Burns, Hansel trade shots, Lily Tang Williams takes high road, during televised debate
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Sep. 8—MANCHESTER — Keene Mayor George Hansel and former Hillsborough County Treasurer Bob Burns of Pembroke accused each other of lying during their only televised debate on WMUR Wednesday night.
Hansel said Burns just "makes things up" in alleging Hansel is a "woke" fake conservative who supported the concept of a sanctuary city for his hometown and wanted to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.
"Bob Burns just seems to make things up as they go along," Hansel said. "Democrats have been pumping money into this race to promote these lies."
Burns urged GOP primary votes to pick him as the nominee in the 2nd Congressional District next Tuesday.
"We don't need a woke Democratic lite mayor of Keene," Burns said in his closing statement about Hansel. "We need a real conservative."
Burns mocked a liberal Democratic group that put out ads warning voters will get "burned with Burns" while praising him as the most faithful supporter of former President Donald Trump.
The Democratic group backs the candidacy of five-term U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster.
"Listen, come this November, Kuster is going to be feeling the burn," Burns said.
The third major candidate, Chinese-born law professor Lily Tang Williams of Weare, largely stayed out of the back-and-forth during the one-hour event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
She did come out strongly on the rights of gun owners and vowed if elected she would vote for getting rid of "unconstitutional laws" such as federal gun-free school zones.
"I grew up in Communist China, that is what they do, one-party control and they weaponized their law enforcement against the citizens," Tang Williams said.
Many voters still undecided
The few independent polls in this race have put Burns out in front over Hansel, but with a high number of undecided voters since most said they don't know much about these candidates.
Keene adopted a pro-sanctuary city resolution over Hansel's vote in opposition. After the vote, Hansel said he agreed with the "sentiment" of the resolution.
Hansel said the resolution didn't prevent local police from working with federal authorities over illegal immigration and he worked to increase the police budget by 9%.
"I would love to see a balanced budget amendment so if there is a not a balanced budget then they don't get paid," Hansel said. "I am the only candidate who has produced a balanced budget."
Hansel did sign a proclamation marking Indigenous Peoples' Day in his hometown.
On abortion rights, Burns emerged as the lone candidate to say he would vote for federal legislation to ban abortions once there is medical evidence of a fetal heartbeat. He rejected the premise of the Dobbs decision in the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade legalizing abortions nationwide and deciding it was an issue for the states to regulate.
"When do we decide when is life? That can't be for the states to decide, and it's protected by the Constitution, it really is," Burns said.
Hansel said he supports abortion rights to a point.
"Personally, I am pro-choice, but I am against late-term abortions with some exceptions pretty close to the New Hampshire law," Hansel said.
Tang Williams said she opposes abortion but said it's now a state issue.
Both Burns and Tang Williams found some fault with how Hansel managed the COVID-19 pandemic in his home city.
"I think he did some things that were good and some things that I had concern. Some people lost their jobs and careers," Tang Williams said. "I don't like the mandates."
Burns said he "disagreed with everything" Hansel did at the time.
But Hansel said at his first opportunity that he voted to break a tie and get rid of the mask mandate in Keene.
On a personal note, Burns revealed that his brother suffered from heroin addiction and a girlfriend murdered him. Burns said the experience revealed to him that it's too easy for addicts to get suboxone that allows them to stay addicted to opioids.
