- [Narrator] Live from the Burke Auditorium on the campus of King's College in Wilkes-Barre, WVIA Presents "Decision 2024," the Pennsylvania Eighth Congressional District Debate.

And now, moderator Tracey Matisak.

- Good evening, everyone.

I'm Tracey Matisak.

Welcome to our debate between the two candidates competing to represent Pennsylvania's Eighth District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

We have a live audience here in the Burke Auditorium, on the campus of King's College, and they have been instructed to applaud only at the beginning and the conclusion of the debate.

Let's begin by taking a look at the Eighth Congressional District.

It encompasses the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area, along with Pike and Wayne Counties, and most of Monroe County.

The district is currently represented by Democratic Congressman, Matt Cartwright, who faces Republican challenger, Mr.

Rob Bresnahan.

The race is one of the tightest and most hotly contested in the country, and is among a handful here in Pennsylvania that could help determine the balance of power in the House of Representatives.

Congressman Cartwright is seeking his seventh congressional term.

He is currently a member of the House Appropriations Committee, chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, and vice chair of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

He has a leadership role in Congress as one of the co-chairs of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.

He's a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and worked as an attorney before entering politics.

His challenger, Mr.

Rob Bresnahan Jr., is a native of Kingston.

He graduated from the University of Scranton, and served as CEO of his family's electrical contracting company.

Mr. Bresnahan is the founder of RPB Ventures, a company that develops and rehabilitates properties in northeast Pennsylvania.

The format for this hour-long debate has been agreed to by both campaigns.

Each candidate will have two minutes for an opening statement, and two minutes for a closing statement.

Responses to the questions by our panelists will be held to 90 seconds.

However, at my discretion as moderator, an additional 30 seconds may be allotted to each candidate for rebuttal.

All times will be strictly enforced.

All the questions are devised by the individual panelists, each of whom submitted a series of questions to WVIA for review prior to tonight's debate.

And I, as moderator, also have the option to ask a question.

We move now to the opening statements, and as determined by a coin toss earlier this evening, Congressman Matt Cartwright will begin.

Mr. Cartwright.

- Thank you, Tracey, thank you to our panelists, thanks to WVIA, and thanks to King's College for hosting this.

This contest is a question of who will put Northeastern Pennsylvania first, who will work hardest for our people, who will be most effective for our area.

For the last 35 years I've been here, I've been fighting, standing up and fighting for regular working people against powerful forces that are always arrayed against them.

For the last 12 years, I've done it as a member of Congress, and I've come to understand and accept and incorporate the values of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

You know the values.

Honoring our active duty service men and women and our nation's veterans, respecting our elders, our seniors, and taking care of them, raising our children in the way that they understand that they are expected to work for a living, and to tell the truth, and in fact, honoring our police by funding them.

I have actually brought home in the last three years, almost $20 million for our local police and prosecutors.

It makes me in the number 1% of members of Congress doing that.

I'm very proud of that.

I brought more money back than 99% of other members of Congress, and it shows.

And always, always fought for the wellbeing of the people in Northeastern Pennsylvania, for their access to healthcare, for their individual rights, their labor rights, their voting rights, their reproductive rights.

Fought for public education, and always stuck my thumb in the eye of the huge corporations that are raising the costs for everybody by profiteering, and gouging us again and again.

They don't need anybody's help.

They don't need my help.

They've got Mike Johnson and his handpicked candidate, my opponent, to fight for them.

- Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

Time is up.

Mr. Bresnahan.

- Well, first I would like to echo the comments here to thank King's and WVIA for facilitating this.

I think it is absolutely necessary for you, the viewers and the audience, and those of you at home, to hear directly from the candidates, which will be the most important election of our lifetime.

I was born in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I was raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I went to the University of Scranton.

I reinvested in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I created jobs in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and I'm gonna die and get buried in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Our family business is Kuharchik Construction, and in 2008 we got totally clobbered by the financial downturn.

And my grandmother, who's in the audience here today, told me that they would sell me the family business after I got a four-year college degree from a university of her acceptance.

King's was on the list.

But we went from having 50 employees to 150 employees working in 19 different states.

In June of last year, we had the opportunity to partner with a company in Chicago that shared our values, where I reinvested back into the company to create hundreds of jobs across the United States.

From day one, in this campaign, my philosophy has been an economy that works, borders that are secure, and communities that are safe.

And I'm sure over the next hour, you're going to hear some desperate lies about my family business, about abortion, about my intent to cut Social Security, my intent to be extreme.

But I'd like to ask you, are you better off today than you were four years ago?

Let alone four, how about two?

Life is unaffordable, and I'm running to make life affordable again for Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I'm running to secure our borders.

I'm running to secure our communities, because it is the foundation of a functioning society.

Everything about me has been Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I've served on the board of directors for the Catholic Youth Center.

I was the past president of the SPCA of Luzerne County and Junior Achievement of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

And I will fight every day to represent the values of this place.

- Thank you, Mr. Bresnahan.

And we now move to the question-and-answer portion of the debate.

Each panelist will be called on in rotation.

We begin with WVIA political reporter, Borys Krawczeniuk.

Borys.

- Gentlemen, there's a lot of concern among voters about securing this southern border on both sides, and we've heard a lot about it, and nothing's happened over the last, how many, well, since 1986.

What sort of solutions do you favor?

Do you favor building a wall?

And do you favor a pathway to citizenship for the people who are already here illegally, or do you wanna send them back, and deport them the way Donald Trump is suggesting?

- [Tracey] Mr. Bresnahan.

- I'm up first?

Okay.

I've been to the border two separate times.

I've been to Yuma, Arizona and Sierra Vista.

I've seen it with my own eyes, the crisis, the trafficking, and what's taking place.

And, sure, yes, we need a physical barrier.

We need to supplement it with hybrid technologies, but the narrative needs to be changed that the border is closed.

When I come over to your house, if you're ever going to invite me over for dinner, I'm gonna come through the front door.

I'm not gonna come through the side door.

Congressman Cartwright has voted against funding the border seven separate times.

When you go to Yuma, Arizona, I saw it, there was a group of 50 migrants that walked right around the wall.

They surrendered themselves to border patrol agents.

They were taken to a processing center.

We saw this with our own eyes.

Later that day, we went to Phoenix, Arizona, got on an airplane, and the same person we watched walk around that wall at that processing center, got on the airplane in the zone in front of me, with his three children and his female traveling companion.

And I think about our senior citizens, when those people end up in the United States, or into different communities like our backyards, my heart breaks, because these kids are two, three, four years old.

They don't have anything to do with it.

But then I talked our senior citizens, who are struggling to pay school property taxes and groceries, and put fuel inside of their vehicles.

And we've spent $150 billion a year on taking care of migrants.

What about the United States?

What about us?

What about the current residents?

And that's where my priority is gonna be.

It's about taking care of the people already in this country, that came here legally through the big front door.

- Mr. Cartwright.

- Thank you.

The truth is, we do have a broken immigration system in this country right now, and it needs to be fixed.

This is one of the areas where I broke from the White House.

It's something that I started.

The Democrats for Border Security Task Force.

And it all started when something called the Lankford Bill fell apart.

Jim Lankford is a conservative Republican from Oklahoma.

He's a friend of mine.

I served with him a couple of terms on the Oversight Committee, and he came up with a compromise bill to get us all past this, to get us off the schneid with the border, to come up with something that both sides can agree with as we move forward.

And it was a tough, but fair, path to closing the border, and getting a hold of immigration.

We were very hopeful.

There were a bunch of bipartisan senators that were behind this.

And all of a sudden, Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, said, "Don't bother bringing that to the House.

It's dead on arrival in the House."

Imagine for us to be able to stop fighting over the border, and Mike Johnson didn't want anything to do with it.

You know what that was?

That was putting politics over people, that was preferring rancor to solutions.

We gotta fix the border.

We have to put people over politics.

I have all number of things that I've done.

I voted against sanctuary cities.

I voted to increase criminal penalties against immigrants who commit violent crimes, who assault police.

- [Tracey] Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

- We could do better than what Mike Johnson did.

Thank you.

- So I'd be really, are we rebutting on this?

Okay.

- [Tracey] You may.

- So I'd be really interested, if you did so much work with the immigration process, why did we vote against the SAVE Act, which would effectively allow illegal migrants to participate in United State elections?

Why did we allow, in 2023, H.R.

461, and again, I speak bulldozer, I don't speak Washington, DC, to be housed, without background checks, in our elementary schools.

I feel that those are paramount concerns, and you voted in favor of those.

- May I answer your question?

- [Tracey] Mr. Cartwright, 30 seconds.

- He's talking about the SAVE Act, and that if you look it up, the Bipartisan Policy Center, I do a lot of bipartisan work in Congress, I'm known for it.

I'm one of the most bipartisan Democrats in the US House.

If you look up bipartisanpolicy.org, it advises against voting for the SAVE Act.

You know, it's been illegal since 1996 for foreign nationals to vote in our elections.

And according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, which is a legit organization, 21 million Americans would be disenfranchised from it, particularly seniors.

- Thank you, Mr. Cartwright Time is up.

And our next question will be posed by Lisa Washington.

Lisa is an anchor of evening newscasts on WNEP, the ABC affiliate for Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.

And Lisa's question will go to Mr. Cartwright.

- Thank you.

I'd like to focus now on infrastructure.

The Federal Highway Administration reports only 13% of Pennsylvania's bridges are structurally deficient, Meaning there's at least one structural element in poor condition.

For example, not far from where we are, The Firefighters Memorial Bridge, which connects Pittston and West Pittston, closed in 2021 after a failing inspection.

Now drivers and pedestrians are using the deteriorating Del J. Crinlow Memorial Bridge to cross the Susquehanna River.

PennDOT's current plans include replacing the Firefighters Memorial Bridge, followed by the Del J. Crinlow Memorial Bridge.

Construction is not slated to begin until 2027.

The project is estimated to be finished by 2030.

What are your plans to improve bridges and other infrastructure in the Eighth District.

- Lisa, thank you for that question.

A lot of this, and more, was gonna be solved by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

And that's the law that I worked very hard to fight for.

You probably don't remember, it's too inside the beltway talk, but there was a lot of heartache and animus over whether we would pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure alone, or attach onto it a lot of other spending bills, like for housing, and things like that.

I fought very hard for the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure on its own, because it contains so many things that we need to do.

It had been so long since we had put that kind of investment into roads and bridges in this country.

It had been forever since we had passed an infrastructure law of that size.

I remember a colleague of mine, a Democratic colleague, said to me, "Oh, infrastructure, anybody can do infrastructure.

That's boring.

Let's do bigger things."

I said, "Wait a minute, the last time we did infrastructure of this size, it was the Eisenhower administration, which was before I was born."

I know I look older, but I was born in the Kennedy administration, and I'm telling you what that means is this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

You know, Senator Casey and I stood at those bridges, and announced that $19 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will go to fixing those pits and bridges, and working on the levies there.

And there's so much more we have to do, and more we could talk about with it.

- Thank you Mr. Cartwright.

Mr. Bresnahan.

- So that bridge has been closed for 41 months.

There's been multiple press conferences done directly in front this bridge.

That means we will have to reelect you for two more terms until we can get across the Susquehanna River.

And that's not the only bridge in the district.

The Nanticoke Bridge has been deemed structurally deficient.

One in four bridges in Pennsylvania's Eighth Congressional District are structurally deficient, which is the highest percentage out of all congressional districts in the state of Pennsylvania.

Infrastructure is a lot more though than just your roads and your bridges.

It is your power distribution, it's your ports, it's your levies, it's your drinking water.

I mean, there is eight billion gallons of treated drinking water lost every single day, because of obsolete piping systems.

The electrical grid.

You wanna talk about how significant electricity is.

I mean, the majority of these systems were built in the 1950s, with 50 years of usable life.

But we also have to think about ways that we're going to generate power.

How are we going to transmit power?

How are we going to distribute power?

And we need to reinvest into those critical infrastructure systems.

We have 43 people right now in Asheville, North Carolina, rebuilding those systems.

And it's devastating.

When there's no electricity, you do not get water out of a well.

Airports, that's another huge proponent and opportunity.

And these are all great opportunities to create family-sustaining careers.

We're a Union Electrical contractor.

These are family-sustaining wages, you earn while you learn, these jobs will always be needed, and there will never be enough of an opportunity to reinvest into infrastructure.

- [Tracey] Thank you.

In 30 seconds, Mr. Cartwright, for a rebuttal.

- Sure.

This clock doesn't give us enough time to talk about what's in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

But one of the biggest things that I fought for was to get $11.3 billion into abandoned mine cleanup.

About a quarter of that money will come to Northeastern Pennsylvania, because the only reason there are people in our area was originally the coal mining.

Those coal minings are voids underground, and they need to be filled in and shored up.

And the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will put more than $2 billion into Northeastern Pennsylvania for that.

- Alright, thank you Mr. Cartwright.

We will move on now, and go to our last question in this first round of questioning.

That will come from Andy Mehalshick.

Andy is lead I-Team Reporter for "Eyewitness News," WBRE/WYOU.

And Andy's question will go to Mr. Bresnahan.

- Okay, good evening, gentlemen, good to be with you tonight.

There's been a lot of concern I'm hearing on the streets of Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania that congressmen are not their own thinkers.

That their concern that the White House, or those in Washington, control what you guys do at the street level.

If your party's nominee for the White House, for president, would win, Donald Trump or Vice President Harris, would you be a rubber stamp for that president, or would you haggle back and forth, and fight for the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania?

Or would you be rubber stamp?

A lot of people tell me, "It doesn't matter who's in Congress, whoever's in the White House controls what these lawmakers, senators, or congressmen do."

- Absolutely not.

The only people that I'm beholden to are the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

And I would hope that the same people that put me here, the second that I lost my way, and I start to vote 100% of the time with my party, or 98% of the time with my party, there are somebody that primaries me, or beats me in a general election, because I do not deserve to represent the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I've heard the name Mike Johnson being thrown around, the Speaker of the House.

And let me tell you, I'm not gonna be beholden to anyone.

Not Donald Trump, not Mike Johnson.

I've been very blessed, to whom much is given, much is required.

And I'm doing this because I care about Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I care about the people.

I love this country.

I love the people.

I love this place.

I would not dream of living anywhere else.

So of course I'm gonna vote to represent what's best for Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I'm gonna vote to secure our borders.

I'm gonna vote to reinvest into infrastructure.

I'm gonna vote to keep our community safe.

That is the foundation of a functioning society.

And you know, we have a lot of issues.

And you know, the first day on my campaign trail was the day that Speaker McCarthy was thrown out as Speaker.

And I remember thinking, "This is exactly why I'm running."

I'm so sick and tired of the infighting, that nothing ends up getting done.

That there's just these two fractions on both sides, just pushing further to the right and further to the left.

And it's incredibly frustrating, as a taxpayer, as a citizen.

So at the end of this, when I come and pull that lever in Washington, DC, it will be for what's best for the Eighth Congressional District, and nobody else.

- Thank you.

Mr. Cartwright.

- Sure.

Andy, I've served under three presidents now, and I've broken with all three of them.

Originally I broke with President Obama in 2013.

When he came out, as a laurel wreath, that he was gonna give to the Republicans, he agreed to smaller cost-of-living increases on Social Security payments.

And I went out on the lawn of the Capitol.

I was a congressman all of about four months, Democratic congressman, protesting against the Democratic president.

And much to his credit, he changed his mind and he withdrew that support.

I've actually worked with President Trump several times.

He passed a few of the bills that I wrote, including an executive order to make it easier for kidney donations to happen.

I appreciated that.

And as I've already explained, I have broken with the Biden administration over the very issue of immigration and the border.

There's no question that the Biden administration did not move quickly enough on that.

And I, and the members of the Democrats for Border Security Task Force, pinned a letter to the Biden administration.

When it became clear that the Lankford Bill wasn't gonna be accepted by Mike Johnson, we pinned a letter to the Biden administration demanding action on tightening up the border.

- [Tracey] Thank you very much, Mr. Cartwright.

Mr. Bresnahan, rebuttal, 30 seconds.

- You are a member of the Progressive Caucus.

You have broke rank with Democrats less than 2 1/2 percent of the time, at least with the top of the party.

You've voted with AOC 95% of the time, Nancy Pelosi, and I have full confidence that you'll continue to do that with Kamala Harris as the president.

We have to put Northeastern Pennsylvania first.

You cannot say you represent Northeastern Pennsylvania with a voting record at 98%.

- [Tracey] Mr. Cartwright, 30 seconds.

- All right, that is absolutely a misconception.

I have actually passed 16 bills, 16 substantive bills, into law.

You don't do that unless you can work across the aisle, unless you can develop relationships with people across the aisle.

I have done that.

I've seen that as part of my job.

You know, I come from a family where my father was a Republican.

I got three brothers, we have two D's and two R's.

If you think that I hate Republicans, you got the wrong guy.

And I would not have been able to pass 16 bills into law if I felt that way.

- Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

And that concludes round one of our debate.

We will now go to Lisa Washington for the first question of round two.

And Lisa's question will be directed to Mr. Cartwright.

- Great, thank you.

Pennsylvania has an executive order designed to protect persons seeking reproductive healthcare services in the Commonwealth, and medical professionals offering those services from discipline in other states.

If presented with a national abortion ban bill, would you vote in line with Pennsylvania's current laws?

- I wanna make it absolutely crystal clear.

I support reproductive freedom for women.

The Dobbs decision was a jolt.

It was a jarring decision for American law.

And my opponent claims that Dobbs did exactly what it should do, that the Supreme Court of the United States did exactly what it should do in overturning 50 years of constitutional protection for women.

That is the wrong position.

And you can't hide behind a democratic governor.

What it does is it means that every two years women's rights are on the ballot.

Every two years, women have to wring their hands and wonder if they're gonna have the same reproductive rights that they've had up to now.

And this has led to deaths.

You know, there was a 28-year-old woman with a 6-year-old boy.

She showed up at a hospital in Georgia.

And because of the laws that Georgia enacted almost right after that Dobbs decision, because they could, because of that law, the doctors were unable to treat her for up to 20 hours without fear of falling foul of the law in Georgia.

As a result of that 20-hour delay, that 28-year-old woman with a 6-year-old boy, she passed away.

She died completely unnecessarily.

Now there's a 6-year-old boy who doesn't have a mom, because of the sweeping away of Roe versus Wade.

And my opponent applauded that.

- Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

Mr. Bresnahan.

- Well, I'd be interested when that position changed, because just a few years ago, in a setting exactly like this, you said you were pro-life, with the exceptions of rape, incest, life of the mother.

So I'd be curious to know when that position did a 180.

Number two, no, I would not support a federal ban on abortion under any circumstances, regardless if it matched up with what Pennsylvania is.

I do not believe abortion belongs in the federal government.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg had suggested exactly just that.

And I think with abortion, you have to be understanding, you have to be empathetic.

I'm with Chelsea, she's a pro-choice person, but she wants to choose life on her own.

And I don't believe a federal representative in Washington, DC, should be making those decisions.

I mean, I have a friend who had sought an abortion, who had gone through it, and it was extremely traumatic.

But who am I to tell her what she needs to do, what's best for her, specifically from Washington, DC, as a federal representative.

I feel that the best policies, and you started to see this happen around the state and around the country, that you put it on the ballot.

You allow the voters to decide what's best for their state.

But I'll certainly say this is not a place for the federal government to be involved.

You have to be empathetic, you have to be understanding.

You have to understand what people are going through.

This is a life-and-death decision.

And that story, hearing that mother die during that process, is absolutely horrific.

And that's certainly not a place in the United States that should be acceptable under any circumstances.

- [Tracey] Mr. Cartwright, 30 seconds.

- It is true that my wife and I are practicing Catholics, but I have never said that I would vote to take away women's reproductive rights.

Foisting one's own religious beliefs on others, that's not an American thing to do.

What we're left with, because of the decision that he has applauded, is a situation where state politicians are now in the examination room with women and their doctors.

I say, we gotta enact federal legislation, reinstating Roe federally, so this kinda thing stops happening.

- Thank you Mr. Cartwright.

We will move on to our next question from Andy Mehalshick.

And the question will be directed to Mr. Bresnahan.

- We hear constantly, almost every day, again, on the streets of Northeastern PA, people are struggling to pay for staples.

Gas, milk, eggs, everything is up.

If you look at the numbers from the economy, they look pretty good, right?

But people are still concerned about inflation, saying what could be done about it?

What will you do in Congress to fight inflation, bring it down to where people feel, they're not feeling it, quite frankly.

What will you do to fight and curb inflation?

- I think you made a great point.

It's the kitchen table issues.

It's the groceries, it's the fuel for your vehicle, it's your prescription medication.

And you wanna talk about our seniors living on fixed income.

I mean, the only thing that's eroding away at Social Security is the cost of living.

First and foremost, you need to have a balanced budget, and it's happened before in the past, and it can happen again with the right leadership.

Secondly, you're looking at energy costs.

That is the biggest driver of the majority of inflation.

Every single thing we own comes on a truck.

Everything uses electricity.

So we can't vilify fossil fuels and the ability of natural resources, specifically within the state of Pennsylvania.

When you start talking about the struggles, and that's the first thing we hear when we knock on doors, we've knocked on 24,000 doors, we talk to real people every single day, and the first thing that everyone says is, "I can't afford my groceries.

I can't afford rent.

I have mortgages."

You have credit card debt, for the second consecutive year, over $1 trillion.

We have a national debt over 35.5 trillion dollars.

And you're looking at what our expenditures are.

We're spending $900 billion a year on debt service.

That's as much, or if not more, than the United States defense budget.

We have to be able to erode away, and not send billions and billions and billions of dollars to every other country on the planet, when our own people at home are struggling.

But you need to have a balanced budget.

That is what the majority of this boils down to.

Sometimes the government just needs to say, "No, we can't afford it.

We have to take care of our own people."

And that's certainly something that I'm gonna do.

- [Tracey] Mr. Cartwright.

- Look, yes, the economists are telling us that it's all getting better, but it sure doesn't feel like it.

Not yet.

That's why I voted to stop gas companies from gouging people at the pump.

That's why I helped pass a bipartisan law to crack down on shipping profiteering.

That's why I helped pass a middle-class tax cut for child tax credit.

By the way, I have never voted for a tax increase in my time in public life.

But that's why we took on big pharma.

You know, under the Inflation Reduction Act, we took on big pharma.

People are shocked to know that it was American law for 20 years that the government couldn't negotiate drug prices with big pharma.

Why?

Because big pharma had the ability, with their lobbyists, to make it so.

So whatever they wanted to charge under Medicare Part D, that's what they charged, and that's what they got.

For the first time, we were able to stand up, muster our courage, and stand up the big pharma, and pull this off with the Inflation Reduction Act.

As a result, there are 10 drugs that have to be negotiated with Medicare.

One of them is insulin.

It's capped at $35 a month.

And another one is one that, a lady who's here, Denise Parishack, is here.

And where are you, Denise?

There you are.

And she was on an ad.

She saves $1,000 a year because of that IRA.

And it's not a lot to big pharma, but it's a lot to Mr. and Mrs. Parishack, I know.

- [Tracey] Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

- Well, I think it's important to recognize the impacts of pharmaceuticals, and, you know, and actually in the Inflation Reduction Bill, one of the only things that I support is the prescription Medicare, the prescription capping of insulin, the capping of insulin pricing.

But you also, you've been a member of Congress for over 12 years.

You've voted, through appropriations, to continue to send billions and billions of dollars to every other place on the planet.

You've been a part of paying $150 billion to take care of migrants, when our own people in Asheville, North Carolina got $750.

- Thank you, Mr. Bresnahan.

Mr. Cartwright, 30 seconds.

- Thank you.

We've heard a lot of falsehoods about how much money went to illegal immigrants.

There was a falsehood on one of those ads that, I don't know who ran it, about $4 billion going to illegal immigrants.

And that was under the American Rescue Plan, is what they cited.

Utter rubbish.

There was nothing in that bill directing any funds, or budgeting any funds, for illegal immigrants.

They just made it up, and they cited a phony right-wing website as their proof.

Nonsense.

- Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

Our next question will come from Borys Krawczeniuk, and the question will be directed to Mr. Cartwright.

- Speaking of senior citizens, I've asked this question before at debates, but since Congress hasn't solved the problem, I'll ask it again.

Social Securities trustees say the benefits will have to drop by more than 20% in about a decade, if the system isn't fixed.

The potential solutions are well known.

How are you gonna fix it?

- Thank you for the question, Borys.

And this is one of the main things that separates my opponent from me tonight.

There is only one person on this stage endorsed by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and I'm that guy.

And they picked me because they know that I'm the one who will fight to protect and preserve Social Security and Medicare, because I have a plan.

It's true that in 2035, it is scheduled to not be able to pay 100 cents on the dollar on Social Security checks.

That's unacceptable.

It's intolerable.

And what's the Republican plan for that?

There isn't one.

"Oh, we won't cut, we won't cut."

Well, you gotta do more than that, because you're running outta runway.

2035 is gonna be on us before you can say Jack Robinson.

And the way to fix it, is to fix it now.

And what I've done is I've signed onto a bill called Social Security 2100.

And what that does is it eliminates the loophole that my opponent has been benefiting from, that people making over $400,000 a year don't have to pay into FICA.

They love that loophole.

They'll never vote against that.

That's why they don't wanna do anything.

But I'm here to tell you, if we don't do something like that, 2035 will be upon us, and the answer will be, "Well, cutting is the only thing available to us now, because we didn't do anything before."

- [Tracey] Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

Mr. Bresnahan.

- So first off, I never even had an opportunity to meet with that group, because they only endorse Democrats.

But I would love an opportunity to sit down and actually have a dialogue about what solutions could be.

And we did talk about some solutions from the trustees.

And something that I believe in is getting people back to work, provide careers, advance manufacturing, and specifically in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we are an incredible place with natural resources, with the necessary infrastructure if we make the right investments.

But getting people back into the tax brackets, into the payrolls, is certainly going to be a way to chip that down.

Secondly, we're not gonna give 10 million illegal migrants Social Security and Medicare benefits.

I'll be sure to tell you that.

Obviously we'll not be in a position to cut Social Security, Medicare.

I wanna preserve it for the next generation, my generation, my kid's generation, and my grandkid's generation.

But when you walk out to your mailbox and you see this attack that I wanna join other extremists and cut Social Security.

My grandmother on my dad's side depends on social security.

We need to preserve these programs.

We've paid into these systems.

I've been paying into them since the first day I got a paycheck.

And they should be around for the next generation to benefit from them, because we need them.

The thing that's cutting into Social Security is the cost of living, the inflation.

What we are actually paying for things.

And we need to make cost of living adjustments, but we have to stop borrowing from the trust fund, and start making it a priority to refund it appropriately.

- [Tracey] Thank you, Mr. Bresnahan.

Mr. Cartwright, 30 seconds.

- I didn't hear a plan in that answer, and I certainly didn't hear an agreement to get rid of that loophole for people making over $400,000, which includes my opponent.

And that's a shame, because currently, if you know the people in Northeastern Pennsylvania, you know that upwards of 40% of seniors have Social Security checks as their sole means of support.

And so to endanger them like that, to let 2035 sneak up on us like that, unacceptable.

- [Tracey] All right, thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

- I mean, I would not be against the Social Security 2100 Act, but I'm also not gonna starve out and choke our small businesses that can barely exist with the amount of regulation, with the amount of taxes.

And also, I'm not a member of Congress.

I haven't been there for more than a decade, so I have not been a part of any opportunities to negotiate, and what's best for our small businesses that are employing people that are paying into these systems.

So I think you have to be responsible in taking care of our senior citizens, but there has to be a way to solve this problem.

We can't just let our senior citizens starve to death, and not have the medication they need.

- Thank you, Mr. Bresnahan.

The next question, as we begin a new round, we'll go to Andy Mehalshick, and that question will be directed to Mr. Bresnahan.

- One issue we hear about, again, almost every single day, besides the hard tabletop issues, is the country's so divided, left, right.

There's a Grand Canyon between the two sides, nationwide and in Congress.

What will you do?

What can you do, do you think has to be done to tone it down, to bring people together as Americans, and not Ds or Rs.

- Exactly why I'm here.

It's because you hear the temperatures, you hear the rhetoric on both sides.

I mean, I can go back to an MSNBC interview that I've done seven or eight years ago, and I talked about how the people in the middle, the regular person, feels alienated from both sides of their parties.

And you know what, if you vote on the issue, and you vote for what's best for your people inside of your district, you should be able to break rank and file with your party.

I don't think that's a really hard concept, but when you're looking at the dysfunction of nothing getting done in the House, you're constantly overthrowing a Speaker.

And that was a Republican thing that took place.

But we have to restore sanity and civility, because it's absolutely infuriating.

When you look at what Congress gets done every single year, if you were to run a private business like this, or an enterprise, you would be out of business.

There would be no way.

I mean, and I've surrounded myself with the differences of opinions, so I don't want a bunch of yes-men surrounding me.

I wanna reach across the aisle.

I wanna get things done.

And listen, I'm sure I'm not gonna get it 100% what I want every single time.

That would be insanity.

But I think we have to provide for the American people, we have to deliver.

And it can't just be this constant impasse of nothing getting done.

You've looked at some different votes.

The SAVE Act, one specifically.

I mean, there were six Democrats that broke on that.

And that's a good idea of bipartisan support.

And the Infrastructure Bill.

There's a lot of things in there that I don't agree with.

I don't agree with a lot of the social infrastructure that took place, but that's an idea to get people back to work.

- Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

- This is my alley.

I work as a bipartisan member of Congress.

I told you about my own family, and I meant it.

And I have cultivated relationships across the aisle.

I've always believed that if you look for the good in people, you will find it.

And I have some dear friends across the aisle in Congress.

I play golf with them.

And that's how you do what I did.

You know, the fellow that I replaced in Congress actually spent 20 years in Congress, and passed one bill.

And that was to name a post office.

I've passed 16 bills, 16 substantive bills into law.

And the whole time I've been there, if a Democrat's gonna pass a bill into law, it has to be bipartisan, it has to be something that the 10 Republican Senators will go for, or else they'll just kill it.

So I've passed wonderful bills.

The Megabyte Act, which has by now saved about $4.5 billion for American taxpayers, by making the purchase of software more rational the way the government does it.

It's a brilliant bill.

And I was happy to do that with my dear friend, Steve Russell, from Oklahoma City, who's no longer in the Congress, but we have remained dear friends.

I passed all kinds of bills, and in fact, beyond passing bills, even locally, when we wanna work on the train, I have to get a coalition of Democrats and Republicans together to support it.

When we opened up Route 611 in the Delaware Water Gap, same thing.

- [Tracey] Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

- You cannot vote with your party, the Biden-Harris administration, 98% of the time and say that you are bipartisan.

It's okay to say that you're a progressive.

It's okay if you believe that is truly the best path forward for this country.

But you can't pretend to be something that you're not.

You voted 98% of the time with the Biden-Harris agenda.

- [Tracey] Mr. Cartwright, 30 seconds.

- Actually, as a matter of fact, you're getting it exactly backwards, because legislation originates in the Congress, either in the House or the Senate, and occasionally the White House weighs in and decides what they're gonna support.

And that's the metric that you always go to.

But one thing you don't ever talk about is that I passed three bills that Donald Trump signed into law.

That doesn't pop up in your metrics.

- Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

We will move on now.

And the next question will be from Borys Krawczeniuk.

The question will be directed to Mr. Cartwright.

- Right now we're spending a lot of money.

Mr. Bresnahan had mentioned a little while ago about spending a lot of money not in the United States on other things.

Right now we're spending a lot of money on wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

I just wanna hear your opinion on those, and whether we should keep doing that.

- I have never made it a secret of the fact that I support Ukraine.

They were invaded by this monstrous criminal Vladimir Putin, who had no good on his mind, and intends not to stop at the Polish border, by the way.

People who are interested in Eastern Europe understand that a despot like Putin is not gonna stop at the Polish border.

He doesn't respect borders of any kind.

Here's the problem.

Once he steps into Poland, we're at war.

Poland is in NATO, and you attack one of us, you attack all of us.

What we're doing by supporting Ukraine in our current posture, and I was thrilled to meet Volodymyr Zelensky when he came to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant about a month ago.

I told him, "You are making yourself the Winston Churchill of Eastern Europe, standing up for democracy, standing up for freedom."

Why in the world wouldn't we support that?

I do.

Not only because it creates jobs around here, certainly it does, but the bigger reason is this is the right thing to do.

We can't show weakness to Putin over this.

We need to show friendship to Ukraine.

And because if we show weakness at a point in time like this, what is the message that that sends to all of the malign actors that are out there?

It's a tough world out there, and they're watching what we do.

If we don't stand strong for Volodymyr Zelensky, and freedom in Ukraine, they're gonna think we're weak.

- Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

Mr. Bresnahan.

- I didn't hear anything on Israel on that answer.

I heard a lot about Ukraine.

And listen, what is happening in Ukraine is absolutely tragic.

There is a war monger taking over Ukraine, but we've sent up to $178 billion.

And I believe, I'm all for manufacturing the weapons, and I'm gonna actually answer the question, I'm all for providing them the resources so they can fight their war.

But we have a war going on at home.

We are struggling every single day, our own citizens, to keep their lights on.

And I'd love to have some accountability of that existing $178 billion that was sent there.

It just cannot be an open checkbook, and just keep sending, filling satchels of cash, and sending it around the planet, when we have our own bridges.

We built 47 bridges in Ukraine, and the bridge on the water street isn't gonna be open till 2026 or 2027, is when they're gonna start construction.

What about America?

What about our own people?

Also for Israel, yes, I support Israel.

I trust the IDF and what they need to do.

We should continue to provide them the weapons that they need to fight their war.

I'd also love to know where our hostages are, going after a year now, because they are still not home.

And I find that absolutely unacceptable, that we can continue to send billions and billions of dollars to other places around the world, but our own people, our own infrastructure, our own American citizens, our veterans, cannot afford homes, and are losing their residences, because they can't afford school property taxes.

But yet another $10 billion gets sent to another side of the country.

- [Tracey] Mr. Cartwright, 30 seconds.

- I absolutely firmly support Israel.

In fact, I broke with my own party in signing onto a Republican bill to fund munitions going to Israel with no strings attached.

It's something where I broke with the Biden administration.

This is our strongest ally in the Middle East.

And if you saw the footage that I saw from October 7, I was in tears watching that.

I'll never forget that.

And we will never abandon Israel.

- Thank you, Mr. Cartwright.

We will move along now to our next question from Lisa Washington.

And Lisa's question will be directed to Mr. Bresnahan.

- Thank you, Tracey.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Pennsylvania's unemployment rate, as of August 2024, is 3.4%.

In the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area, that rate is 4.8%.

A qualified workforce is needed to attract new businesses to the area.

What steps would you take to increase workforce development in the Eighth District?

- I was the chairman of the Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee for one of our local IBWs.

And I'm a big believer we have incredible universities, like the one that we're in here now.

But skilled trade is an incredible opportunity to earn while you learn, you graduate with virtually no debt, and these are jobs that will never be replaced by artificial intelligence.

We are always going to need carpenters.

We are always going to need electricians.

We are always gonna need plumbers.

And it's something that we're struggling to fill.

We have 30 jobs open right now, and outside of the lineman positions, but we are also always gonna need diesel mechanics.

And these are wages starting at 40, $50 an hour.

And with our proximity, within 200 miles, we can reach 51 million people.

Within six hours, we can reach 60% of the United States population.

We have the natural resources, like energy and natural gas.

The natural gas industry, it provides $45 billion a year of GDP, because of that industry.

$76 billion of GDP comes out of the natural gas industry.

One in every two homes are heated from natural gas.

And that's another incredible asset that we have right below our feet.

That industry requires welders, that industry requires electricians, and they are hiring faster than any other industry.

We can't vilify trade.

I think there's some work to be done on 529 programs too, to expand what those programs are eligible for.

We are always gonna need truck drivers, and expanding what's an eligible CDL program.

So there's incredible ways, just... - Thanks, Mr. Bresnahan.

Mr. Cartwright.

- Well, look, it's about workforce development, really.

We have to train up people for the jobs of the future, the jobs that are turning up.

And, you know, workforce development equals education.

And we can't forget to talk about education in this debate.

I support public education.

My opponent supports a voucher system, where you can siphon money out of public education and give it to people who wanna use that voucher and send their kids to private school.

It only helps people that are already sending their kids to private school.

I am absolutely opposed to taking money out of public education to do that.

And in addition, there are so many jobs programs that we can put together with public education.

We can never forget to do that.

Now, a lot of the workforce development is done by unions.

And I'm proud to say that I am the only candidate on this stage endorsed by the AFL-CIO, which is the umbrella organization that includes the IBEW, which serves my opponent's company.

He talks about he's pro-union, but they've endorsed me.

In fact, if you drive down the San Sui Highway and go by the local of the electrical workers union that serves his company, there's a big sign out front.

And it isn't for my opponent, it's for me.

There's a reason for that.

- Well, if you're driven by it recently, you'd see my sign out there too.

So I guess you don't head that part of town that frequently.

But you also didn't ask the question about creating jobs.

We danced around the subject, and I don't even know what school voucher program you're referencing, or throwing mud at me on.

So I'd love, I mean, I'd yield my time to allow you to explain what I'm so far against.

- Oh, absolutely.

Well, school voucher programs, Rob, are things where you take money out of the public schools and you hand it- - Why I'm against it.

- You'll have to- - You said I'm against something that I'm not.

- You'll have to explain that.

You've said that in public, that you're for school voucher programs.

And that's for you to explain.

- No, I did not.

- Well, gentlemen, on that note, it is time to get to our closing statements, and we will ask Mr. Cartwright to begin with your closing statement.

You have two minutes.

- You know, it's been an honor for me, for six terms, to represent Northeastern Pennsylvania in the United States Congress.

I know that as I do the job, I do it fully in mind of what the values of the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania are, values like hard work and telling the truth, and being who you are, being yourself, and having an open mind to listen to people on the other side.

You know, one thing that I've been able to do is bring together coalitions of Democrats and Republicans in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I touched on the Delaware Water Gap.

I touched on the train program.

Just recently, Stacy Garrity, who is a Republican state treasurer, she and I got together, along with Dan Meuser, my Republican colleague in the Ninth Congressional District, and we put a lot of pressure on the VA hospital.

For some reason, the VA hospital was not letting family members come visit the veterans who lived there, because of COVID.

And we were like, "COVID?

It's 2023, what are you doing?"

And I was able to work with Dan and Stacy, and together we got the VA in Wilkes-Barre Township to change its policy, and allow people to get there.

Look, Harry Truman said, you know, "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit."

And that absolutely is true.

I'm very proud of the 16 bills that I've passed into law, but I'm more proud of the work that I've done representing the values of the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The fact is that I'm approachable.

You can call me and talk to me, come visit me in the office, I listen to everybody, because that's the way I'm built.

I like to do that.

Thanks so much.

- [Tracey] Thank you, Mr. Cartwright, and Mr. Bresnahan, two minutes.

- Well again, thank you all for being here.

This is going to be the most important election of our lifetime.

And I'd like to start out by pointing out some of those values of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

If those values are deciding between groceries and putting food in your refrigerator, and paying for gasoline, and if you want to continue to have the environment in which we are in, then you should absolutely support my opponent.

If you are okay with having a wide open border with 10, 12, 15 million illegal migrants coming across that, and entering into our communities, then you should vote for my opponent.

If you are ready for a change to start to reinvest into Northeastern Pennsylvania, every single thing about my life has been Northeastern Pennsylvania.

And that is my utmost promise.

And I do not care if it's a Democrat idea, a Republican idea, an Independent idea.

If it's good for Northeastern Pennsylvania, we are going to support that.

And we are gonna fight tooth and nail to create the economic opportunities, the jobs, and we're gonna secure that border.

We have to, because what's happening there is totally unacceptable on every single level.

We have to take care of our senior citizens.

We have to take care of our veterans.

And that's very noble if you did so much to accomplish that at the VA, because that is our most vulnerable population.

Those people fought and served for our country.

And what frustrates me to no absolute end, is when you see those 10 million illegals that come across that border are being better taken care of than our own veterans.

And I find that totally unacceptable.

I'm asking for a chance to represent you in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I pride myself on being accessible.

And I can assure you, and I don't like to make promises, but this is a promise that I will absolutely make.

When I go to Washington, DC, every vote I take will be for what's best for Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I do not care if it's a Democrat or a Republican idea.

If it's gonna help our community, and it's gonna rebuild our community, like I've been doing my entire life, that's where my loyalty will lie.

Thank you for the time here tonight.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) - Well, those statements bring to an end this debate between the candidates for the Eighth Congressional District seat in the US House of Representatives.

Thanks to Mr. Bresnahan and to Mr. Cartwright for participating.

Many thanks to our esteemed panel, and also to our very engaged and interested audience for joining us here in the studio.

It is "Pennsylvania Decision 2024" on WVIA.

Now Tuesday, November 5th is the election day, so do make sure you get out and vote.

Have a plan in place to make sure that your voice is heard.

By the way, you can view this debate again on demand at wvia.org, or on the WVIA app.

That is where you will also find our WVIA Voters Guide, which is an excellent resource on the candidates, and their positions on the issues.

It is a great way to be well prepared as you go to the polls on November 5th.

For all of us here at WVIA, I'm Tracey Matisak.

Thanks for watching.

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