On almost every topic, Rick Scott repeated a "do-nothing" refrain: “My opponent has had 40 years to do something on immigration and he’s absolutely done nothing." | AP Photo The liar vs. the do-nothing: Florida's first Senate debate gets mean

MIRAMAR — Gov. Rick Scott’s a liar. Sen. Bill Nelson's a do-nothing.

The two rivals' descriptions for each other in their first debate Tuesday underscored the bitterness flowing through Florida's nationally watched Senate race.


On immigration, gun control, Florida’s water pollution crisis, Cuba and health care policy, the Republican governor and the Democratic incumbent agreed on virtually nothing during the hour-long Telemundo 51 debate. (The channel plans to broadcast the debate at 7 p.m. in Spanish translation. Select NBC stations will webcast it in English.)

The two also had sharply differing takes on the Supreme Court confirmation fight over Brett Kavanaugh.

Nelson said he wouldn’t vote to confirm because of the judge’s temperament and because he believed one of the women who accused him of sexual assault decades ago, even as “11 Republican men [on the Judiciary Committee] seemed to dismiss” her.

Scott accused Nelson of being purely partisan on the issue, and said the hearing was a “circus. It’s more like a ‘Jerry Springer Show.’”

Polls show the race is essentially tied, but Nelson might have moved slightly ahead in recent days.

The first debate topic — immigration — set the tone.

Nelson said he favored comprehensive immigration reform and pointed out that he voted for the bipartisan Senate immigration legislation that died in 2013 in the House, where the GOP majority refused to even hear the bill. Nelson said the bill’s failure, coupled with President Donald Trump’s family separation policy at the borders, have led to horrific results — although the senator didn’t emphasize the president’s role.

“You see children being taken away from their families at the border, which, by the way, when it was happening, my opponent was silent,” Nelson said.

Scott noted that wasn’t true: “With regard to the kids that were separated from their parents, I completely disagreed with the president. And my opponent should have gone to DC and gotten something done.”

Scott did criticize the family-separation policy, after Nelson and Democrats began intensifying their criticism of it.

On almost every topic, Scott repeated the "do-nothing" refrain. “My opponent has had 40 years to do something on immigration and he’s absolutely done nothing. ... It’s remarkable he’s been there when his parties controlled both chambers and the White House and he did nothing. ... All these problems are caused because Congress failed to act, failed to act, failed to act.”

Scott said the government needs to first secure the border, then outlaw sanctuary cities and “take care” of young immigrants under the Trump-scuttled DACA program.

Nelson responded by noting that Scott in 2010 supported the Arizona-style immigration law that led to racial profiling.

“You are starting to hear from my opponent that, whatever he says, is simply not true,” Nelson said. “He has nine TV advertisements on the air. A fact-checking independent organization has checked them. And they’re all either false or ‘Pants on Fire false’. The technique that my opponent uses is he tries to distract.”

Scott responded by attacking the fact-checking website, PolitiFact, because it’s “an arm of the Tampa Bay Times. They’re not exactly perceived to be a nonpartisan group ... I would look at it as a part of the Democrat Party.”

Earlier that day, however, PolitiFact, found that one of Scott’s attack ads — concerning Nelson’s low committee attendance record — was true.

On gun control, the contrasts between the two are even sharper. Nelson wants a ban of tactical rifles commonly known as assault weapons. Scott doesn’t.

Nelson pointed out that Scott has had an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association due to the slew of pro-gun laws he has signed. And to drive his point home, Nelson brought to the debate Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jamie was one of 17 people murdered Feb. 14 in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.

“I hope, Governor, that you will look Fred Guttenberg in the face and tell him that you’re not going to support those kinds of policies that you have with the NRA,” Nelson said.

Scott responded with an expression of sympathy for all the Parkland families, some of whom support him.

“My heart goes out to them,” Scott said. “I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in all the amendments to the Bill of Rights. In contrast to Senator Nelson, who has never gotten anything done with regard to creating school safety, we actually did something.”

In signing the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which included limited gun control measures, Scott bucked the NRA. Scott didn’t mention that, but he emphasized how the act allows police to take away guns from dangerous individuals, increases mental health funding and boosts spending on school security.

Scott later brought an audience member of his own: Sirley Vila Leon, a Cuban woman whose hand was hacked off with a machete by Cuban security forces, who then stuck her severed stump in the mud so she would get an infection. Her crime, Scott said, was that she opposed a school closing. Scott said Nelson owed her an explanation for the senator’s backing of former president Barack Obama’s Cuba rapprochement that, five months before, Nelson called a “Hallelujah Day.”

To Scott, the policy only emboldened the Castro dictatorship, which has worked with Venezuela’s totalitarian regime and destabilized the once-powerful South American country.

“Senator Nelson,” Scott said, “Why don’t you explain to her your appeasement policy? Maybe now you can go back and say, ‘I apologize because it absolutely didn’t work.’”

Nelson said that, contrary to Scott’s effort to make him look like a Castro buddy, he has been repeatedly banned from traveling to Cuba because of his opposition to the regime.

Regarding health care in Florida — which has one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Obamacare enrollees, at about 2 million — Nelson pointed out that Scott repeatedly opposed the law and refused to expand Medicaid to as many as 800,000 more.

Scott said Obamacare was a failure because it did not live up to its promises concerning financial savings. He said the law made “the lie of the century” by promising people could keep their plans or doctors if they liked them. Without crediting Obamacare, which gave protections for people with pre-existing conditions, Scott said he supported this type of health coverage.

Nelson said Scott wasn’t telling the truth.

“I just heard the governor say that he favors the insurance for [people with] pre-existing conditions. That’s exactly the opposite of what he has allowed,” Nelson said, noting that Florida filed “suit to declare unconstitutional pre-existing conditions protection that is in the law. That is unconscionable.”

Scott shifted focus to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who filed the suit, and said he has no control over her. However, Scott has refused to oppose the suit to undo the coverage.

Scott said Nelson should have fixed Florida’s health insurance problems decades ago, when he was Florida’s elected insurance commissioner.

The red tide and green algae problems plaguing waterways and beaches on both sides of the southern peninsula were also used as a jumping off point for Nelson to call Scott dishonest — and for Scott to say Nelson hasn’t done enough in Congress.

Scott, noting that “red tide is something that’s naturally occurring,” wanted to focus the issue squarely on Lake Okeechobee, the central reservoir that stores excessive rainwater, which is then ejected through the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers when the water level gets too high. If the lake had a stronger dike, less water would be ejected and thus fewer algae-feeding nutrients would plague the water system.

“The algae problem is 100 percent tied to the fact that Sen. Nelson does a campaign ad in 1990s that he’s going to deal with the algae,” Scott said. “And now ... how many years later? He has never done anything to get us the money to fix the dike at Lake Okeechobee, which is a 100 percent federal project.”

“We would call it a whopper, what he is saying. Because it is totally disjointed from the truth,” Nelson said, adding that Scott has "systematically disassembled the environment agencies of this state. He has drained the water management districts of funding. He even abolished the Department of Community Affairs, which was the growth management agency.”

Under Scott, the state took over water quality standards from the federal government.

The debate wound down on a hostile note over Kavanaugh, who has been accused by three separate women of sexual assault or misconduct.

Nelson said he would vote no. He said the White House refused to make the judge available to him, despite his asking six times for a meeting. And Nelson said he believed one of the judge’s accusers, Christine Ford.

“The testimony of Dr. Ford was quite compelling. As a matter of fact, it was real. And she was expressing for millions of women in this country, the MeToo [movement], that sexual assault has happened to them,” Nelson said. “And she was doing that in front of 11 Republican men that seemed to dismiss it. I’m hopeful that the FBI investigation is going to bring circumstances to light. But the judge, in his response, there was just not the temperament that is needed .. [for] the highest court in the land.”

Scott also said that Nelson “said he was voting no before the president even nominated Judge Kavanaugh. He said whoever was nominated he was going to vote no.”

The governor also criticized the process: “The way the U.S. Senate has handled this, it’s a circus. It’s more like a ‘Jerry Springer Show.’ Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh are just pawns in some political game. Both of their testimonies were convincing and pure raw emotion. Your heart goes out to every one of them. Seventy-plus senators have met with Judge Kavanaugh. My opponent hasn’t. If you take all the evidence together and you take Judge Kavanaugh’s record as a judge. I’m going to continue to support Judge Kavanaugh.”

Scott then turned the tables on Nelson and said the senator’s concerns about the #MeToo movement never extended to his friend, Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings, for whom Congress settled a $220,000 sexual harassment lawsuit. Scott also noted Nelson said nothing about the claims against Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, either.

“Sen. Nelson is a partisan politician,” Scott said. “All he does is attack Republicans and defend Democrats

“You know, governor, you just can’t tell the truth,” Nelson said. “You always blame the other guy. You never take responsibility.”

Said one of the moderators, WTVJ-TV's Jackie Nespral: “As we have seen, we have a divided country.”