Masters hammers Kelly on border issues in Arizona Senate debate

Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters hammered Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly over border issues during a debate on Thursday night.

Masters' opening salvo on the issue came during a dialogue over inflation during which he highlighted that Kelly rejected an amendment to the bill that would have hired additional border patrol agents but agreed to hire 87,000 new IRS agents in voting for the Inflation Reduction Act.

"He rejected hiring 18,000 more border patrol agents," Masters asserted. "Mark Kelly said no to 18,000 more border patrol agents but yes to 87,000 new IRS agents. That shows you what his priorities are. Mark Kelly left our southern border right open."

"It's a mess. It's chaos. It's crisis after crisis," Kelly conceded of the situation at the border. "I worked in Washington to bring more border patrol agents to the state of Arizona. A billion dollars for staffing, security, and monitoring," he continued. "I've stood up to Democrats when they're wrong on this issue." He especially highlighted conflicts with President Joe Biden on the issue.

Masters dubbed the situation a "humanitarian disaster" and touted endorsements from the National Border Patrol Council among other law enforcement agencies. "The women and children are raped, the men are indentured servants sold into some kind of slavery."

He further said that border patrol agents were "disgusted" by Kelly's approach to border security and went on to highlight the drug trafficking issue. "It's killing kids. We're losing 2,000 Arizonans every year to fentanyl," he said.

"Joe Biden and Mark Kelly are willfully ignoring federal law... they incentivize people to break the law," Masters continued. "They laid out the welcome matt."

Prior to the debate, Kelly held an average 4.1% lead over Masters, according to RealClearPolitics.