Here's What Happened In The Missouri Senate Debate: Video

ST. LOUIS, MO — Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill debated her Republican challenger, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, Thursday night in St. Louis. The two traded barbs for more than an hour, with Hawley accusing McCaskill of being an out-of-touch liberal and McCaskill saying Hawley has "a tortured relationship with the truth."

(RELATED: McCaskill Demands Investigation Into Project Veritas Recordings)

McCaskill pressed her opponent on a lawsuit that could strip the Affordable Care Act of provisions protecting pre-existing conditions, possibly kicking thousands of Missourians off their health care or jacking up rates to exorbitant levels.

Hawley denied that would be the effect should he win in court, still holding out hope for a failed repeal and replace effort should Republicans manage to hold onto Congress.

Meanwhile, Hawley accused McCaskill of being too liberal for Missouri, calling her a "party line politician" and attacking her record on agriculture.

"Sen. McCaskill has an F from the American Farm Bureau," Hawley said. "Farmers tell me as I travel all over the state that she won't even meet with them when they come to Washington D.C."

McCaskill said she meets with farmers all the time, but not necessarily trade associations or lobbyists like the AFB, and criticized the president's trade war against China, saying it would hurt Missouri agriculture for a long time.

“We are in a trade war. If we’re going to be in the war, I want to win it,” Hawley pushed back, defending the president's negotiating tactics the he said have paid off with Mexico and Canada.

Both candidates said they would fight any cuts to Medicare or Social Security, which the Senate GOP recently hinted might come if Republicans hang on in Congress. McCaskill attacked the skyrocketing federal budget deficit, which she blamed on Republican tax cuts (about a fifth of which went to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy).

"The Republican Party loves to talk about debt and deficits until they are in charge," she said. "And then it’s crickets. It's absolutely crickets."

Hawley blamed Obamacare for the deficit, saying that he would cut the Affordable Care Act's budget rather than touching Medicare or Social Security.

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Though Hawley had repeatedly challenged McCaskill to debate on a flatbed truck, asking her just to name the time and place, the logistics of the debate were much more complicated, according to St. Louis Public Radio.

"Both the Hawley and McCaskill campaigns had to agree on debate logistics including: whether the candidates stand behind a lectern, if the candidates may move around the stage, the general question-and-answer format and various other specifics that tend to cause conflict between rival campaigns," the radio station explained in a behind-the-scenes article.

Moderators took questions from a live audience as well as from social media. Nine Network also hosted a free public watch party at their station's Public Media Commons downtown.

Follow the debate on Facebook and Twitter by using the hashtag #mosenatedebate. Let us know who you think won in the comments, and be sure to check out Patch's 2018 Midterm Voter Guide for more information on the races in front of Missouri voters this November.

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