Watch: Memorable moments from Ohio Republican Senate debate

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WJW) – The top five Ohio Republican candidates vying to replace longtime Sen. Rob Portman faced off in a debate at the FOX 8 News station Monday night ahead of the upcoming primary.

Matt Dolan, Mike Gibbons, Josh Mandel, Jane Timken and JD Vance fielded questions from NBC4’s Colleen Marshall and FOX 8’s Joe Toohey in Cleveland.

Here were four memorable moments from the debate.

Responses to Mandel and Gibbons’ heated exchange

The debate kicked off with Mandel and Gibbons’ responses to their heated argument that occurred during a U.S. Senate candidate forum in Columbus Friday night.

At the time, Mandel and Gibbons started arguing after Mandel accused Gibbons of owning stock in Chinese Petro and making millions off of it. When Gibbons denied the claim, things took a turn.

As seen in video clip that was played during Monday’s debate, the two candidates had to be physically separated during the exchange.

When asked what happened, Mandel said, “I’m a fighter. I’m a Marine. I’ll never pack down from a fight. The problem is all these squishy, RINO Republicans. They’ve taken a knee for the Democrats and they’ve taken a knee for the media, and when I go to Washington, I will be the worst nightmare of the squishy, RINO Republicans. We can’t afford to send weak and soft Republicans to Washington.”

When also asked what happened, Gibbons said, “We had a disagreement over what the private sector is and I think Josh seems to think his military service, and by the way, I have a son that’s a Navy pilot. We just visited him, he was leaving for deployment. I have nothing but respect for everybody that serves in the military. My point was Josh has never been in the private sector. The military is not the private sector. The private sector is what operates in this country and makes the economy we have.”

Response to Ukraine Crisis

The candidates had the chance to address how the United States should respond to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. They have all criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the situation.

“We should be doing everything we can to ensure that Ukrainians can defend themselves… We’re shouldn’t be sending our boys and girls over there,” Mandel said.

“It is heartbreaking talking to my friends of Ukrainian decent… It’s very much like World War II. I think we dithered while Ukraine was under potential invasion… I think we should arm them to the teeth,” Gibbons said.

“Watching Vladimir Putin bomb a maternity ward and children dying in the streets of Ukraine, my heart breaks. I’m a mom on a mission to take our country back. My priority is the safety and security of American families… We should’ve been putting sanctions on Russia long before the invasion,” said Timken.

“We should absolutely not support a no-fly zone… It’s terrible what Vladmir Putin did… but we have our own problems in the United that we should be focused on,” Vance said, then shifting to advocate for the border wall.

“I’m the only one that’s said Donald Trump’s statements about calling Putin a genius and savvy was disgusting. No one else on this stage even has the guts to stand up to that. We need to make sure Ukraine has the humanitarian aid, the military aid they need to defend themselves” said Dolan, pointing a finger at Vance and demanding an apology for Ukrainians in the U.S. 

Vance responded, “I never said I don’t care about the people of Ukraine. I said the matter of what happens in Ukraine is not in our vital national interest. It’s statesmanship to separate your emotions… from what we should do as public policy.”

Dolan then said, “When you parachute it back into Ohio, you don’t understand that there are tens of thousands of Ukrainian people whose families and relatives are being killed. As a U.S. senator, I’m going to stand up for them.”

Transgender Women Competing in Women’s Sports

The discussion was turned to transgender women competing in women’s sports. Over the weekend, Ohio swimmers were among the many women who lost to transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the NCAA championships. Lia was born a male but transitioned to a female.

While Thomas complied to all transgender guidelines, candidates were asked if the NCAA is violating federal civil rights law by allowing her to compete as a woman.

They were asked if they would pursue policies addressing transgender athletes if they are elected.

“Biological males should not be competing against biological females… This is a state’s issue. What I’m worried about a lot of my opponents, they want to federalize a lot of issues… The NCAA got it wrong,” Dolan said.

“As a mom and a former college athlete, this is fundamentally unfair… This is a federal issue. It’s exactly Title IX… This is an example of woke Democrat policies,” Timken said.

“The Democratic Party, they like to lecture all of us… Obviously, the Democrats don’t know anything about gender because they think they are 52 genders. Boys are boys and girls are girls,” Mandel said.

“It’s ridiculous and people are going to get hurt. We need to change it. I don’t care if there’s a transgender category and they compete against other transgender people, that’s fine. But to have a biological male competing against a biological female is ridiculous,” Gibbons said.

“Clearly there should be a federal change… My wife just had our first girl three months ago and I think it’s really sad that she would work her entire life for the woke agendas from the Democratic Party take away her achievements,” said Vance.

Should Donald Trump Move on from 2020 Election?

Candidates were asked to raise their hand if they believe that, for the betterment of the Republican Party, Donald Trump should stop talking about the 2020 election and move on.

Timken, Mandel, Vance and Gibbons did not raise their hands.

Dolan was the only one who did.

“Elections are a state issue. In Ohio, we have very secure elections. There have been two audits done and it shows that there are no problems. As a Republican, we have to take on the Biden Administration. We’ve talked about gas prices, inflation, insecurity and weakness in the world. That is what I’m going to Washington to focus on,” Dolan said.

“We have to get to the bottom of what happened in 2020 and secure our democracy,” Vance said.

“There’s no doubt that the Democrats are threatening our democracy with their ballot harvesting and their bills to grab more power in Washington, D.C.,” Timken said.

“I believe that this election was stolen from Donald J. Trump. It was stolen from you, it was stolen from me… We cannot move on from 2020 until we fully investigate and prosecute all the vote theft and cheating from the Democrats,” Mandel said.

“Fifty percent of this country doesn’t believe that this election was fair. Hurting democracy is in not fully investigating this. I will do that when I get to Washington,” Gibbons said.

The hour-long debate was broadcasted on Nexstar stations across the Buckeye state: WDTN 2 News in Dayton, NBC4 in Columbus, WKBN/WYTV in Youngstown, WTRF in Wheeling, West Virginia/Steubenville and FOX 8 News.