our questions. my question is for both candidates, health care is a key issue, especially in a pandemic. how do you plan to ensure everyone, regardless of income, job, or pre-existing condition, has access to necessary health care? moderator: a minute, 15 to mr. ossoff. mr. ossoff: this is the most important issue in the midst of this crisis. how could we ensure every georgian has health care they need at a price they can afford? my wife is a doctor. an ob/gyn. she and her colleagues across the state see every day how many

georgia families struggle to afford health care. it is a source of constant stress for so many georgia families, the outrageous insurance premiums, the outrageous cost of prescription drugs and now, in the middle of a pandemic that is worsening, a pandemic senator perdue would told us would be no deadlier than the ordinary flu, in the middle of this historic public health crisis, senator perdue is still supporting a lawsuit to repeal the affordable care act, to repeal protections for georgians with pre-existing conditions. that means those of us who have asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or family members recovering from cancer, they would stand to lose their health policies or be denied coverage if senator perdue has his way. it is wrong. you should put georgia families ahead of the insurance companies you work for. moderator: senator perdue.

sen. perdue: i've never worked for an insurance company. let's talk about accountability and responsibility. the reason part of this is in such a mess is before the affordable care act in georgia, half of the counties are now limited to one health care insurance provider. we have a bill before the senate, i cosponsored it that would give us protection for pre-existing conditions in the event the affordable care act is determined by the supreme court to be unconstitutional. the other thing we have got to do is work on surprise billing and drug costs. that is also a trade issue. we have been working on that. there are solutions to be had. what i come back to in the middle of this pandemic is we have got to hold accountable the people that helped create this pandemic, the country of china. communist china today is one of our biggest threats. and this man worked for them for two years and he is now not acknowledging he worked for that company. in the last debate, he said absolutely not. there is a document, i have it right here, his july filing where you disclose to the

federal government he worked for them. there is a responsibility he needs to own up to. we need somebody in the united states senate to stand up to communist china. moderator: thank you, senator perdue. mr. ossoff: this is beneath the office of u.s. senator. you have continued to demean yourself. first, you were lengthening my nose in attack ads to remind everybody that i am jewish. when that did not work, you started calling me some kind of islamic terrorist. and when that did not work, you started calling me a chinese communist. it is ridiculous. you should not do everything your handlers in washington, d.c. tell you to because you will lose your soul along the way. what the people of georgia deserve is a serious discussion, economic relief for georgia families, and how we will protect coverage for pre-existing conditions.

moderator: thank you for your time. senator perdue. sen. perdue: what georgia needs is a senator that will not lie to them and work for al jazeera, the mouthpiece of terrorism, and communist china. moderator: let's move on to our next question, jim wallace in albany. walb. >> gentlemen, you both support the second amendment. mr. perdue, you say that you would like to enforce current firearm laws. mr.ossoff, you say you support banning the sale of semi-automatic weapons, assault rifles. can you both explain your stance on gun laws and curbing gun violence in america? moderator: senator perdue. seminaldue: it is a

question today, thank you. first of all, i believe in the second amendment, the first amendment. the nra has given me an a rating. they have given jon ossoff an f rating. while he is all for the second amendment, he went to protect -- he wants to protect our rights, but it was bloomberg buddies and washington, d.c. in california, new york, atlanta, he says something different. moderator: jon ossoff? mr. ossoff: we have to uphold the sentiment while passing gun safety reforms and that is what i will do in the u.s. senate. i have purchased and owned firearms in georgia and like most gun owners in the state, i recognize guns are lethal and dangerous tools, not toys. we need to gun safety measures to protect georgia families from gun violence. i will never forget when i was 12 years old, the night before the last day of school, one of our teachers was gunned down in atlanta, georgia. so many georgia families have been touched by gun violence.

senator perdue voted against a bill to require a simple universal criminal background check for firearms purchases. senator perdue is not working for responsible gun owners. senator perdue is working for the firearms manufacturing industry. that is who butters his bread, that is who he votes for. not those of us in the state who would purchase and own and operate and store firearms in a safe manner, but gun manufacturers whose sole objective is to move as many weapons on our streets as possible, even though it puts law enforcement at risk, our entire state at risk when there is the uncontrolled of weapons. moderator: senator perdue? sen. perdue: i am glad to know you are finally concerned about our men in blue. when you stand on the streets of an abolish the police rally and you back them up, and you come here and state you want to support the police, it is one democratic13

sheriffs, democratically elected sheriffs, have endorsed me and almost 100 heroes across our state because they know i have their back. the fraternal order of police has done the same thing. gun violence is a tragedy. we just saw this week were atlanta, georgia, has the same murder rate as chicago. it is obviously a much bigger issue, but not supporting the police is a part of the problem in atlanta. moderator: thank you, senator perdue. we do want to take a three minute commercial break. be sure to join us when we return. ♪ moderator: welcome back. we will now start the second half of our debate with georgia's senate candidates, david perdue and jon ossoff. the questions will be more directed to one candidate. the other candidate will get 45 seconds after that to respond if

they choose to. we want to go to my first question. let's go to edan schulz with wctv. edan: this question is for jon ossoff. in the wake of george floyd's death and of black lives matter, you said funding for police departments needs to be on the line. what do you mean by that? isn't that defunding the police? how do you balance public safety and police accountability? moderator: mr. ossoff? mr. ossoff: it is not defunding the police. what it is is ensuring local departments that apply for federal grants are held to high standards when it comes to constitutional and civil rights. we have to be honest about the need for criminal justice reform in this country. the 14th amendment of the u.s. constitution guarantees equal protection under the law for every citizen. but when a young black man named

ahmaud arbery is shot to death in broad daylight on camera in the middle of the street and local law enforcement and prosecutors look the other way, that makes a mockery of equal protection under the law. my first exposure to public service was working for congressman john lewis, a man who dedicated his life to championing civil rights, and what we need in this country now is a new civil rights act and leaders who will take that on. but, you know, after ahmaud arbery was killed, the naacp held a peaceful march for criminal justice reform and i was there with hundreds of others, and so was bishop jackson, and what he told me that day is he invited senator perdue to address the people. not only did he not come, he did not respond to the invitation. moderator: thank you. senator perdue? 45-seconds. sen. perdue: well, again, he projects onto me what you just heard there and does not address the real issue. the real issue is he says one thing in atlanta and at an abolish the police rally, it is

on tape. you can see it on youtube. it is there for everybody to see. that is what is so ironic about this. he will say and do anything to hide this radical socialist agenda the democrats are trying to perpetrate right now and this is a perfect example. that sounds almost very reasonable what he just said but can you see him standing at an abolish the police rally making the same comments? no because he did not do that. that is the hypocrisy people are sick about. as an outsider in this process, that is what i am sick about. moderator: thank you both, next question, barbara with wvtm. >> thank you. this question is for senator perdue. you mispronounced v.p. candidate and senator kamala harris's name and made light of it. others claimed it was intentional. what is your response?

moderator: senator perdue? sen. perdue: thank you. i absolutely meant no disrespect. i have said that publicly to senator harris. what i was talking about, what i am trying to do is educate the people of georgia about what is trying to be perpetrated here, and that is this radical socialist agenda that jon ossoff will clearly just be a rubberstamp for chuck schumer and nancy pelosi as they perpetrate this outrages agenda on our country. what is in that? what have they not talked about? defunding the police, you heard the doubletalk then. what about open borders? they talk about in their enclave. they talk about sanctuary cities. they want to close two military bases. in 2017, he ran on the proposition of joint basing, and that would close two bases in georgia. and he thinks it is a good idea to take away our private health care insurance from our employers. that is 180 million people who would lose their health insurance and to be poured onto medicare in a way we cannot

imagine. it is the most dangerous thing they are talking about. this is that radical socialist agenda i am trying to warn georgians about. moderator: thank you. mr. ossoff? rebuttal rules kicked in. mr. ossoff: he he keeps repeating the same words over and over again. this is what they train them to do in washington. what he does not want to address is this pandemic, how wrong he was, how deeply he misled us. he told us that would be more worse than the ordinary flu and out he is working day and night to rip health care away from his own constituents in the middle of a pandemic. senator call that you voted four times to reveal protections for georgians with pre-existing conditions so that your own constituents with diabetes or asthma or heart disease could be denied coverage by an insurance company. why don't you own up to those votes and apologize? moderator: 45-seconds. sen. perdue: i voted against the

obamacare affordable care act, but we also voted, what you are not telling them the rest of the story, that which you have a habit of doing, is we voted several times to get pre-existing protection. we have a bill in there right now that the democrats are blocking that would protect pre-existing conditions in the event the supreme court judges it to be unconstitutional. this is the type of verification you are getting from someone who has always wanted to be a career politician. moderator: mr. ossoff? mr. ossoff: the bill you sponsored, the protect act, has carved out to specifically allow insurance companies to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. you have been called out repeatedly by independent fact checkers for lying on your record about this. you have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from insurance companies and to do their bidding in washington. you have voted four times to revoke protections for pre-existing conditions. you sponsored an act to protect insurance industry profits by carving out loopholes to deny

coverage to georgia to families with pre-existing conditions. take responsibility for your record for once. do not just blame the other side. acknowledge your voting record. moderator: you get a response very quickly. sen. perdue: my responsibility to the people of georgia is to make sure they have health care coverage and insurance. what the affordable care act did was remove options and increase costs. where does this come from? it comes from the affordable care act that everybody is being their tests about that it is so great, well, it has caused us to lose insurance in over half of our counties in georgia are limited to one insurance carrier. i had a private insurance policy when they did the affordable care act and i lost it. i had to have congress that -- i had to have a coverage that doubled my rates as an individual. this is what people in georgia are suffering through right now and what they want is protection for pre-existing conditions, get rid of surprise billing, and to

get at drug costs. he is talking about politics and we are talking real, potential solutions. moderator: mr. ossoff? mr. ossoff: once again, you voted four times to repeal existing protections for pre-existing conditions. then you spend billions of dollars running ads across georgia telling people you did the opposite. an independent fact-check website found your ads flatly false. it is hard to get them to find something flatly false. you have been lying to your teeth about your record on health care. you sponsored legislation that everybody knows and everybody watching at home knows has loopholes for insurance companies to deny us care in the event we have a pre-existing condition. you should apologize by voting to repeal vital health care protections and continuing that policy in the middle of the pandemic. apologize. apologize, sir. sen. perdue: do i get to respond to that? moderator: very quickly. sen. perdue: you can talk idle words on that long but the fact

is we have voted for pre-existing conditions. the carve outs not we were talking about. ossoff: those are idle -- e: are you done yet? can i finish? moderator: let's settle down. sen. perdue: i was the one interrupted. the issue here is credibility and judgment. we are trying to protect the people of georgia from something that is devastated them in terms of health care because in the middle of this pandemic. they are choosing us of wanting to take away insurance. they have a limited that to so many people in georgia and that is one of the problems. moderator: thank you for your time. let's go to eden schultz for the wcet.question with >> this question is for mr. ossoff. you said you would like to expand tuition free higher education. that is not going to be cheap. how are you going to pay for those kind of programs without raising taxes on working-class americans? mr. ossoff: what i said is i want to make sure tuition at public colleges and historically

black colleges and universities is 100% free of debt, not free of tuition. but debt-free tuition. you should not have to take on a penny of debt to get a degree from a public college in this country. both of my parents were the first in their family to graduate from college and the fact they were able to get that education without taking on decades of debt is why they were able to start businesses and invest in their future and my future and gave me opportunities i had. that ladder to opportunity as been ripped out for so many american families. the cost of education in this country is a scandal. that is why what i support is expanding the pell grant program so that tuition to a public college does not allow anyone in -- does not require anybody in this country to take on debt. then people can come out on school and to pursue their dreams instead of paying down debt for decades. i want to expand the pell grant program. senator perdue wants to do away with it. senator perdue proposed

abolishing the department of education entirely. he does not care about the interest of ordinary working people and their ability to afford education. he wanted to abolish the department of education and the pell grant program. moderator: senator perdue? sen. perdue: when you ask a democrat how they're going to pay for anything, they do anything but tell you how they are going to pay for it. they are going to tax you. that little thing that they are talking about is part of the green nude deal. it is supposed to be this great thing about climate change rate -- climate change. only 20% of what is in their has anything to do with climate change. this is in there at the green nude deal. it would cost every american family $65,000. they have no way to pay for that. you have to tax to do that. this is the dream of the liberal side of the democratic party to take us down a road to bankruptcy. we have got to get serious about our debt. we can talk about that in another question. this is a road you cannot go down.

moderator: mr. ossoff? mr. ossoff: what i'm talking about is expanding the pell grant program you want to abolish. the pell grant program. do you know how many families in the state rely upon the pell grant program to afford higher education? you have got these dark conspiracies about this agenda, which is about expanding opportunity by expanding the pell grant program. you supported abolishing the department of education and you will not own up to it just like you still refuse to acknowledge that even in the middle of this pandemic you are working to rip health care away from the very people you represent by repealing protections for pre-existing conditions. another opportunity to own your record on health care if you are willing. moderator: senator perdue? sen. purdue: he projects a reader what he will be doing.

i went to public high school and my boys went to public high school. this is a serious issue we have got to deal with, and who will determine who gets a debt free and who does not? at the kid working their way through college versus the one who has got a new bmw? i do not want democrats making those decisions. we want everybody to have access to a quality education. that is why school choice in the k-12 area is one i am very positive on and these guys are fighting it at every turn. moderator: very quickly, mr. ossoff? mr. ossoff: have you noticed it is always "these guys," the democrats, this partisan team versus red team. i am proposing something very popular. expand the pell grant program to make college affordable for families in the state. senator perdue could not care less whether georgia families could afford college. this is a guy who sells meetings on a private island for corporate fact-checks. this is a guy who voted four

times to appeal protections for pre-existing conditions. notice he still refuses to , account for those votes. he will not acknowledge he is continuing to support a policy to rebuild protections for pre-existing conditions in the middle of a pandemic. [simultaneous speaking] sen. perdue: here again, he is prevaricating. he says i would never take corporate money but it is in a public filing that he took corporate money. what the real issue is, he has not come clean with china , corporate money what he wants , to do with the second amendment, or opportunity zones or hbcus or justice reform. these are the things people care about that we have just gotten done. he is doing everything she can

to sweep the conversation away from those things. mr. ossoff: i cannot let that stand. moderator: very quickly. a rebut than we are going to the next question. mr. ossoff: i just heard a laundry list of accusations but not one word about health care. this is very straightforward. we are in the middle of a grave public health crisis. it is spiraling out of control because washington politicians downplayed the crisis, ignored medical science, undermined the doctors and scientists who knew what they were doing and senator david perdue in the middle of this crisis is still supporting efforts to repeal protections for georgians with pre-existing conditions. listen, everybody out there watching at home, you need to now if he has his way, insurance , companies will be able to deny you coverage because you have or diabetes or have recovered from cancer. moderator: that is your time. sen. purdue: he called my name.

i have to get in it. >> really quick. sen. purdue: let's talk about who is directing what. if you move to socialized medicine, guess who determines who gets surgeries and how long you have to wait and what doctor you use? the federal government. that is what they are proposing. the costs are astronomical. they cannot pay for socialized medicine and the green new deal. it would bankrupt america. we are already in trouble from a debt standpoint. iran on that. we lowered the debt curve by growing the economy, but we have got to get serious about beating covid and getting our economy go again. if you leave it to the democrats, they want us locked down and continuing to stay locked down for sometime in the future. moderator: dawn baker. >> when you won the senate seat call that you labeled yourself a deficit hawk. in the past few years under president trump and a republican-controlled u.s. senate, the deficit has increased dramatically, including a huge tax cut for the wealthiest americans. have your concerns changed at

all? sen. perdue: thank you for the question and the clarification. first of all, the tax cut, point of clarification was not for the , rich. the people who benefited the most from it from this economic theval we have had are poorest in our country great -- country. under eight years under barack their agenda, 800,000 people fell into poverty. with this agenda we have put in place working on regulations and taxes and dodd-frank, we got the economy going and the people who benefited most were the people at the economic letter. we helped 6.5 million people, to poverty. the first thing you have to do is grow the economy. what these guys want to do and after barack obama doubled all , preceding debt under any president. this president had increased at, but the big dramatic increase is coming behind the covid relief and the president made the right decision and we backed him up to bring company relief, $47

billion. jon ossoff will not talk about that, the relief brought to the state in terms of hospitals and schools and communities and small businesses because he opposed it. if he had been in the senate, he would have voted against this more ppp help. mr. ossoff: you read your entire first campaign on bringing down the international debt even before covid. after six years in the senate majority, and national debt increased by $5 trillion on your watch. on your watch. those were your policies, and talking about bringing resources home to georgia for our hospitals, nine rural hospitals have closed in the state in the last 10 years and senator perdue continues to oppose accepting medicaid expansion. georgians are already paying their federal taxes into the medicaid program. you are letting that money go to other states instead of sustaining our rural hospitals. david perdue does not care about our health.

he only cares about his donors. is it.or: that senator perdue? sen. perdue: let's get the facts right. it was about $3 trillion and that was the momentum carried after the last administration. we got the economy going, we lowered the debt curve by over $2 trillion, that is a fact. he is not opinion. under covid, we made a tough decision that whatever was help.ary to get people to the democrats voted with us on part of it but to get the rest of it there playing partisan -- they are playing partisan politics, and that is what is choking the life out of our economy, and democrat run states blocking the economy. he will say and do anything to hide this radical socialist agenda. the number one thing that will bankrupt us is the green new deal and socialized medicine, which he supports. moderator: 45 seconds. mr. ossoff: there is the senator with the catchphrases agenda but no substance, little truth and no sense of personal responsibility. where is the relief, senator? the ppp small business lending

program expired in august, extended unemployment insurance expired in august. where is the relief? you were on vacation for one month while that happened. wasact, senator purdue leading the charge to cut unemployment insurance in the middle of a pandemic after millions of georgians ended been forced out of work by a virus he told us would have little impact on economic growth. where is the relief? can you do anything but blame the democrats? sen. perdue: i absolutely can. can i give a response? let's talk about the relief. by bringing the relief to georgia, we saved 1.5 million jobs, something you would not know about that. you have never created a real job in america. you do not know what is involved in creating a job and keeping it. we put money in the hands of the smallest businesses out here. the average loan size in georgia is about $100,000, average employment per recipient is

about 10,000 dollars. this was a lifesaving exercise and what is being held up by democrats. we are ready to put this bill on the floor and find another couple hundred million dollars. at they are holding it up because they want state relief for california and new york, bailout relief for their irresponsible retirement liabilities. moderator: that is your time. let's go on to the next question. richard rogers out of augusta, georgia. >> good evening. let's talk about cybersecurity. it is a big deal in georgia and for us too. we know it has an international impact but there are concerns about hacking and outside influence. businesses are being held hostage by ransomware attacks. how would you make sure the u.s. has the strongest cyber defense possible? moderator: mr. ossoff, 1:45 for you. mr. ossoff: this is a vital issue and particularly with elections are coming there is widespread and understandable concerned about our country's technical infrastructure is resilient enough.

we face significant cyber threats from abroad and also from nonstate actors. we need to take every step necessary to ensure the united states government, vital federal agencies, state governments, and american enterprise are not vulnerable to intrusion by foreign governments or hackers. it is absolutely essential. moderator: mr. perdue? sen. perdue: that was the shortest answer yet talking , about the military. go figure. that is a great question, one of the top threats we have in our country today. five threats across five domains thanks to the democratic administration when they cut military spending by 25%. they left the world a more dangerous than any time in our lifetime. we have brought the army headquarters to fort gordon in augusta, georgia. this is just the beginning. we will stand up to china and russia and other nefarious players buying cyber but we

cannot do it at the democrats come along again and defined at the military like of. if they are like the last two democratic presidents, he will cut spending. he supports a plan that will cut and close two bases in georgia. moderator: that is your time, senator purdue. mr. ossoff? mr. ossoff: it is absolute nonsense. i will stand up and fight for georgia's military bases and you are lying through your teeth just like you have been line all -- lying all night about your record, health care, the pandemic, did you or did you not tell us this virus would be no deadlier than the flu? did you or did you not tell us the risk to economic growth was a little? did you or did you not tell us there would be no significant uptick in cases? those were your exact words. there would be no significant uptick in cases the senator's , words. did you or did you not vote four times to reveal protections for pre-existing conditions? will you deflect or answer yes or no?

--erator: centre ater purdue send purdue? sen. perdue: did you or did you not support a plan called the joint basing plan to close two bases in georgia? mr. ossoff: i did not. it would have zero impact on georgia bases and you know it, senator. i am asking the question. moderator: would you let senator perdue finish? sen. perdue: this is what we get, guys. this is what you call swamp in washington, d.c. i am telling you as an outsider this will drive you crazy. they won't talk about the issue. the issue was military, starting with cyber the military and now he is all for everything else. the issue is go back and look at , the record in 2017. he ran on the joint basing plan. it is in the record. moderator: that is your time. let's move on to our next ofstion, richard rogers out augustine georgia. sideshink voters on both

will agree for this. they are ready for the campaign to end. the negativity on television has been unbelievable. are there any false claims you would like to clear up right now? moderator: senator perdue? sen. perdue: we do not have enough time. they have outspent us dramatically because of billionaires in california and new york. he raised a lot of money, $23 million in the third quarter. 90% of that came from outside the state of georgia. who is trying to come into state and manipulate our elections, these people who support jon ossoff? they want this radical socialist agenda. they are trying to keep you from talking about that but that is what at play and that is why they do not want to talk about it. i really think the number one thing is when he talks about health care, the vote on obamacare. that is totally misleading. same thing for the covid crisis. statementsentence -- that had a sentence and took a phrase out of that sentence and said that was all that i said.

what he did not say is we need to take it seriously and right after that we get to work on cares and brought $47 billion to the state of georgia, almost twice the size of the state budget. the other is this stock trade nonsense. he knows it is in the public record that is been totally reviewed. refuted, sorry. moderator: mr. ossoff? mr. ossoff: perhaps senator perdue would have been able to respond properly to the covid-19 pandemic if you are not been fending off multiple investigations for insider trading. it is not just that you are a crook, senator. is that you are attacking the health of the people you represent. you did say covid-19 was no deadlier than the flu. you did say there would be no significant uptick in cases. all the while, you were looking after your own assets and your own portfolio and you did vote

four times to end protections for pre-existing conditions. the legislation you point out includes loopholes that specifically allow insurance companies to deny policies to georgians with pre-existing conditions. can you look now in the camera and tell the people of this state why you voted four times to allow insurance companies to deny us health coverage because we may suffer from diabetes or heart disease or asthma or have cancer in remission? why? sen. perdue: i voted against the affordable care act, known as obamacare because it was taking , insurance away from millions of georgians. today, almost 18% of georgians do not have health insurance because of the affordable care act. the next thing is this is , exactly what i'm talking about. he will talk about anything except his own accountability and his own responsibility. he still has not owned up to the china accusation, which is in the public record. the thing i am most upset about

is that he will say and do almost anything to my friends in georgia to mislead them on how radical and socialist he is. moderator: we are getting to the close of the show. we only have four minutes left and we promised we would give a -- 1:30 free4 closing statement. mr. ossoff: let me express my gratitude to the station for hosting us and my gratitude to everybody at home for bearing this election season. it is so important that we make a plan to vote, early voting ending in georgia on friday because our health is on the line. we deserve so much better that we are getting from our government right now. my mother immigrated to this country when she was 23 as a young woman because she believed in america. she believed we would have leaders who brought us together instead of driving us apart. she believed that this journey

this country is on toward progress, toward a more perfect union was beautiful and she went -- wanted to be a part of it but , what has happened to our country and this last year has broken my mother's heart. our country as been ravaged by a virus that our politicians told us not to worry about. this virus continues to spread uncontrolled across the united states. hospitalizations are climbing. deaths are climbing. our political leaders have demonstrated they are not up to the task. this is not about political parties. he will give a speech at the moment about democrats and blaming the democrats for this and that. this is not about party. this is about whether we have competent people who will put public health experts in charge to save hundreds of thousands of lives over the next six months and safeguard health care and health insurance for ordinary people during this crisis. moderator: that is your time. with go to senator purdue 1:30.

sen. perdue: thank you to wtoc and mike for moderating tonight. folks this race is bigger than , me. it is bigger than jon ossoff. it is about the future direction of our country. and make no mistake. the radical extremist socialist part of the democratic party is in charge, and jon ossoff, no matter what he says about individuals will be an absolute rubber stamp for chuck schumer and nancy pelosi as they perpetrate this outrageous and dangerous agenda on our country. do not let him fool you. how many democrats voted for amy coney barrett on monday night this week? zero. why? because chuck schumer got them in line and that is exactly what he would do would jon ossoff. this race is too important. you folks know bonnie and me. you know how i will vote. you know what i have accomplished, but there is so much more work we need to do. we have got to defeat the covid

virus and we have got to do it sensibly, get life back to normal, but do it safely and responsibly. that is why i'm running for reelection, and i would appreciate your vote. moderator: i want to thank you both for joining us here in our studio. this has been broadcast throughout the state of georgia. we also want to thank our panel of journalists who join us tonight, eva schulz barbara , -- eden schultz barbara , goches, jim wallace, richard rogers, and dawn bigger. we want to thank our viewers for joining us tonight as well in savannah, augusta, albany, and columbus and thomasville, and places few and far between. election day is on tuesday. early voting will end this friday and any absentee ballots must be received by your elections office by 7:00 to be p.m. counted. make sure you get out and vote.

have a good night. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> just five days remain until election day and voters -- the candidates are making a pitch to voters. they are both holding events in tampa, florida. we will have live coverage of president trump's rally and joe biden's drive in event. eastern, vice president candidate kamala harris will be speaking at an event with bernie sanders. , campaign 2020 coverage. up next, a discussion with robert o'brien on global security challenges.