Fontes Challenges "Pretend Progressive" Whitehouse to Debate

Fontes Challenges "Pretend Progressive" Whitehouse to Debate

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Pat Fontes is challenging sitting Senator Sheldon Whitehouse to a debate citing the need to discuss Whitehouse’s “frequent and longstanding votes on militaristic and imperialistic foreign policy enabling the perilously unstable administration of Donald Trump.”

Fontes said in a statement issued on Wednesday, “Pretend progressive Sheldon Whitehouse has paraded around as a champion of liberal causes while simultaneously condoning many of Trump’s most dangerous and worrisome policies. Senator Whitehouse, joining his out of touch colleagues in the Democratic Party establishment, has for years approved excessive, inhumane and unjustifiable war and weapons spending, exceeding $1.4 trillion for the Pentagon in 2018 and 2019 alone. Whitehouse has callously prolonged the suffering of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis, including small children, by refusing to even debate measures that could lead to the end of U.S. involvement in that deplorable war.”

Fontes appeared on GoLocal LIVE on June 28 - Watch Here

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“This should all come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the voting record of Sheldon Whitehouse. Indeed, a New York Times review finds that the senator has voted in agreement with Trump a shocking one in every four times. Whitehouse tells constituents to be fearful of the autocratic Trump government, yet multiple times he approved warrantless spying by Trump when given the chance to eliminate Orwellian FISA court policies established under the Bush administration. Whitehouse confirmed Mike Pompeo as CIA chief, providing a crucial stepping stone for a dangerous and xenophobic Secretary of State. Whitehouse, meanwhile, invests his vast family fortune in war profiteers such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, and Honeywell, while accepting tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the so-called defense contractors he lobbies for in Washington. This is consistent with the kind of progressive who gives empty Senate floor speeches on climate change while condoning fossil fuel based electrical production in his own state,” she added.

Fontes concluded, “I am a retired woman. My schedule is flexible. Name a place and time, Sen. Whitehouse, and I will be there to debate your hawkish voting record.”

According to her bio, she is "a lifelong progressive activist and university educator. A fixture in Rhode Island's activist community, Fontes has opposed war policies of administrations dating back to the 1960s, protested environmental degradation globally and in her own backyard, and advocated for fairness for utility customers."