Hawley Unsurprisingly Silent On TV Debates After Embarrassing State Fair Stunt; Kunce Interviewed By Chris Hayes
Independence, MO — While Lt. Col. Lucas Kunce (USMCR, 13 years active duty) joined MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, the unpopular incumbent Senator Josh Hawley remained conspicuously quiet about televised debates… almost as though he never intended to do real televised debates to begin with, and now will only concede to accepting them if put under intense external scrutiny and pressure.
Hawley’s stunt to avoid televised debates in Sedalia first exposed the Missouri State Fair Commission and the Missouri Farm Bureau. But then at the State Fair itself on Thursday, Hawley came with a lapel mic and a camera crew to broadcast his own desperation.
His performance was ruthlessly fact-checked and universally panned on social media, in the press, and among normal everyday Missourians online. His campaign rally was later interrupted by union workers demanding he accept televised debates.
As of this morning, Lucas Kunce has accepted all TV debate offers, while Hawley has accepted none.
Lucas Kunce joined Chris Hayes to discuss the incident and the race:
Key Moments
On The Veterans That Inspired Lucas To Serve
Lucas Kunce: “You know, my family, we grow up — My parents got married at 19 and 22 years old,. right. They had four kids. My little sister had heart surgeries. We went bankrupt from that. And the people in our neighborhood who took care of us passed the plate at church for us, brought food by the house. A lot of them were Vietnam veterans, Marines. They took me down to the Marine Corps League. And I saw these guys who really didn’t get any medals right, who were drafted, who went to serve their country and come home, just meet the worst conditions upon returning home. Many suffering through PTSD lost their friends over there. And, you know, no matter what. Those were the guys who took care of our community, took care of all of us. They were my heroes growing up. Like these are the heroes of our communities because they serve selflessly without any thought of glory. And I’ve always wanted to be like them. So whatever other people say about our veterans, I always wanted to be like them. So I joined the Marine Corps. I led a police training team in Iraq. You know, my responsibility was to bring home 12 Marines and a Navy corpsman alive. After we ran our missions in the Sunni Triangle. Thank God that happened. Went to Afghanistan twice. Every veteran that I served with served honorably. And I’m so proud of all of them. And one of the things — one of the other reasons we’re going to win this race is that Missouri doesn’t have a single veteran in its congressional delegation. No member of Congress is a veteran from Missouri. And it shows man, it really shows. I use the VA for health care. No one understands what that’s like. And Josh Hawley, you know, he’s got so many flaws, but it really just grinds me up that he stalled the Pact Act, which was for all of us who were exposed to burn pits. It’s like, don’t play politics with veterans, just take care of us.”
On Hawley Running Out the Back Door:
Chris Hayes: “But I got to say, maybe his internal polling is telling him something different because he is acting like a guy who is in a neck-and-neck race and frankly, desperate. This was Hawley pulling the kind of thirsty stunt at a Missouri state fair yesterday that the candidate getting crushed usually tries to kind of get some attention, get back in the race. He had a camera follow him as he kind of hunted down Kunce and then demanded Kunce to debate him right then and there. Even though Kunce has agreed to five debates already… Do you understand what’s happening here?”
Lucas Kunce: “We know exactly what’s happening. The man is scared because he knows the Missourians hate him. He knows that we don’t want the things that he wants, which is to take away no-fault divorce, contraception, IVF. [He wants] no abortion access for rape and incest. It’s just I’m sorry, dude, but that’s not what everyday people want. And, you know, the craziest thing about this is that last year, the exact same event at the state fair, I went up to say hi to him. And he was your typical Josh Hawley. His classic move, skittering away as fast as he could. You know, I guess in the interim he must have boned up on a few chapters of his manhood book because, yeah, he came to play this year all mic’d up camera crew behind him and just, you know, yapping up in my face for 5 minutes.”
Chris Hayes: “You just mentioned IVF, contraception and abortion. And I should note that you are one of the several states that are going to have a ballot initiative on abortion. The initiative has now been certified, it looks like it’s going to clear. Right now, the polling on that shows 44% support restoring abortion rights in your state, 37% oppose. Hawley on this seems pretty clear. How much do you think this will be a factor in the race?”
Lucas Kunce: “This is everything. It’s not just this, but this is going to be huge for us. People are excited to take their rights back from controlling politicians like him. I mean, he wants to control us in the bedroom and the doctor’s office and the worst in the workplace. Like the last thing that Missourians want is to be controlled. They want a senator who will bring money home and protect their rights so that we can just make our own decisions rather than being told how to live. This guy brings no money back and he wants to take away all our rights, which again is why he’s scared. That’s why he’s doing these stunts and it’s why he spent $1,000,000 in lying attack ads against me already, like came out of the gate, and didn’t say a thing about himself. Million dollars of just complete lie attack ads because he is absolutely scared.”
Background:
Hawley will be forced to share the ballot with a massively energizing ballot initiative to end a total abortion ban Hawley supports and restore reproductive freedoms that Hawley helped to end. And while voters are more motivated than ever by issues like IVF, contraception, and abortion, Hawley has built a career—and even a family business—on banning them all. In the last six years, he’s made a terrifying amount of progress in that mission.
Hawley has gained notoriety for comparing abortion to slavery, attacking no-fault divorce laws, and being exposed as a pioneer behind the legal arguments being used by his activist allies to shut down access to IVF.