Biden midterms latest: Marco Rubio and Val Demings in furious clashes over abortion

Marco Rubio and Val Demings haven’t agreed on much this evening, but both Florida Senate candidates agree that the US needs to do everything it can to support Ukraine and defend threatened NATO allies like Poland.

“The United States needs to live up to its NATO commitments,” Senator Rubio said, a response that could including “taking out” Russian missile launchers in the field.

“If Poland is attacked, there has to be an immediate response,” Ms Demings added.

Marco Rubio just claimed he’s never denied an election, eliciting a smattering of laughs from the crowd at Palm State Beach College.

“I’ve never denied an election,” he said. “I’m not like Stacey Abrams in Georgia.””

That’s not entirely true.

In November of 2020, Mr Rubio said he supported Donald Trump taking legal action to challenge the 2020 election results, despite a lack of any discernible evidence of voter fraud.

“At the core of our republic, its legitimacy comes from people’s confidence in the elections,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity at the time. “Right now, you got half this country that has doubts about the veracity of this election.”

Gun control is an emotional issue in Florida, where the 2018 Parkland shooting saw 17 students killed.

Senator Marco Rubio is arguing against further gun control proposals like the ones his rival Val Demings supports.

He pointed to a recent shooting with a 15-year-old suspect in North Carolina, suggesting that favoured Democratic measures like strengthened background checks would stop such violence.

A 15-year-old can’t buy a gun anywhere, yet the suspect in the North Carolina shooting managed to obtain one and kill five people and injure three others.

On the subject of gun laws, Representative Demings, meanwhile, accused Mr Rubio of failing his number one job as a Senator, to “protect the safety of the people that you represent.”

Here’s more information about the shooting they discussed.

The most contentious exchange of the night so far in Florida’s Senate debate was over abortion.

Congresswoman Val Demings hammered GOP incumbent Marco Rubio, claiming he doesn’t support any exceptions to abortion bans.

“Marco Rubio has been clear that he supports no exceptions, even in the case of rape and incest, he’s said it time and time and time again,” the Florida congresswoman said.

She also accused the Senator of being “obsessed” with women’s bodies and trying to make women “second-class citizens” through abortion restrictions.

Meanwhile, Mr Rubio insisted that the abortion bills he’s supported do contained exceptions, because that’s what Americans support.

“We’re never going to get a vote on a law that doesn’t have exceptions, because that’s where the majority of the American people are,” he said.

The GOP Senator called Ms Demings an “extremist” for supporting abortion without any caveats.

Here’s our report on Senator Lindsey Graham’s abortion bill, which Mr Rubio supports.

Val Demings, a former Orland police chief, is trolling Georgia candidate for US Senate Herschel Walker, who flashed an honorary badge during a debate with his midterm rival Raphael Warnock.

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Representative Demings, a Democrat, posed with her actual police badge and the caption, “This one’s real.”

Here’s our report on Mr Walker’s memorable badge incident.

The two candidates in Florida’s US Senate race, incumbent Marco Rubio and Democratic challenger Val Demings, a US representative, are kicking off their single debate of the campaign season.

Watch the conversation live via NBC Miami, which is taking place at Palm Beach State College.

Pennsylvania’s Senate race has been perhaps the most bizarre one in a crowd of absurd campaigns. What should have been a relatively sleepy race where Republicans attempt to hold a Senate seat has instead turned into an intensely personal race with two outsized personalities.

Eric Garcia takes an in-depth look a the race.

“How about a round of applause for Herschel and his family for putting up with all this crap?” says Senator Graham.

In Michigan, activists charted a path to inking abortion rights into law via a citizen-led ballot measure. Is this a blueprint for Democrats and reproductive health care activists around the country for the years to come?

John Bowden investigates.

Democrats in Nevada hold both U.S. Senate seats, the governor’s mansion and three of its four U.S. House seats. The state hasn’t backed a Republican presidential candidate since 2004.

But as this year’s midterm elections approach, the party’s grip on power is under threat. Catherine Cortez Masto has been called the most vulnerable Democrat in the Senate. Gov. Steve Sisolak is facing a spirited reelection challenge from Republican Joe Lombardo. And the GOP could pick up two House seats in Nevada, which would put the party well on its way to regaining the majority in Washington.

The dynamics pose a severe test for the sophisticated organization that the late Sen. Harry Reid spent years building to give Democrats an edge in the swing state.