 This is one of many forums we're bringing you in advance of the primary election on Tuesday, August 9th. The primary elections select party candidates for the general election on November 8th where voters will elect state and national officials from your local state rep to the U.S. Senate. TOW meeting TV election forums introduce you to community decision makers and connect you with the issues that shape your local community. My name is Emily Brewer and I will be your moderator for tonight's U.S. Senate Republican primary forum between candidates Gerald Malloy and Myers-Mirmal. I would like to quickly mention that candidate Christina Nolan was unable to join us tonight but is also running for the Republican nomination. Now if viewers would like to ask a question you can join the webinar via the link shared on social media. If you'd like to ask your question verbally please raise your hand and we'll get to your question shortly. And if you'd like to submit a written question use the Q&A feature in Zoom webinar. If you're on the phone you can raise and lower your hand by pressing star nine on the number pad. You can watch TOW meeting TV on Comcast channel 1087, Burlington telecoms channel 17 and 217 as well as online at TOW meeting TV's YouTube page. So during tonight's forum each candidate will get the chance to provide a one-minute opening statement. I'll then ask questions that each candidate will have two minutes to respond to and both candidates will then have 30 seconds for closing statements if time allows. With that said let's get started with tonight's discussion. Gerald we'll start with you for opening statements. Can you please tell us why you're running and what experience you bring to the position as well as what will be different for the people of the state because you have been elected to this position? Sure, well thank you Emily and thank you to TOW meeting TV. So my name is Gerald Malloy and I'm thinking to become your next United States Senator. I'm running because I've been alarmed at the direction that country's been going in. I believe I'm the best candidate to be the next United States Senator and I based that on my 42 years of relative experience serving our country. Military, government, and business. I'm a West Point graduate. I have a master's degree in business administration also a graduate certificate from Georgetown. I've served 20 years, over 20 years in the U.S. military. I'm a combat veteran. I've worked with about 20 NATO partners and allies and also worked on 20 presidential disaster declarations. For the last 11 years plus I've been in business development positions mostly in Washington DC area providing services to mostly the U.S. government. I've been doing that successfully via engaging and listening and developing value solutions. That's what I across my entire career what I think I offer most it's missing is leadership and performance. That's why I will perform for Vermonters in Vermont and the United States in accordance with the Constitution. Get us back on track moving in the right direction. Thank you. Thank you very much Gerald. Myers can you please tell us why you're running and what experience you bring to the position as well as what will be different for the people of the state because you have been elected to this position? Yes. Thank you Emily. Thank you for the audience for joining and listening to this debate because I think it's important. I do want to say it is regrettable that Christina Nolan chose not to attend as I've seen that she has not been present on the campaign trail for the past 10 days and I think it's important that candidates answer questions from the public. I'm a conservative. I'm running to be the voice of low and moderate income for moderates who've been penalized by economic policies from the left and my particular expertise that I bring to bear at the Senate level is 35 years of business experience. This business experience will allow me to combat the biggest issues they're facing for monitors today. The biggest issues are the economy, inflation, and violent crime. On the issue of the economy obviously spiking inflation and just incredible increases in prices on food, gasoline, and heating fuel are punishing Vermonters across the state. That is something that I have a six-point plan to address. I have a deep business experience. I've been responsible for the relocation of over 300,000 jobs over the course of my career which is almost half the population of Vermont. I also am very strong on combating crime. I've written two op-eds and two North reports talking about how DOJ is undermining our police force and also looking at the removal of qualified immunity. I want to get more into depth about both the economy and violent crime as we go through this debate tonight. Thank you very much for that, Myers. Now we will move on to the question portion of the forum. We will start with you, Myers. The first question I'm going to ask tonight is, as the most senior member of the U.S. Senate, Leahy has been able to make connections and bring resources to Vermont that have benefited the community. How do you see yourself taking up this position and how do you imagine making up for what many see as a potential loss to Vermont? Right. I don't believe that statement is true and that's why I'm running. Most recently, Senator Leahy, who is the most senior member of the Senate with 48 years of experience, was able to secure earmarks for the State of Vermont of about $162 million. His second in command on the Appropriations Committee, Senator Shelby from Alabama, was able to secure $650 million. By my accounting, Senator Leahy left $488 million on the table. Had I been the chairman of that committee, I would have made sure we got $650 million or $1 billion. There's just no excuse for that. Peter Welch, my opponent in the general election, was able only to bring back $8 million from the federal government. Part of the issue here as a state that's not wealthy, we need to depend on our senators to be strong economically and to be strong within the Senate to make sure that they can fight the swamp and the Biden administration to produce results. So I would be producing results immediately in terms of bringing money back for social services, for mental health, for better blinds across America, in our homes, and a number of other issues. But I really think that we could do a much better job across Vermont and in the U.S. Senate. Great. Thank you very much, Myers. And we'll move to Gerald for that same question. And I'll just, I'll read it out as the most senior member of the U.S. Senate way he's been able to make connections and bring resources to Vermont that have benefited community. How do you see yourself taking up this position and how do you imagine making up for what many see as a potential loss to Vermont? Well, thank you. Well, first off, I'd like to thank Senator Leahy for his 48 years of service. Big shoes to fill. I'm going to rely on a few things. I have some objectives. I want to achieve oil and gas independence, future energy independence, critical technology independence, and food independence. One of the things, as I mentioned, I've been in business development positions for the last 11 plus years. One of my main objectives, my platform is to get back to abiding by the Constitution, get back to promoting economic prosperity, and to get back to securing defense, securing in order. Those are the three things that are not happening right now, particularly on the economy piece. I'm looking to grow jobs back into Vermont that's not been happening. And I talked about performance and leadership. That's what I'll bring to the table to get that done. With my experience, I work with many, many, many businesses that are household names and government organizations across DC. I will look to engage them to have business development in Vermont to grow well-paying jobs for Vermonters. I would also say where my success comes from there is in being able to develop relationships across business. I've had engagements with many, many CEOs over the last 11 years. I know many CEOs of different companies. So I will be able to engage people, develop business relationships to be able to, I think I can bring jobs to Vermont. Thank you very much, Gerald. All right, we'll stay with you for the next question, which is, do you believe that American democracy is under threat? And how could you address this using the U.S. Senate seat? I don't believe democracy is under threat. One of the reasons I'm running is because, as I mentioned, getting back to abiding by the Constitution. So what I've seen in the last 19 months, I believe were quite a few unconstitutional mandates and initiatives and executive orders. And as I take the position as U.S. Senator, I want to install some discipline. Back under the oath, I took the exact same oath the U.S. Senator takes to support and defend the Constitution served under that oath for 22 years. What I'm looking to do is in terms of the Constitution, it talks about promoting the general welfare. And you might have seen recently the Supreme Court decision where it talked West Virginia versus the EPA. I look at that as the Supreme Court telling Congress to do your job and specifically Article 1 Section 1, Congress makes a law. So I want to go back to actually Congress making laws, not OSHA or EPA or not Dr. Fauci, Congress makes the laws. Once we get back to abiding by the Constitution, our democracy will be just fine. Thank you very much, Gerald. Now we'll go back over to Myers for that same question. Do you believe American democracy is under threat? And how could you address this using the U.S. Senate seat? I am a constitutional conservative. I'm not so much worried about the American democracy as I am worried about the American Republic. I have a degree in American history from Columbia University and a degree in theology from Yale. And I've spent a lot of time actually in clergy activities working to intermeet acts of violence in communities. And what I'm seeing on the ground is that people are very divided and that we can't rely on our national leaders to bring us together. And what I want to do is restore Vermont as the peacekeeper state among the nations. If you're old enough to remember I've read about George Akin about what he was able to do in order to bring Vermont forward. And I have a plank in my platform. I know it's unusual that love conquers hate. And I think that's a very powerful message. And I like to say that I love Donald Trump and I love Bernard Sanders. And that for me to say that is one thing, but for all of us to say that is another, and that we can't continue on this course of excessive polarization and excessive rhetoric against each other, leading to the point of violence. We've already seen violence on this campaign. Just because I stood for the Second Amendment and received the highest rating, I was threatened with a death threat with walking in a parade. So I mean this type of excessive rhetoric and violence is not good for us. And we need to cool things down. And I think Vermont, especially all of us working together in community can do that. Thank you very much, Myers. And sort of going along those lines of that and we'll stay with you in terms of getting work done in Congress. How can you deliver on promises to Vermonters given the current partisan composition of Congress and what do you expect will change after the midterm elections? I think I can absolutely deliver. When I was at UVM, I was a White House intern under George H. W. Bush, also worked on Capitol Hill on the Veterans Affairs Committee. I also was very active in the campaign for Governor Mike Huckabee, who endorsed me for president. And I think I know the political system fairly well. And it's likely, although it's not a guaranteed by any measure, that the Republicans will be controlling Congress over the next few years. And to have a Republican who sides with Vermont who understands the issues that are here could be very useful. It could be another vote to help Vermonters accomplish some of the legislative aims that they want to reach. I mean, unfortunately, for better, for worse, build back better voter rights. Some of the large Democrat initiatives that Vermonters have cared about as Democrats didn't get done because they didn't have anybody on the other side. I would be that person who would, because I love all of Vermont, listen to what was brought. I think I could be a very effective advocate within the Republican Party. I did vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. I'm well respected within the party. I think I could be that bridge, mostly because I am that person respecting the party. It's not that I would be an outsider. I know Christina Nolan, for instance, is modeling herself after Susan Collins. I think that type of Republican breaks the Republican majority. We need somebody working inside collaboratively and also informing the Republicans about the other side of the debate instead of just allowing the Republicans, oftentimes, or the Democrats to just dig themselves into these intractable positions. We need to work behind the scenes and talk things through with people. I think I'd be particularly effective senator in that regard. Thank you for that response, Myers. We'll move over to Gerald for that same question. How can you deliver on promises to Vermonters given the current partisan composition of Congress and what do you expect will change after the midterm elections? Thank you. I believe also that the Republican red wave is coming. I do think the Republican Party is going to take control of the House and the Senate and eventually the presidency. What I look to do is bring in a Republican platform, as I mentioned, abiding by the Constitution and promoting economic prosperity and ensuring defense security in order. As I mentioned, in my business career, I develop relationships there and I engage customers in this case, but I will engage Vermonters and across the aisle to develop solutions. What I will not do is to get on the path that we've been on for the last 19 months in terms of overspending and more control. I look for less spending, no new taxes. I'm not going to agree to anything that violates the Constitution. I know, for instance, they try to tuck in little pieces to chip away at the Second Amendment. I'm not going to go along with that. I will, as I mentioned, I develop relationships and work for the best of Vermonters and Vermont and the country, but I'm not going to do anything that goes against the Constitution and just want to support individual freedoms. Thank you. Thank you very much, both of you. Our next question, it sounds like you both have some thoughts on economic issues and this one relates to that. In particular, how do you think Vermont's problem with our aging population impacts our economy? What are some of your solutions to fix that? We'll go to Myers for this. Yeah, this is something I thought a lot about because we're really seeing the weighting and distribution of our population really toward the more senior side, about 55, and we're losing families and children. That's placing a great strain on the state, and I see it everywhere I go. I've literally talked to thousands of Vermonters, all of whom are suffering under these high costs of inflation, high costs of energy and gasoline, but many of whom can't meet the demands of prices for prescription drugs, which is something that I want to change. The Democrats have talked for a long time regrettably about doing this, but we need to make sure that prescription drug prices come down. Seniors, which really predominate in Vermont, need prescription drugs. They also need care. There's been a scarcity of nursing home facilities and additional beds outside of the traditional hospital system for seniors, and I think that's something that we need to address. At the same time, we need to make sure that there are higher paying jobs that can allow people to actually make a living in Vermont. Working for $15 or $20 an hour is not really making a living, and it's not enough money to support a family. I think we've seen that, and that's why a lot of these jobs are unfilled. With my experience of relocating over 300,000 jobs over my career, I'd be very clear about relocating higher paying jobs. One of the things I want to pursue is the federal microchip fabrication plant, which our current senators, Sanders, and Leah have ignored. It's the $2 to $8 billion investment, which could allow us to build literally thousands of new jobs in the south and north of Vermont. I mean, these are the initial jobs and all the ancillary jobs that would support them, but this type of $2 to $8 billion investment, almost the same size of our state budget, would have a tremendous impact in jumpstarting our economy. I also want to spend our money better. I think we're misspending our money on broadband, for instance, and we're also misspending our money on affordable housing. We need to install some economic discipline, and unfortunately, because it's more or less a one-party system here, there aren't constructive, helpful voices from the other side, and I'd like to be that voice. Thank you very much, Myers. We'll go to Gerald to answer this question. I'll reread it for just so folks can know, and then we have an attendee who would like to ask a question, so we'll move on to that. Yeah, an attendee. Yes. All right, Gerald, how do you think that Vermont's problem with the aging population impacts our economy, and what are some of your solutions to fix it? Sure. Thank you again. A big picture, as I talked about, the overspending is actually, that's what's causing the inflation that we're experiencing now, the 40-year high, 9.1, and it's having follow-on implications as the government tries to tamp that down. It's raising the interest rates for mortgages, for instance, which have doubled. The same thing with, I mentioned, the oil and gas independence. We have a president that's gone on a crusade to try to kill the oil and gas industry. I would look to remove that one way or another so that we can regain oil and gas independence that we had and get gas, for instance, down in the $2 range where it used to be, not five, six, seven dollars a gallon. We're coming up on winter, I think after recently gas or home heating oil went up to 60, 89 a gallon, so hopefully we're not going to get there again. I am in favor of, during that we have future energy capability, but we're not there right now, and I would look to reevaluate so we ensure we have industry involvement to develop the innovation. We have the resources to do that, and we have buying from the public, and the public understands the people from on to understand the cost to that. So recently the Climate Action Plan, just by one vote, was going to be enacted, but it didn't by one vote. I mentioned earlier trying to grow well-paying jobs, and that's what I would look to do with the many businesses and government organizations that I've worked with over many years to try to get them to relocate here into Vermont and grow well-paying jobs so that Vermonters want to stay. It's right, people finish up high school and they have to leave because they don't want to make just minimum wage, so I want to grow more jobs that are well-paying here in Vermont. That's it. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Now we will have, we're going to promote our attendee to ask their question on Zoom here, and then we will start with Gerald to answer. But Michael, hello. Thanks for joining us. You can go ahead and ask your question. Not really hearing that. Michael, is there any way that you can turn up your speaker or get a little closer to it? There we go. Perfect. You're cutting in and out here. Michael's going to type it out and then I'll read it. All right, so Michael's question is what would either of you do to curb rising crime in the nation? And Gerald, we'll start with you. Sure. So I'm fully supportive of our law enforcement community. I've worked with much of our law enforcement community for many years on different events and then including presidential disaster declarations. I want to support our law enforcement community. I do not want to remove qualified immunity. I think that's important. What I am looking for to be as a U.S. Senator is to get back to the vision that I consider the founding fathers of limited government but having just enough order so that we can all, all Vermonters, enjoy the liberty, freedom and rights of the Constitution. The Defund the Police movement has taken away from the abilities of our law enforcement community and I know they're having issues, they're filling positions. I know there's also maybe even a greater issue with our court system that is allowing criminals to commit crimes and then and walk and do it again and again and again and again. So a couple of things. I would look to fully fund the law enforcement community, give them the training and the resources they need to do their job and look to, for instance, you hear about the progressive prosecutor movement. I want to continue to move away from that. So the criminals go to jail and if that is going to take additional funding to build more jails, then I would be supportive of that because what's happening here in Vermont across the country, there's actually another part of it, the fentanyl problem that we're having. So I'm actually, I actually call that chemical warfare. Most of the fentanyl is a synthetic opioid being made in China, being pushed up through Mexico. So I would look to impose sanctions to try to reduce that, even actually put up the wall on our southern border to reduce some fentanyl comming that is causing part of the increase in crime. But to summarize, get back to supporting our law enforcement community because without that, without them able to do their job, we're losing the order that is that we need to have in place so we can all enjoy our constitutional rights. Thank you. Thank you, Gerald. And Michael, if you have anything else to say, feel free to type it and we'll move on to Myers now to respond to his question. What would you do to curb rising crime in the nation? Michael, I think that's an excellent question and I hear it on from many Vermonters across the state. And I think it's important to recognize how we got here. In terms of our law enforcement, obviously, I'm behind them 100% in the enforcement of their duties. I want to make sure that it's an equal and fair justice system, which I believe we do have. I don't think that we need to dismantle the law enforcement community in order to provide equitable justice. But I will say that because the laws haven't been enforced, unfortunately, crime has risen. So the lady that's not here today, Christina Nolan, was a prosecutor. And under her term of four years as US Attorney, crime rose to a 10-year high, drug deaths doubled. And the settlement she reached with Purdue Pharma about opioids was called by New York Times a sellout and a failure. I don't think that we can promote people like that into new jobs. I think we need to be realistic about where we are today and to try to solve that. Now, as a US Senator, I would be actively engaged with DOJ in supporting local and state law enforcement. I've written extensively in True North in two different op-eds. One particularly about DOJ, how they're undermining our reporting capability. After 2020, when Joe Biden came into office, all the state information for crime is going to DOJ. But DOJ is not giving us the information back. So as we saw in New York in the 90s when they needed to get control of crime, they needed reporting, they need to identify incidents of crime, identify patterns, and then address it with resources. We don't have that ability today, and I would change that. On the issue of the particular departments, Act 254, which was passed this year, calls for really the removal of qualified immunity past November. The removal of qualified immunity will be catastrophic defunding with estimates of 50% of the police department's leaving. So that will be a mass exodus of police officers that we won't be able to remedy. Right now, we have a problem in Burlington. Obviously, police staffing there is down 45%. They were above 100. Now they're 53. And when they're short, the troopers and everybody else has to fill in. If there's this catastrophic defunding, we won't be able to do that. And what's worse, what's so difficult about crime is it affects low and moderate income people even more. They don't have the money to protect themselves. They don't have money for security, for alarms, to live in the better neighborhoods that are served by the better police departments. And so crime really hurts the most vulnerable in our society. And so there is a social justice aspect to this in terms of bringing peace and order. Obviously, without peace and order, religious liberty, our republic and the free enterprise system can exist. It's critical to everything we do. And I would stand behind all these remedies in seeking this. Thank you very much, Myers. And thank you so much, Michael, for joining us tonight and for participating and asking your question. Thank you very much. And I think at this point, we're getting close to time. So I want to give both Myers and Gerald enough time to do closing statements. I have a question. Sorry? How about do you have a question for your opponent? Sure. How about real quick, we can do that and we'll skip the closing statements instead of that. Okay. Myers, how about we'll start with you? Well, Gerald, we have a lot of things common as conservatives, but I am concerned that as you speak about the relationships you've made in 10 years as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., that those relationships and your work to lobby the government for jobs through your military relationships, I'm concerned. What assurances can you give for monitors that you won't benefit from those relationships? I know we've seen on the national level politicians and their families benefiting from relationships and lobbying efforts. What assurances can you give Vermont that there won't be any conflicts of interest if you were to be elected? Well, thank you. So first, going back to West Point and learning about the values of duty, honor, and country, that is how I will conduct myself. I've embraced those values. I live by those values. I would also say I'm actually not a lobbyist. I work for different defense services companies and my title is business development. One of the things that I've seen and experienced over the last 11 plus years is called organizational conflict of interest. And I can tell you that the government bends over backwards to ensure there's not even the perception of any impropriety or unfair advantage between companies vying to have the honor to support, for instance, a military organization providing people. As I mentioned, I developed a technical solution and the pricing is extremely competitive. And that when getting back to that, what they call OCI, that is also how I will conduct myself as a US senator, as I've done in business to so that there's absolutely not any perception of unfair advantage. And I would actually say, if you go back, you see that with some of the folks that are in Congress now, they go to Congress and years after many years, they somehow become very, very wealthy. So I'm not going to operate like that. I'm going to operate to serve Vermonters as I've done throughout my whole career under the values of duty, honor, and country. Myers, we can do a quick 30 second rebuttal if you'd like or we can have Gerald ask you a question. Well, Gerald, I would just say that I hear what you're saying about government getting rid of conflict of interest. But you know, as we've seen in the Biden administration with the family of Biden, also within the DOJ, I'm not sure that I trust government with conflict of interest. We really have to trust individuals. So I hear what you're saying. Thank you, Myers. And now, Gerald, you have the opportunity to ask Myers any question you'd like if you'd like to. No, I don't have any question. Okay. And so we will do closing statements. And Gerald, we'll start with you. Sure. Well, Emily, thank you very much. This has been great. I appreciate this opportunity and thank you for all the questions and audience participation. It's been a great last six months. I'm very excited about the primary coming up on August 9th, and I would ask people to get out and vote. I do believe I'm the best candidate over the 42 years of performance and demonstrated leadership and my service in the military and the government and working in business. My intention is to serve all of Vermont in Vermont and the United States in accordance with the Constitution and get our great country back on track. We're going in the wrong direction, and I think I'm the right person to get us going back in the right direction. So be the 14 star shine bright and God bless America. Thank you. Thank you very much, Gerald. And Myers, your closing statement. Yes, I would like to say that thank you everybody for participating. And I would ask everyone to go to the polls on August 9th. It's an important civic duty to vote. And I think we need to send somebody forward who is as as Republicans as we send somebody forward, who's able to really prevail in the general election. I feel that because my business experience informs my candidacy, because I am so strong on the economy, on beating inflation, on bringing down prices of food, on bringing down prices of food and fuel, as well as combating violent crime. These are the issues that matter most to Vermont. And only somebody with that message will be able to convince the Democrats and independence necessary to win this election. I believe I am that person who can contest that election. And we actually, because we're such a small party, we need to get half of the Democrats to vote for us. So because, as Bill Clinton said, it's the economy stupid, we need to focus on the issues that are of most importance to all of Vermont, which are inflation, the economy and crime. And I'm a candidate to do that. And I want to serve Vermont with all my heart and strength. And I would say God bless Vermont and God bless the United States. Thank you very much, Myers. And thank you so much to both candidates for joining us tonight and participating in our forum discussion. And thank you to our participant, as well as our viewers for tuning into town meeting TVs, ongoing coverage of local community candidates, budget and ballot items. You can find this and more forums at www.ch17.tv. And like Myers said, don't forget to vote on or before the second Tuesday in August, August 9, 2022. Early voting by mail is available. You're getting close to the deadline here. So just make sure you reach out to the town clerks to double check. And polls will be open from 7am to 7pm on August 9. So thank you for participating. And thank you all for watching. Thank you, Emily.