DOVER, Del. (AP) - Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Carper is criticizing Republican attempts to dredge up a decades-old incident in which he slapped his ex-wife, leaving her with a black eye.
During a debate Wednesday at the University of Delaware, Carper and Republican challenger Rob Arlett were asked whether President Donald Trump should be held to the same standard as other public figures who have been accused of sexual misconduct.
After both candidates agreed that no one was above the law, Arlett noted that October was Domestic Violence Awareness Month and brought up the slapping incident.
“There was a lie for 19 years about that. There was a big cover-up,” Arlett said, prompting an angry retort from Carper.
“That is baloney. Let’s set the record straight, OK, my friend?” Carper said.
“Over 40 years ago, I made a mistake,” he explained. “I owned it. I didn’t hide it. It was public knowledge.”
After denying allegations of domestic abuse during his 1982 congressional campaign, Carper acknowledged in a 1998 interview that he had slapped his wife during an argument. Carper’s ex-wife, Diane, died in 2013.
Carper complained Wednesday that political opponents have routinely dredged up the incident over the past several decades “to create political mischief for me.”
“It didn’t work 30 years ago, it didn’t work 20 years ago, it didn’t work 10 years ago,” he said. “And you know what? It’s not going to work this time either.”
Meanwhile, Arlett called the upcoming election a referendum on Carper, who he described as one of several career politicians in Washington beholden to corporations and campaign donors.
“People want change, they want their voice heard,” said Arlett, who was Trump’s state campaign chair in 2016.
Carper said the election was about upholding the government’s system of checks and balances and ensuring that Trump does not end up being “a king with almost endless powers.”
While finding little common ground on issues such as gun control, climate change and Trump’s tax cuts, both candidates suggested that legalization of marijuana is an issue best left for individual states to decide.
“If they want to try it, … let them try it,” Carper said.
Carper, who voted against confirming Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice, expressed regret for voting to confirm Kavanaugh 12 years ago as an appeals court judge.
“He has perhaps the worst record on environmental issues of any judge I know of,” Carper said.
Arlett criticized Carper for deciding to vote against Kavanaugh even before the Senate Judiciary Committee considered his nomination, but he also criticized Republicans for refusing to allow a vote on President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016.
“I think that was a mistake,” he said.
Earlier Wednesday evening, incumbent Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester squared off against Republican challenger Scott Walker in the campaign for Delaware’s lone U.S. House seat, fielding many of the same questions that were later posed to Carper and Arlett.
As in the Senate debate, the two House candidates expressed similar views in some areas but staked out opposing positions on major issues such as gun control, climate change and tax cuts.
Asked about whether the House should begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, Rochester said she supports holding leaders accountable, and that the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller needs to be protected from interference.
“It’s premature, in my mind, to talk impeachment,” she said before adding, “Where there’s smoke, maybe there’s fire.”
Walker said he has seen nothing that Trump has done that would warrant impeachment.
“There’s nothing there right now,” he said.
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