Republican Blake Masters sat down for a detailed discussion on national security issues with Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, and former State Department Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus on Friday morning in North Scottsdale, Arizona.
The panel covered topics such as the border crisis, Iran, China, and the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
“Look around you […] If you like the border crisis, I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but hey, if you like that, if you like our energy independence being surrendered, if you like this energy crisis, if you like this inflation crisis. Look abroad. If you like the humiliating surrender in Afghanistan, if you like foreign adversaries like Putin and Xi, just laughing at us,” Masters said. “If you like all of that and there’s a US Senate candidate for you, his name’s Mark Kelly. You vote for [Mark Kelly], you’re gonna get more of the same.”
Graham took a moment to speak with the press afterward, in which he reaffirmed his support of both Masters and Georgia senate candidate Herschel Walker, who is currently withstanding controversies pertaining to his personal life.
“Listen, I think it’s the best performance of any Republican candidate running in 2022,” Graham said when asked by ABC News reporter Libby Cathey about Masters’ debate last Thursday.
Graham later said that he is going to encourage Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell-backed Senate Leadership Fund to put resources into the race.
“The bottom line is Blake needs more resources, but money is not going to be the deciding factor. Policy will. And I am more enthused about his chances than I’d been since he won the nomination in August. And I’m going to go back to Washington and tell Sen. McConnell and everyone else: You need to invest in Arizona cause Blake’s going to win.”
Ortagus and Wolf also spoke with RedState afterward, and they addressed what kinds of investigations they’d like to see if Republicans win the majority.
“We still don’t know to this day the origins of COVID. So how do you prevent future pandemics from happening? You have to understand how COVID started,” Ortagus said, who served in the Trump administration.
“China needs to be held accountable for the fact that they unleashed this on the world, and we don’t know how it started, because they destroyed our ability to do so,” she added.
Wolf said he would like to see an investigation into the border crisis.
“Why did the administration go down a route that has created the worst crisis, the worst humanitarian crisis, the worst national security crisis that we’ve ever seen on that southern border? What was their reasoning?” Wolf asked.
“So, I think a lot of oversight and a lot of investigations on why they took the border, which was relatively secure, was under control and in order, and they turned it on its head. For what purpose? How does that benefit the American people?” the former Department of Homeland Security secretary continued.