Mark Kelly
Giffords gun control org founder and Arizona Senate candidate Mark Kelly (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

A show-stopping moment during last week’s Senate debate between Republican Sen. Martha McSally and her Democratic opponent Mark Kelly came when the senator accused Kelly of having a part in a “radical political organization” tied to the “extreme left” fringe of the Democratic Party.

Without explaining the nature of the group or naming it, McSally charged that Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut who is running as a moderate Democrat, had been “a political operative for a decade … Some of the most extreme, left-wing candidates in our country running for office, bankrolling them, endorsing them.”

Pressed to explain her attack, McSally punted to her rival.

“I think he knows,” she said, adding the group “has raised $57 million.” …

“This is about who Mark Kelly has spent the last decade supporting and sending to Washington: the most liberal Democrats who have been champions for infringing on our Constitutional rights, open borders, socialized medicine, defunding the police and the many other radical ideas that are now mainstream in the Democrat Party,” said Caroline Anderegg, McSally’s campaign spokesperson. “Mark has been on an unabashed crusade to open the door for these ideas and roll back our Second Amendment rights, and that he tries to claim otherwise further proves he’ll say anything to get elected.”

– Yvonne Wingett Sanchez in Martha McSally’s attack puts spotlight on Gabrielle Giffords shooting, Mark Kelly’s gun-safety advocacy

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69 COMMENTS

  1. Kelly is probably more charismatic than McSally, and many people vote based on personality instead of policy. I’ve heard plenty of faux conservatives say they will vote for Biden just because Trump is a bully. The perception was that Trump was bullying Biden during the debate, yet it was Biden that told him to shut up and called him a clown.

    • McSally’s political strategists are FP1 Partners, a Washington DC political campaign firm. She hired other talent that had previously worked for John McCain, Jeff Flake and the Republican Governors Association to manage her campaign and her political messaging.

      It’s all been a fucking crap show that has pushed Arizona voters away, toward Kelly, with the exception of the Trump cultists the campaign has focused on while ignoring all others.

      You do not win an election by appealing only to a base of true believers.

      So, I have already voted for McSally but I expect her to lose. The problem is she’s been campaigning stupidly. It’s a goddamned shame, there is so much more to that lady than shilling for Trump. But that’s been her entire act, aiming her message solely at Trump’s base and it has killed her chances. I do not believe that her real positions her known. She is far too intelligent to be the character, the Trump sycophantic and cultist, she is pretending to be.

      Mark Kelly should have been easy to beat. He’s a damned hypocrite, he even attempted illegal gun buys as a stunt for anti-gun organizations. He deserved to be arrested for that stunt. No matter how purple Arizona has become, for Kelly to be leading as strongly as he is, it is entirely McSally’s fault for dropping the ball.

      Meanwhile, back in the cemetery……..
      Oct 14, 2020 @ 7AM MST, USA Dead From Covid-19: 219,254
      https://www.bing.com/covid/local/unitedstates

    • The word I’ve heard used most in that context is “tone”.

      The fascinating thing is that one of the favorite tactics of everyday bullies is to harass their victims to the point where they get angry and do something. Then they cry to the authorities as if they’re the victim.

      It’s truly frustrating that so many people are unable to distinguish truth from lies, especially when those who care about the truth get angry because of those lies. It’s as if they prefer the murderer who smiles and laughs as his victim’s life drains away over those who are angry at the murder and try to defend the victim, especially if that defense involves the need for violence.

      • Yes, tone. I watched some of the McSally Kelly debate. She had him all over the place on policy, but she came across a bit shrill. Policy aside, Kelly came across as a reasonable, likable person.

        • Exactly, her performance reminds people of Shrillery Clinton.

          Mark Kelly is an awful choice, but McSally has handed the election to him on a silver platter.

          Hell of a shame.

    • Biden was correct about Trump. That’s why every poll there is has called Biden the winner of the poll.

      Take note that normally, political campaigns do their own polling. They report the results publicly to show how very in favor the public is of them. But there is none of that coming from Trump’s campaign. His inside polling is either non-existent, which does not happen in a modern campaign, or is so negative they cannot use the results.

      Biden was right, Trump was trying to bully and clown his way in that “debate”. To blame Biden for a few phrases and words in reaction to being on stage with a worse act than the “Gong Show” ever put on the stage is just wrong headed.

      Trump blew the debate., pure and simple

      • I agree that Trump didn’t do himself any favors. I thought the optics were pretty bad, but I’m a logic voter, not an emotional one. Biden was beginning to lose himself a couple of times. Once he was rescued by Wallace, and one time Trump butted in and rescued him. Hopefully he has a better strategy for the next debate.

        • Creepy Uncle Joe is not worrying about the next debate, there won’t be a next debate, besides he’s too busy running for the Senate while telling the 35 people at his rally in Ohio how great it is to be in Pennsylvania and telling stories about “that Mormon guy” they ran against in 2012….

      • This election is about the constitution of the USA, Bill of Rights, freedom, less government, take down the Communist Chinese Party that controls the democrats, kill the democratic/socialist=communist party and MAKE AMERICA BETTER. No more globalists. If you want globalists running this country, then bury or hide or loose your fire arms/ammo, forget about freedom for you and your friends (democrat elites will rule) and everyone is equal to everyone else. No incentives to take on the American dream, become better educated, earn more money, raise your family as you want….not as your democratic government will force you to do. President Trump has accomplished more that even my hero, President Reagan, accomplished. Do the research. Don’t listen the the drive-by media.

  2. While I understand the positions in this issue, I also understand why he would be anti-gun, considering what’s happened in his personal life.
    We need to tread carefully on this one, have some tact.

    • Tread lightly?
      How this. Gabby is nothing but a meat puppet and Mr. Kelly has had his hand up her ass controlling her for his anti gun agenda.
      He should have been prosecuted for his attempted straw purchase he openly admitted to.
      He’s a criminal, and she’s brain dead.

      • Yeah, and that kind of talk is why we can’t have nice things.

        Such as having a Republican Senator from Arizona, at least one, instead of two Democrats.

        Way to lose!

        • Enuf, I thought you were about principle, even if it means losing, right? Aren’t you in the group with ChiefSelfer and others on this forum voting against Trump on principle? I’m with Tom, call it like it is and have the guts to take the Kelly’s to the court with relentless pressing their backs to the sidelines. Kelly is a traitor and we should all be calling him out on that. Other patriots have lost their family due to violence and they don’t turn against the constitution, like Kelly did. But, I don’t believe Kelly ever intended to support and defend the constitution, unless he can prove that he once supported the 2A when he took the oath. He’s a traitor and a lier!

        • Officers tend to see enlisted ranks as corpses to climb for their next promotion. And senior officers see “civilians” as unruly recruits who need applied discipline.

          Kelly clearly has the arrogance of a senior officer.

      • Tom, I agree. Mark Kelly is a traitor and a disgrace to the oath of a US military officer! He’s a lying traitor! Any Officer, active, retired or reserve, who is anti-2A should be court marshaled for treason!

        • Oh and let me clarify. Kelly is going beyond exercising freedom of speech by expressing a political opinion against the 2A. He is actively, through his foundation of his org and political activities, trying to overthrow, subvert and infringe upon the RKBA protected by the 2A. That is where he is a treasonous traitor! He took an oath to defend It now he’s turned against It!

    • Tact? The left doesn’t. Explain why, in politics, one side can (mostly) play be the rules and the other can move the goal lines?

      Giffords being shot by a madman shouldn’t result in the infringement of rights on 350+ million Americans.

      • A madman who also happened to be a Democrat leftist. They would have you think he was a White Supremacist or some right wing looney. Nope, he was fully Leftist.

    • That he uses his brain damaged wife to further his political ambitions shows he’ll do anything. He doesnt deserve treading carefully.

    • No. He is a politician running for an important office. Ask him those Constitutional questions…evaluate his responses through your personal filters and decide accordingly.

      Kelly has been a pimp for Progressivism longer than his spouse has been disabled.

      Your call for tact is misplaced.

    • Except he is a hypocrite and he just doesn’t want OTHER people to have gun. He got caught trying to buy an AR-15 at the same time he was calling for them to be banned and then made up bad excuses as to why he was doing it.

    • FL is one of those establishment types that thinks “Republicans” should lose in a gentlemanly manner and accept whatever the socialist/fascist/marxist want to appease them. S/he probably supported Romney because he was a “gentleman” and didn’t make any waves while the media savaged him. S/he probably voted for Obama because he was the “magic negro(Al Sharpton’s opinion)”. In this day and age, with socialists/fascists/marxists rioting in the streets, looting, burning parts of cities down and murdering people randomly, FL can go to hell.

    • Sarah Brady made a very lucrative career for herself and sabotaged your gun rights for decades because of thinking like this.

      I’m sorry his wife got shot, but it wasnt with my gun and i didnt do it so he can screw right off trying to take mine away.

    • Narratives that conservative leaders neither control nor understand drive national policy. When Republican leaders shrink from Constitutional principles for fear of being accused of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., they are subordinating those principles to neo-Marxist narratives designed for that purpose. Though these narratives may have been initially imposed, Republicans will adopt them over time through usage. Subjective awareness of the role one plays in such a process is neither necessary nor require.

      By submitting to these narratives, establishment Republicans first become pliant, and then obedient to the Left, accommodating it through “words that work” that create the illusion of opposition while actually signaling surrender in the information battle space. In that role, regardless of the mandates that got them elected, establishment Republicans will defend the issues that got them elected in deliberately under-inclusive manners that conditions those issues for dialectical negation while demoralizing their base. What Republicans demoralize, the Left then disenfranchises. In this role, establishment Republicans become the defeat mechanism of the Left. (“Defeat Mechanism: The method of defeating the opponent.”  Joint Publication 5-00.1, Joint Doctrine for Campaign Planning, January 25, 2002).

    • OR, maybe we should RECALL the FACTS of the matter… (One), the guy that shot his wife was an unbalanced, left wing imbecile… (B), it was the moron with a gun he should NOT have had access to that shot his wife NOT the gun itself and (three), to use the shooting of his wife as an excuse to push an all out agenda of depriving millions of sane, law abiding gun owners of their god given, Constitutionally protected “rights” is just sad… I own a shitload of guns some are American made, some are Russian, one is German and several others are manufactured in various other countries and not one of them not the Commies, the Nazi, the Socialist or the Neutrals have ever gone out and killed anyone or anything unless they were under my control, I do have a couple of vintage warriors that may have a past which they are keeping to themselves but, since I’ve owned them they have behaved (and performed) perfectly…. Not to worry, Justice Barrett will uphold our rights no matter how many Mark Kelleys make to Congress..

    • To hell with tact. No matter how much trauma you may have in your life, you don’t deprive the rest of the world of their rights in retaliation.

    • How’s this, Mark Kelly is a traitor and a disgrace to the oath of a US military officer! He’s a lying traitor! Any Officer, active, retired or reserve, who is anti-2A should be court marshaled for treason!

    • And Kelly isn’t out for justice. He’s out for vengeance and dosen’t care who and how many are punished.

  4. McSally should bring up the fact that Mark Kelly violated Federal law when he lied on a Form 4473 when purchasing an AR-15 for a publicity stunt. He wasn’t prosecuted.

    • JW,

      It’s Ok when the Left commits Federal felonies…it’s all for the cause…don ‘cha know.

      /sarc

    • Pretty sure the penalty for that lie is 5 years without parole. I have never heard ONE WORD about why he was not prosecuted. I think it is pretty clear it was due to selective prosecution, if Trump did the same thing tomorrow, he would be in prison by the end of the week.

  6. Don’t forget that MacSally used to fly a 30mm Gatling gun that had an airplane built around it.

    • Kelly is running ads showing him as an attack pilot. McSally also flew attack aircraft, A10. Personally I think that she was braver in that she was down in the weeds while Kelly was dropping his ordinance from higher up.

  7. Retired Navy Captain’s and any other current or former Officer who is against the 2A, which includes civilian RKBA like AR-15 and 30+ round magazines, are traitors to the US and our constitution. They lied when they took their oath of office. Mark Kelly is a lying traitor!

  8. McSally is just a terrible campaigner. For someone who reached Full Bird Colonel she displays a marked lack of gravitas.

    • Kelly is also a retired O-6, and I would expect him to uphold his oath of office and defend the constitution. He’s a fake!

  9. Mark Kelly is also a retired O-6. While possibly more articulate than his competition, he’s worse! He’s a traitor and a disgrace to the oath of office. Other tyrants have charisma as well. Kelly is no different than any other tyrant. I will vote for an Officer who upholds his/her oath over a lier any day!

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