Delaware's U.S. Senate Candidates Square Off
WILMINGTON (CBS) -- In their fourth and possibly final debate, Delaware's U.S. Senate Candidates, Democrat Chris Coons and Republican Christine O'Donnell focused on a number of issues including: job loss, education, healthcare, renewable energy and the mishandling of mortgages.
Coons attributed the nation's most recent purge of jobs to the collapse of the housing market and the steady loss of manufacturing jobs over the past decade. "I think the federal government should fight harder for middle America, fight for extension of tax cuts," said Coons inside a studio at WHYY-TV in Wilmington.
WHYY'S Bill Cook moderated the event alongside WHYY health reporter Kerry Grens. Grens asked O'Donnell if she too would support a mortgage moratorium as her opponent does. "Absolutely," said O'Donnell. "We need to make sure the process gets sorted out because there are a lot of mistakes being made.
When it came time to answers questions about healthcare, both candidates didn't directly answer the pre-recorded question from a Delaware voter asking what each prospective Senator would do if they didn't have health coverage.
"One of the main reasons why I support the Healthcare Affordable Care Act, is to extend coverage to millions who don't have access," said Coons.
O'Donnell countered that statement by criticizing what she referred to as "Obamacare", as something that is forcing Americans to have health insurance. "I keep bringing up to Republicans and Democrats, somewhere along the line we've confused coverage with care," said O'Donnell.
Wednesday's exchange was more civil and controlled than the debate that took place 24 hours prior at Widener Law School in Wilmington. It was there that Coons and O'Donnell argued over the First Amendment.
O'Donnell challenged Coons to name the 5 freedoms found in the First Amendment. And when the two debated about creationism in public schools Coons criticized O'Donnell for asking where in the constitution is there separation of church and state.
When Eyewitness News asked her about those comments Wednesday, she said she was only making the point that the term separation of church and state are not written out in the constitution. The entire debate will air Wednesday night at 7 on WHYY-TV.
Reported by: Jericka Duncan, CBS 3
