Senate candidates Rogers, Slotkin spar over Chinese company in Michigan during debate

FOX 2 -
Democrat Elissa Slotkin and Republican Mike Rogers agreed to disagree on lots of issues tonight in their first televised debate  .

Two U.S. Senate candidates agree that Michigan needs more energy and the federal government should re-open the mothballed Palisades Power Plant

And on the agreement side, it was done after that, in terms of the debate topics.

The back-and-forth included Rogers charging the former CIA agent Slotkin with being 100% for President Joe Biden's agenda.

"I voted and split with my party more than 97% of other Democrats, on average a couple times every month," she said.

Slotkin accused him of voting to privatize Social Security, raise the retirement age, and stop Medicaid from negotiating drug prices.

He said it was not true.

"I'm not even sure she could pass the polygraph test for the CIA anymore," he said. "When you look at what we have to do to protect it, fear and scare is not going to get it done, nor did I do the things she suggested I did."

The tension rose when the topic of bringing a Chinese company to build EV batteries up north.

He accused her of signing a document, a non-disclosure agreement never to disclose any details of the proposed deal for a company he said has ties to the Communist party.

"I have never signed an NDA with any Chinese company, any Chinese government," she said. "He repeats it, it is a lie."

"If don't believe me, go to SlotkinNDA.com, you'll see the signed NDA," Rogers said.

And the two took on the abortion issue. She argues his past record when he was in Congress, is clear.

"He voted for every single ban, every restriction, every bill that came across his desk to make it harder for a woman," Slotkin said. "And to ban, in some cases, a woman and her right to choose - 56 times in total."

He says he would do nothing to overturn what Michigan voters passed in 2022, which enshrined the right to abortion in the Michigan constitution, and which passed overwhelmingly.

"I will do nothing when I go back to Washington DC to do anything that would change what the Michigan constitution, voted on by the people of Michigan have given us that guidance to go back."

Predictably, both sides declared victory and preparing for the final debate in Detroit later this month.