{"id":37575,"date":"2022-10-31T12:55:29","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T18:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bennet-odea-trade-jabs-in-contentious-final-u-s-senate-debate\/"},"modified":"2022-10-31T18:55:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T18:55:29","slug":"bennet-odea-trade-jabs-in-contentious-final-u-s-senate-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bennet-odea-trade-jabs-in-contentious-final-u-s-senate-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Bennet, O\u2019Dea trade jabs in contentious final U.S. Senate debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Michael Bennet, left, and Joe O\u2019Dea, right. (Bennet: Chase Woodruff\/Colorado Newsline O\u2019Dea: Courtesy of Sage Naumann\/O\u2019Dea campaign)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As the only televised debate in the race for Colorado\u2019s U.S. Senate seat<\/a> began in Fort Collins on Friday night, each candidate stuck to some of their campaign\u2019s most familiar themes.<\/p>\n

High inflation, said Republican nominee Joe O\u2019Dea, won\u2019t subside \u201cuntil we end the war on diesel, the frivolous spending and the government intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, seeking a third full Senate term, touted his efforts to pass an expanded child tax credit<\/a> and fix \u201can economy where for 50 years, even before this inflation, (working people) felt like they couldn\u2019t get their families moving ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the night soon took on a more contentious tone as the candidates exchanged some of their harshest words of the campaign to date, with Bennet growing visibly frustrated and O\u2019Dea, who made several false or unsubstantiated claims throughout the debate, persisting in a debunked lie<\/a> about Bennet\u2019s legislative record despite repeated clarifications from moderators and his opponent.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea claimed four times during the debate, hosted by 9News, KRDO and Colorado Politics at Colorado State University, that Bennet had written \u201cone bill in 13 years that became law.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea\u2019s lie rests on a misleading Congress.gov search result<\/a> and a false impression of how legislation is routinely passed in Congress. A review of the congressional record shows dozens of substantive bills authored by Bennet have been passed and signed into law as part of larger packages of legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a liar, Joe,\u201d Bennet replied after O\u2019Dea refused to retract the claim.<\/p>\n

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