(CN) - In their first debate of the 2018 midterm season, incumbent Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and insurgent Republican candidate Corey Stewart devoted most of their energies Saturday to sparring over policies of the Trump administration.
Stewart’s support of Trump helped him take the lead in the primary earlier this year and he was unabashed in that message as he praised the president’s tax reform bill, immigration policy and rollback of regulations.
“We need a senator who will stand with President Trump,” said Stewart as he uttered a line he would repeat throughout the over 90 minute debate. “Kaine is a nice guy, but he’s too liberal and too weak. He’s done too little for the Commonwealth.”
Kaine pushed back saying Trump’s tax efforts benefited corporations instead of citizens and his other policies caused more harm than good.
“It shouldn’t matter where you're from, who your parents are, who you love,” he said. "We’ve got a president who is too divisive … we need leaders who can pull us together.”
The largest outbursts of the event happened after Stewart was asked about Trump’s relationship with Russia.
“Russians have been spying for years,” he said before going on to blame former President Barack Obama for not being tough enough on Vladimir Putin.
“We have a president [in Trump] who is standing up to the Russians,” Stewart said.
“Ha!” chided Kaine, inspiring cheers from the audience.
But Stewart stayed the course, saying Russia was a needed ally as the world works to handle issues related to China and North Korea.
“We need to continue to work with them,” he said. “They’re always going to be meddling, but you don’t deep 6 that relationship … based upon this alleged meddling.”
Kaine pushed back, saying Trump was “caving” to the Russians and Putin while turning longtime allies against us.
“When he was on stage with Putin… [Trump] went all soft. And he believed Putin over the hardworking Americans that concluded Russia is attacking us,” he said. “We don’t need someone who caves to dictators.”
Trump’s tariff policy was also up for debate. Moderator Judy Woodruff, anchor of the PBS Newshour, asked Stewart about how Virginia’s soybean farmers, or employees at a Volvo plant, should react to the increased costs they are facing under the aggressive international trade policy.
“We have to get tough ... No president until now has been serious about opening markets,” Stewart said before listing the export costs US products face when shipping out of the country. “American workers are the most efficient in the world, but it needs to be a level playing field”
Kaine shot back and called the tariff policy “foolish” and said it was hurting Virginian farmers and workers. “[Tariffs do not] help a soybean farmer who is losing enormous value every day.”
“The president is waging a trade war against Americans,” he said before further condemning Trump’s use of tariffs on countries like Canada and the EU.
“He’s using a national security waiver not just against China, he’s using it against Canada,” he said. “Nations that have fought with us side-by-side since the war of 1812."