WATCH – Blake Masters During Debate: Democrat Mark Kelly Failed to Use His Leverage to Secure Border

Republican Blake Masters slammed Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) in a debate Thursday night for not using his leverage as the 50th U.S. Senate vote to gain border security from Democrats and President Joe Biden.

“He’s the 50th vote in the U.S. Senate. Joe Biden needed his vote,” Masters explained, referencing Kelly, who has repeatedly voted against border security. “Mark Kelly, a year ago, could have dug his heels in and said, ‘Mr. President, I’m not supporting a single thing, not a single spending bill, not a single piece of your agenda, unless and until we get border security.’ Biden would’ve had to secure the border”:

.@bgmasters: "If this is the result of Senator Kelly being 'focused on the border,' my gosh, he's the most ineffective and worst senator of all time." pic.twitter.com/mJOIuZCFLN

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 7, 2022

“If this is the result of Sen. Kelly being focused on the border, my gosh, he’s the most ineffective and worst senator of all time. The border is wide open. People are walking through by the hundreds of thousands,” Masters said before continuing: 

You know, if these Mexican drug cartels, if these terrorists-narcos could vote in this election, every single one of them would vote for Sen. Kelly because they get what they want from him, which is a complete wide-open borde. Its complete free reign and the fentanyl is killing our children. He’s not doing a gosh darn thing to stop it.

In response to a follow-up question asking if he’d work with Democrats, Masters said:

You might be able to work with Democrats like Sinema, Democrats like Joe Manchin. You can’t work with Democrats like Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, Mark Kelly. You know, there’s something very wrong with people who don’t want to enforce federal law, who don’t believe in borders. Apparently, they don’t believe in our national sovereignty because they’ve turned over the entire border zone to Mexican drug cartels, and it is killing people. It is killing Arizonans. It’s ruining our state. It’s ruining our country. He’s not doing a darn thing to stop it. And the border patrol understands this. 

 Go ask a border patrol agent what they think of Mark Kelly. Ninety percent of them will tell you they’re disgusted by what he’s failed to do. That’s why the National Border Patrol Council endorsed me. The Arizona Police Association endorsed me. 

“It’d be bad enough if they were trying to enforce federal law and failing, but they’ve just surrendered,” he added. “They’ve thrown their hands up and thrown our southern border wide open. It’s killing people. I’m sick of it,” Masters concluded.