Joe Kent: Running Economy on Debt ‘a National Security Issue’

DALLAS, Texas — Republican primary House candidate Joe Kent told Breitbart News voters are fed up with incumbent U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA).

“They’re really mad that she didn’t stand up during the election when there was actual evidence of election fraud, that she was willing to certify and that she voted for the impeachment (of President Donald Trump),” Kent told Breitbart News at CPAC Texas.

He said voters were also mad Beutler participated in the Senate trial of the former president.

Beutler reportedly faced a potential subpoena regarding “comments she made about a talk she had with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy regarding Trump’s involvement in the Capitol siege,” ABC News reported.

“They feel betrayed,” Joel Mattila, chairman of the Clark County Republican Party, told NPR about local conservatives. “They feel betrayed by what the congresswoman has been doing over the last month and a half.”

Kent said constituents are made about “the totality of her record.”

The challenger said Beutler voted to stop the construction of the border wall and backed “naturalization for a bunch of illegal immigrants recently.”

A poll released Friday found Kent trailing Beutler by just 7 points, 30 percent to 23 percent. Beutler challengers accounted for 61.6 percent of responses. Just 8.2 percent were undecided.

Our @trafalgar_group #poll of likely ‘22 Top-Two Primary Election WA Congressional District 3 voters (conducted 7/5-7) shows a hotly contested re-election primary for @JaimeForUSRep a Republican House member who voted to impeach #DonaldTrump See Report: https://t.co/EJ6mAMAPXX pic.twitter.com/QC3RZFlaGw

— The Trafalgar Group (@trafalgar_group) July 9, 2021

According to the survey, 59.2 percent of respondents said they had an “unfavorable” view of the incumbent, with only 35.1 percent having a “favorable” view of her.

Kent, who became a Gold Star husband after his wife, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, was killed in Syria in 2019 by ISIS, criticized the infrastructure plan President Joe Biden and a handful of Republicans have pushed.

“The problem is it is just more debt being added onto the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve,” he said, adding the “infrastructure” plan is about a lot more than roads and bridges.

“All the different crazy socialist programs they’re calling infrastructure and they’re diverting funds from the vital infrastructure that we actually have,” Kent said.

He said “running off of debt is a national security issue” because it is something the Chinese Communist Party can “target our debt and crash our economy.”

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays — download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Parler.