Five takeaways from Tuesday's Fitzpatrick, Ehasz debate in PA's 1st Congressional District

Incumbent Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and U.S. Army veteran Democrat Ashley Ehasz squared off in a 90-minute debate in the race for Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District Tuesday afternoon.

The event was likely the only time the district’s 562,910 voters across Bucks and 13 eastern Montgomery County towns will see candidates from the two major parties face each other before polls open on Nov. 8.

Fitzpatrick, of Middletown, made his work with the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus a central point throughout the debate while Ehasz, a Bensalem resident, heralded her career as a commander and pilot in the U.S. Army.

Moderator William Pezza, faculty member of Bucks County Community College's Department of Social and Behavioral Studies, asked both candidates questions that touched on a wide swath of issues, including abortion access, the war in Ukraine and attacks on democracy itself.

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday's debate.

Ehasz made Roe v Wade a recurring issue

From her opening statement through her closing remarks, Ehasz made abortion access a central theme that all voters, especially women, should keep in mind at the ballot box.

Ehasz said the Supreme Court's June ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that kicked reproductive rights to individual states made millions of women "second-class citizens" and she would support codifying Roe v. Wade to guarantee abortion access nationally if elected.

"It is not lost on me that I'm standing on this stage before all of you as a second-class citizen ... because of a decision by the Supreme Court and a subsequent vote against the Women's Health Protection Act by Brian Fitzpatrick. I am not an equal on this stage when it comes to reproductive rights," Ehasz said.

Fitzpartrick pushed back on Ehasz, saying that bill, H.R. 36, would allow abortions for up to five months or up to nine months if the mother's life was at risk, a position he said most Americans would support.

"Anything that's not eight months and 29 days, regardless of the medical necessity, is a ban (according to Ehasz). That is not true and that is not where the majority of Bucks Countians and Montgomery Countians are," Fitzpatrick said. "We believe in legality in the beginning stages and limits, not bans but limits set, reasonable limits in the later terms."

Fitzpatrick said he would support a bill that mirrored Pennsylvania's laws on abortion if it came to a vote in the House. Pennsylvania allows abortion for any reason up to 24 weeks and with exceptions if the mother's health is at risk after that.

Pennsylvania also allows government funding to pay for an abortion in cases of rape or incest, according to information found on www.plannedparenthood.org.

Both support Ukraine

Ehasz and Fitzpatrick said they support Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion.

Fitzpatrick referred to the war on Ukraine as a "genocide" by the Russians and pointed to his time as an FBI agent working on an anti-corruption task force in Ukraine and his visits to the country after the invasion as proof of his steadfast support.

Ehasz said a recent statement from GOP House leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy undermined Fitzpatrick's promises.

The Associated Press reported last Tuesday on comments McCarthy made to Punchbowl News that raised questions about continued support for Ukraine.

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“I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News. “They just won’t do it. … It’s not a free blank check.”

Fitzpatrick said there is a big difference between ending support and McCarthy's statement against a blank check, adding that he would support continuing to provide weapons and other supplies while working with Ukraine's neighbors to do the same.

Energy independence and natural gas

Green energy would be a priority for Ehasz and Fitzpatrick, but the two split on the topic of natural gas production.

Fitzpatrick referred to the natural gas deposits under Pennsylvania as the state "sitting on the Saudi Arabia of natural gas" and using these resources could play a pivotal role in cutting dependence on foreign oil and maybe make the U.S. a lead energy supplier.

Fitzpatrick added that opening natural gas production would make America more secure and bring jobs in a recession when many are struggling to make ends meet.

Ehasz said hydraulic fracturing, of fracking, for natural gas posed a threat to drinking water sources, something Ehasz said could become a limited resource with the increasing effects of climate change.

While Fitzpatrick blamed rising gasoline costs on policies of the current administration, like President Joe Biden revoking a key permit for the $9 billion Keystone Pipeline, Ehasz said oil companies and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries "trying to make up what they lost in the pandemic" are to blame for high costs at the pump.

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"I encourage the Biden administration, and as your Congresswoman I will push this in office as well, to make sure that we stop all of our funding and arms to Saudi Arabia until they back off of raising gas prices on Pennsylvania families frist and the country at large," Ehasz said.

"Yeah, the energy policies are so bad right now that we are now begging dictators around the world to share their energy ... why the hesitancy of unleashing what's right beneath us right now that can be done in a safe, clean way?" Fitzpatrick responded.

On China

Fitzpatrick and Ehasz also described China as one of the biggest threats to national security, especially due to America's reliance on the foreign country's production of electronics and other goods.

"I do identify China as the No. 1 threat to our national security at this point, both economically and militarily," Ehasz said.

Ehasz said the coronavirus pandemic underscored the reliance America has on products produced in China, recalling when America saw a shortage of face masks in 2020.

"We need to make more things here at home, but also internationally we need to make sure we support our partners and allies because we may need to call on them if China acts aggressively towards us," Ehasz added.

Fitzpatrick said China is his "main focus" as a member of the House Intelligence Committee, where he said current Chinese President Xi Jingping is on a mission to "take down the world's oldest and strongest democracy from within."

"(Chinese President Xi Jinping) is on a mission to make the Yuan replace the Dollar as the world's currency standard, he wants to replace the United States of America as the world's military and economic superpower and he believes he's on track to do it," Fitzpatrick said.

Restoring faith in elections

The final question from Pezza on Tuesday asked how either candidate would restore faith in the electoral process following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol Building and continued false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

"You do that by electing officials who will acutally hold those who did harm on Jan. 6 accountable and by electing officials who will stand up to the tyranny of the former president and his cronies, full stop," Ehasz said.

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Ehasz then bashed Fitzpatrick over his votes against impeaching Trump after the riots, on a voting rights bill and the final bill establishing the U.S. House's committee investigating what she described as an act of domestic terrorism.

"That is him saying that those who did harm to police officers on Jan. 6, those who saw other Americans as the enemy, did not need to be held accountable," Ehasz said.

Fitzpatrick said Ehasz's statements about his record on the committee and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act were outright lies.

Fitzpatrick said he initially supported both bills, but voted against them later due to what he described as partisan actions by Democrats.

The voting rights bill removed a provision requiring voters to show ID from a previous draft and Fitzpatrick said he opposed the final vote on the Jan. 6 committee because "Democratic leadership" warped the original plans for the make up of the committee.

"I voted for the bipartisan commission that was originally put on the floor of the House ... that was modeled after the 9/11 commission," Fitzpatrick said. "... How can anybody take that seriously? They had the model that would have worked and shame on them for not doing that."

Fitzpatrick said that most voters also supported a voter ID requirement and said Ehasz should support that initiative "regardless of whether it diminishes substantive fraud."

"If it gives people more security, more confidence in the outcome of an election, then why not do it?" Fitzpatrick said.

Pennsylvania requires voters to present identification when visiting their polling place for the first time and voters can't request a mail-in ballot without a driver's license.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Brian Fitzpatrick, Ashley Ehasz debate in race for PA 1st District seat in Congress