Montana PBS Holds Jon Tester and Tim Sheehy Debate in Missoula

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - It was a hard hitting debate between three term incumbent Democrat Senator Jon Tester and his Republican challenger Tim Sheehy at the PBS studio in Missoula Monday evening.

One of the topics covered was illegal immigration and the U.S. southern border.

Sheehy laid the blame for the unsecured border and over 10 million illegal immigrants that have come into the U.S. directly at the feet of the Biden administration.

Jon Tester and Tim Sheehy Met in a Debate in Missoula Monday Evening

“Senate Democrats and White House Democrats created this border crisis,” said Sheehy. “We had a secure border. Four years ago, Donald Trump handed a sealed border to the Biden-Harris administration, and Kamala Harris, the Borders Czar with support from her friends on the hill, like Senator Tester and Chuck Schumer, opened the border wide open for three years and left it open. She refused to even go there. Democrats on the Hill refused to hold the administration accountable for the largest mass migration in the history of this country. We have never seen that many people come in in such a short period of time.”

Tester acknowledged the failure of President Biden at the border but accused Republicans of using the issue as a political tool, rather than working together with Democrats to solve the issue.

Both Men Said President Biden Failed at the Southern Border

“I'll be the first to tell you that President Biden has not done a good job on the southern border,” said Tester. “I pushed him on Title 42 which was a ‘Stay in Mexico policy. He removed it. I thought it was a bad decision. There are other decisions he made that I thought were bad for the border. But the bottom line is this. Congress needs to do its job too. And when you get a bipartisan effort moving forth, and everybody is on board, and then all of a sudden, the party bosses say, Nope, we can't pass this. We need to use this as a political tool in this election. And if you don't believe it's being used as a political tool, just turn on the TV.”

On the issue of health care, especially for veterans, Tester introduced his guest at the debate studio.

Tester and Sheehy Both Addressed the Healthcare System

“Henry's a veteran that a hard time getting onto Medicare,” he said. “Our office helped him, and he now has the health care that he needs to be able to survive. That's why we need to keep Medicare. Tim never talked about his pure privatization comment, and the reason is that he knows if he has it his way, not only will Medicare go away, Indian Health Service would go away and the VA would go away.”

Sheehy responded by stating that, in his view, the U.S. government has failed its people, and especially its veterans, when it comes to health care.

“Health care, I believe, is a moral obligation,” Sheehy said. “I've done that on the battlefield, carrying my friends through gunfire after they've been wounded, donating millions of dollars to help make our health care better, but the private sector is going to be able to do it better, faster and cheaper than trying to build a government system that will not be able to handle the caseload, not be able to make the reimbursement payments needed to actually sustain those systems. And you know, we can't shift to a single-payer system. We cannot hand our health care to the government, it’s a pathway to disaster.”

The no-holds-barred debate went for a full hour including opening and closing statements.

Watch the debate here.