♪ Gavin Jackson> Welcome to a This Week in South Carolina special report.

I'm Gavin Jackson.

This week we recap for you the key moments from the Republican attorney general primary debate between Georgetown Senator Stephen Goldfinch, First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe and Eighth Circuit Solicitor David Stumbo, that took place here at SCETV on Wednesday, May 27th.

We start with each candidate giving their opening statements.

Solicit.

David Pascoe> Good evening.

My name is David Pascoe, and I'm running for attorney general to make South Carolina safer and a lot less corrupt.

I put men on death row.

I sent a cop killer to the firing squad.

I have prosecuted public corruption at the Statehouse.

I was the first public official to call for judicial reform.

And I'm going to use that experience to lower crime in South Carolina, to combat illegal immigration, and, very importantly, to protect our children better by seeking the death penalty for child rapists and increasing the conviction rate on child pornography cases.

And lastly, we are going to end the culture of corruption in South Carolina when I'm your attorney general.

We have lawyer legislators making millions of dollars in no bid contracts.

I will fire them on day one.

I will also establish a public corruption unit on day one, that will make it impossible for public officials to profit from their position.

The problem we have in South Carolina is toleration.

And when I'm your attorney general, the days of toleration are going to come to an end.

Gavin> Thank you.

Solicitor.

Solicitor Stumbo, your opening statement, please.

Solicit.

David Stumbo> Thank you.

I'm David Stumbo, and as a two decade, over two decade prosecutor that has been fighting crime in South Carolina, and a lifelong conservative Republican, I'm the right choice to be the next attorney general for South Carolina Republicans on June the 9th.

And I fought Internet predators.

As the first Internet Crimes Against Children Prosecutor in South Carolina, I prosecuted hundreds of murders, child molesters, domestic abusers, and drug traffickers.

As an assistant solicitor and the elected solicitor for the past 14 years in the Eighth Judicial Circuit, I've been the supervisor for the statewide grand jury in the Attorney General's office, where I fought against public corruption and fraud in cartels that are bringing dangerous, deadly drugs into our state.

That's history in criminal justice.

This is why I have 19 sheriffs and five solicitors across South Carolina endorsing my candidacy, and I'm the right choice to be attorney general.

My wife and I have been proud conservative Republicans our entire life and raised our family that way.

And that matters to issues that are important to Republicans in South Carolina.

Gavin> Thank you.

Solicitor.

Now we go to Senator Goldfinch.

Sen.

Goldfinch> Good evening.

My name is Stephen Goldfinch, and by the end of this program, I hope you'll see that I am the most qualified candidate to be the next attorney general of South Carolina.

That's because of my qualifications.

I'm a veteran, a military prosecutor, a judge advocate general.

I'm a conservative lawmaker, Republican lawmaker.

I'm a businessman, an entrepreneur and a family man, a father, husband and son.

As a military prosecutor, I prosecuted the worst of the worst cases, including those that would threaten our national security and our men and women in uniform.

As a conservative lawmaker, I gave these guys, prosecutors, the ability to hold bad guys accountable and to deport criminal, illegal immigrants.

As a businessman and an entrepreneur, I've run multiple successful businesses here in South Carolina and fought the federal government every single step of the way.

I've also had success in Republican primaries.

I've had five of them, and I've won every single one.

I would be honored to have your vote.

My name is Stephen Goldfinch.

I'd love to have your vote on June 9th.

Gavin> All right.

Thank you, Senator.

We're going to Solicitor Stumbo for the first question.

So, sir, what is the top issue facing South Carolina's next attorney general?

Solicit.

Stumbo> We have to protect our children.

Gavin, that is the most important issue, I believe, facing our state right now.

I was the first Internet Crimes Against Children prosecutor that tried cases to a jury, back over 20 years ago.

And, we've seen way too many Internet predators and child molesters walk out the door with probation.

We're going to fight that when I'm your attorney general.

We're going to make sure that they get prison sentences and go away for many, many years.

That's the kind of experience I want to bring to this office.

I would, would like to, would...use that experience, not only to protect our kids on the Internet, but anywhere else where they're being exploited and abused by adults, in South Carolina.

And I want to be the kind of attorney general that's going to go around the state, to our sheriffs, to our solicitors, and ask them, "What help do you need to help do your job better to keep our kids safe and our families safe in South Carolina?".

Gavin> Senator Goldfinch, what is the top issue facing South Carolina's next attorney general?

Sen.

Goldfinch> I think it's either having a Gavin Newsom or a Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States.

It's true.

We have to first and foremost defend our, our citizenry to the best of our ability, to the utmost of the law.

But, ladies and gentlemen, South Carolina is facing an imminent threat from Washington, D.C.

We face every single day over burdensome regulatory problems that our businesses and our citizens have to face in the form of really unhidden tax called inflation.

That comes from the agency state.

But if we wind up with a Gavin Newsom or a Kamala Harris... Right now, we've got a Donald Trump doing a great job.

But if we wind up with a Gavin Newsom or a Kamala Harris... ladies and gentlemen, we have to have an attorney general that knows how to go to Washington, D.C., and how to fight that federal abuse of regulatory, oppressive regime that comes down from high.

They are coming after us and after South Carolina.

I'm the only one on this stage that knows how to fight Washington, D.C., have done it over and over again in my law practice, and I'd love to do it as your next attorney general.

Gavin> Thank you, Senator.

Solicitor?

Solicit.

Pascoe> Gavin, it is without a doubt, both corruption and protecting our children better.

We have a single digit conviction rate in many counties throughout the state on child pornography cases on our children.

That is unacceptable.

I'm going to take the funding that we get, give it to those solicitors offices and prosecute those cases locally, so we get much higher conviction rates.

We have got to start seeking the death penalty for child rapists.

We have the law on the books.

Let's start seeking it like other states do, such as Florida and I believe Kentucky and others.

The worst cases, I've ever prosecuted are the ones where I've had to watch videos of 70 year old men raping six year old girls.

I think we should let 12 jurors decide what their sentence should be in South Carolina.

And finally, in my last 18 seconds, we have got to do something about the culture of corruption in South Carolina.

Government officials, public officials profiting from their positions is unacceptable.

And I'm going to stop that when I'm your attorney general.

Gavin> Thank you.

Senator Goldfinch, this next question starts with you.

Do you believe there is corruption in South Carolina's government?

And if so, give us an example and how you would fix it.

Sen.

Goldfinch> Yeah, the answer is absolutely.

My record reflects that I have sold out corruption at both the Republican and the Democrat level.

In fact, we unfortunately just found an example of that in one of my opponent's backyards in Orangeburg just recently.

The most glaring example, the easiest one to find, are legislators that have the ability to funnel money to themselves or to their non-profits through the budget.

So, the answer is absolutely.

And yes, I would root it out regardless of whether they're Republican or Democrat.

My record shows that I have absolutely rooted those out, and I would be willing to prosecute them as attorney general.

And to go farther, we have corruption, not just at the state level, but also at the county level and the local level.

These folks oftentimes get above their heads beyond what they're supposed to be doing within their offices.

Money disappears.

The attorney general of South Carolina... It is incumbent upon him or her to get in these local places and to root out that corruption, even at the local level, not just at the state level.

Gavin> Thank you, Senator.

Solicitor Pascoe?

Solicit.

Pascoe> Absolutely.

I took down the five most powerful men at the Statehouse, and corruption did not end when I did that.

I wanted to go further, but the Supreme Court stopped me because they said I needed to be attorney general.

Well, I'm running for attorney general to finish the job I started.

Lawyer legislators, you're going to be fired on day one.

Public corruption unit will be in place on day one, and we're going to investigate things, such as when Senator Fernandez had the guts to stand up in the Senate and say that he had been offered up to a $100,000 dollars in campaign money if he'd vote against tort reform.

And we're not investigating that?

We will investigate it when I'm the attorney general in South Carolina.

We have got to end this culture of corruption the toleration has got to end, because when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, we strike a blow against justice.

That might be corruption in Orangeburg, as Senator Goldfinch said.

But what is wrong about that is to lie and say that the solicitor's office was the pass through for that money.

I did not know anything about that funding.

What I think is disgusting about it are the legislators and the friends of that representative who voted to send her millions of dollars.

Gavin> Thank you, Solicitor.

Solicit.

Pascoe> I don't get a little 30 seconds for rebuttal?

Okay.

Okay.

Solicit.

Stumbo> I was referenced.

Do I get 30 seconds?

Solicit.

Pascoe> Yeah.

Then I get to?

Come on.

Gavin> I mean, if you were... Yeah.

If you felt like you were attacked... I'll give you that 30 seconds there.

Solicit.

David Stumbo> I think I absolutely was.

The Supreme Court stopped Solicit.

Pascoe> But I was attacked.

Mr.

Pascoe, because- Gavin> There was a question.

You answered it.

Solicit.

Stumbo> Excuse me?

Gavin> It came to you to answer that question.

You could address that, but go ahead.

<Me?> Yes.

Solicit.

Stumbo> Okay.

The Supreme Court stopped him because he was engaged in a pay to play scheme, where he took $352,000 from corporations right here in South Carolina in exchange for not prosecuting them.

That's corruption, y'all.

That's corruption.

It's a pay to play scheme.

It was called corporate integrity agreements.

That's not the kind of leadership we need at the Attorney General's office, when we get into pay to play schemes, not to prosecute people.

Gavin> Solicitor Pascoe?

Solicit.

Pascoe> The $352,000 went to the state of South Carolina because the statute of limitations had run on all those companies.

I wasn't going to be able to prosecute those companies.

And the Supreme Court reiterated that in 2021.

The only thing to do was enter the corporate integrity agreements.

And if Mr.

Goldfinch had any prosecutorial experience, he would know that.

Gavin> Gotcha.

We're going to go to Solicitor Stumbo for that question, about if you believe there's corruption in the state government and how you would fix it.

Solicit.

Stumbo> Absolutely.

And there is.

And when, as I was the, the chief prosecutor for the statewide grand jury back in 2011 and 12, we had a number of cases where we had local governments that were committing fraud and I prosecuted those cases.

Just most recently, we've been involved, assisting S.L.E.D an investigation in my own circuit.

So, we see these things locally, too.

And typically when there's a S.L.E.D.

investigation, us as circuit solicitors have to get involved and review those.

And what we need to make sure we do as prosecutors is give law enforcement every tool they need in public corruption case cases, just like any crime.

Make sure they have the tools they need to get records, help them write search warrants, get court orders for the records they need to look at the cases.

And when there's evidence uncovered that there's been crimes committed, we have to go after it and we have to prosecute it.

And so we need to treat public corruption cases, Gavin, exactly like we do murders and other types of cases.

We go where the facts and evidence lead without theatrics.

Gavin> Gotcha.

Question three.

We start with you, Solicitor Pascoe.

After an investigation, the state inspector general found mismanagement in the state treasurer's office.

The I.G.

said, quote, "whether these instances "rise to the level of misconduct "is beyond the scope of its purview and analysis "and requires a secondary level of review "by the appropriate law enforcement "or prosecuting authority."

Quote.

Treasurer Curtis Loftis said, quote, "The Inspector General report confirms an important truth "there was no finding of fraud, theft, "personal enrichment, criminal misconduct "or malfeasance by me or my office."

Quote, Have you read the report?

If you were Attorney General, would you open an investigation based on the report?

And do you believe that there is misconduct?

Solicit.

Pascoe> I have read the report, and there is nothing in that report that outlines any misconduct on the part of Treasurer Loftis.

I think he has been defamed, by certain members of the legislature.

I would certainly open up an investigation if there is more evidence than what was in that report.

But if anything, that report exonerates Treasurer Loftis.

I read it very carefully, because I was very interested to see if there was some corruption there.

Mere negligence, is not corruption.

And you shouldn't be defaming someone and calling them corrupt when they aren't corrupt.

So yes, I have read the report.

I did not read anything in there that was criminal at all with regards to Treasurer Loftis' behavior, or his office's behavior.

Gavin> Solicitor Stumbo?

Solicit.

Stumbo> Yes.

I have not read the full report, Gavin.

But, from the, what I have read and the understanding I have is there's not criminal behavior there, but of course, I, until I review the full report, I can't really make a given advisory opinion necessarily on that.

But ultimately, if I were the attorney general and if I were referred that report for a review to see if there was evidence of a crime, we would certainly do that and make sure, that we do our jobs professionally without any political motivation and make sure that the right thing is done and the just thing is done.

Certainly there's other areas, though.

We see waste in, in government.

I mean, right now we have Medicaid fraud amuck, run amuck.

And we just, last year uncovered, a tremendous amount of Medicaid fraud, where we had people making over a million, or had a million dollars in the bank that were actually on our Medicaid rolls, which is unacceptable.

And so we have to start using the tools we have available with modern technology to make sure that millionaires and others aren't defrauding the Medicaid system and those that are deserving of it, are on those rolls.

Gavin> Thank you.

Senator Goldfinch?

Sen.

Goldfinch> Yeah.

Unfortunately, this is just another example of David Pascoe not willing to look in the mirror and accept the truth.

You know, we, we're in a situation here where Mr.

Pascoe has only prosecuted Democrats.

I'm sorry... only prosecuted Republicans while he was a Democrat last year and prior to that.

And now that he switched to the Republican Party, he's not interested in looking at Republicans.

Look, Curtis Loftis was my friend.

I like Curtis Loftis as a person.

But ladies and gentlemen, regardless of whether or not he's a Republican or a Democrat, you have to have an attorney general that's willing to at least look at the facts.

And I can tell you, he hasn't looked at the facts.

What he said about the report, is just not true.

I read the report from front to back.

And I can tell you there's a reason why the inspector general of South Carolina turned it over to the US Attorney's office and to the S.L.E.D.

of South... the State Law Enforcement Division of South Carolina, because he thought there may be criminal activity there.

Maybe there's not.

I hope there's not.

But he did turn it over to S.L.E.D.

and the U.S.

Attorney's office.

And we as attorney general candidates have to keep an open mind about that.

Gavin> Solicitor Pascoe, you have a 30 second rebuttal.

Solicit.

Pascoe> I have read the report.

And this is why Mr.

Goldfinch cannot be attorney general.

He is dangerous.

You don't get to go out there and just defame somebody to make political points, like he did.

And by the way, not take out Democrats?

Ask representative Marvin Pendarvis why he's under indictment and no longer in office.

I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat.

I will take you out if you're corrupt.

And if Curtis Loftis was corrupt, I would stand here today and tell you he was corrupt and that I would be taking him out.

But there was nothing in that report.

And by the way, if he was, corrupt, then why didn't the Attorney General's office investigate him after the Senate hearings?

Because he's not.

Gavin> Thank you, sir.

Solicitor Pascoe, you start off this next question.

The Department of Justice in April moved state licensed medical marijuana and F.D.A.

approved marijuana products from schedule one to schedule three controlled substances.

South Carolina does not have medical marijuana, but this federal update could revive legislation that's been stuck in the Statehouse for years after being opposed by law enforcement.

What is your stance on whether South Carolina should have medical marijuana now or not, or would you support or block legislative efforts going forward?

Solicit.

Pascoe> First, what took so long to get that schedule changed?

It was absolutely asinine that it hadn't been changed, that people can take oxycodone and OxyContin, but we can't study the benefits of cannabis to see whether it helps people or not.

And I can tell you, it absolutely does help children with seizures.

It does help cancer patients because we all know them in our lives.

So I applaud the Department of Justice for that rescheduling.

I hope we go back, to, to the beginning and try to get medicinal marijuana in South Carolina now that it can be regulated and hopefully with the rescheduling of the drug, we won't run into the problem though, with what you see in other states.

Yeah, they have what's called, quote, medicinal marijuana.

But in some of these states, it appears that the people that are getting most of the prescriptions are white males between the ages of 18 and 22.

So we don't need that in South Carolina.

And I think we'll now be able to avoid that with the rescheduling of the drug.

Gavin> Solicitor Stumbo?

Solicit.

Stumbo> Thank you.

I'm not in favor of medical marijuana, and here's why.

We passed an industrial hemp statute, a number of years back that already allows people to use the health, the health benefits of the hemp plant, C.B.D.

oils and other things, products that are made from C.B.D.

oils to improve health and...we don't need the psychoactive component, the T.H.C.

involved here.

And the reason why, I'll tell you this, and we need to make sure that we don't put our law enforcement officers that are pulling people over on the side of the road in bad positions.

Right now, we don't even have an impairment level for T.H.C.

in South Carolina for a D.U.I.

And so before we even think about legalizing marijuana for medical use, or recreational use, we better fix that.

But ultimately, I think the what's happened, the experiments out in Colorado and other states that have done this, again, it's males between the age of 18 and 35 that are using it.

And that's, they're not using it for medical purposes.

So I believe the Medical Marijuana Bill now is just a Trojan horse for recreational use.

And I would oppose it.

Gavin> Gotcha.

Senator Goldfinch?

Sen.

Goldfinch> Yeah.

Thank you for the question.

It's a thought.

You know, it deserves a thoughtful answer.

I wish we could do it in more than a minute, but, I think it's a moot point.

And I think it's a moot point because the Federal Farm Bill 2018 essentially gave everybody the authority to introduce T.H.C.

Now, they, the way that it was written was, dry weight, but, science came a long ways and people learned how to distill the stuff and concentrate the stuff.

And marijuana T.H.C., the active ingredient in T.H.C., is now legal in South Carolina.

It is sold in almost every corner convenience store.

Y'all have seen it in the stores.

It's in the little cans.

It is everywhere.

And everybody is using the stuff.

So to, to go back and to say, you know, we don't have marijuana, we shouldn't have a Medical Marijuana Bill, whatever your position is, honestly, I think it's a moot point at this point because it is ubiquitous in South Carolina, and it's a real problem, especially the stuff that's unregulated.

It needs to be regulated.

And we did pass D.U.I.

Reform this year, by the way, to include, marijuana in that bill.

Gavin> The next question goes to Solicitor Stumbo.

How would you work with federal immigration officials when it comes to any potential operations or sweeps of, of illegal immigrants?

And would you uphold the rights of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or D.A.C.A.

recipients, migrants with valid status, green card holders, asylum seekers and naturalized citizens, and others who are illegally going through the citizenship process.

Solicit.

Stumbo> That's a great question, Gavin.

And what we don't need in South Carolina is what happened in Minnesota several months ago, where we had, there were state and local officials, from their governor to their attorney general, all the way down to, to city government that was standing in the way and actively obstructing and encouraging protesters to obstruct the I.C.E.

officers from doing their job.

And that will 100% percent not happen in this state under my watch as attorney general.

We're going to use our state and local law enforcement to assist federal law enforcement to do their jobs to enforce immigration laws.

And certainly, one of the things we really need to look at is making sure we have all our sheriffs on the 287(g) program, so when those that are arrested and committing crimes that are here illegally come into our local jails, that local law enforcement is deputized essentially to act as immigration officials, but we need to be working hand in glove S.L.E.D.

has an immigration unit and has investigators already working, and I've worked with them on investigations in the past, and I will continue to do so as the next attorney general.

Gavin> Senator Goldfinch?

Sen.

Goldfinch> Yeah, the bottom line is, if you're illegally in South Carolina, you're breaking the law.

You're breaking the law.

Now, whether or not there should be a path to citizenship is a valid question that deserves a lot of debate, but that's a debate for Congress.

That's not a debate for the attorney general.

The attorney general's job is to enforce the law, regardless of what it is.

And the law, ladies and gentlemen, is that you be here legally.

And I'd like to just go back.

One thing I've heard over and over again that I've got the worst conservative rating.

Y'all, it's just not true.

That is once again, David Pascoe doing, David Pascoe stuff, which is not telling the truth.

I've got one of the highest Second Amendment ratings in the General Assembly.

I was endorsed by the N.R.A., not some county wide, gun toting folks.

This is the N.R.A., the National Rifle Association.

I was deemed a taxpayer hero for my votes on taxes and keeping them low and on anti-abortion pro-life measures, I've been endorsed by the Palmetto Family Council and the South Carolina Citizens for Life.

The two biggest anti-abortion pro-life organizations in South Carolina.

Thank you.

Gavin> Thank you, Senator.

Solicitor Pascoe, quick question about immigration.

Solicit.

Pascoe> Quickly, go to Club For Growth.

And you can compare who the Republicans are with the lowest conservative voting record and the Democrats that actually have higher ratings and those people that voted for pro-choice judges.

On illegal immigration, I'm going to steal almost everything that my good friend David Stumbo said.

But I want to add to that, because I have a plan on how we can help I.C.E., decide whether to deport, to deport these illegal immigrants.

What we need to start doing is when they get arrested on minor charges, it might be domestic violence, which isn't minor to me, but they get low bonds and then they get let out.

Uh, uh, we're going to start sending prosecutors to the bond hearings for illegal immigrants, and so they get much higher bonds, so they stay in jail.

So I.C.E.

can determine whether they need to be, deported or not.

So we don't have the murder of a beautiful mother of two like we had in Lancaster County, just last year.

The other thing I'm going to do as attorney general is I'm going to work with the legislature on a new illegal Immigration Reform Act.

We had one back in 2012.

We need to bring one now in 2027.

Thank you.

Gavin> This is probably the last question here.

And Senator Goldfinch, it starts with you.

Attorney General Alan Wilson was first elected in 2010, and in every four years since then.

It would be a total of 16 years serving as A.G.

for South Carolina.

Where do you stand on term limits?

And would you self-impose any?

>> Yeah.

I mean, I think term limits are a bad idea whose time honestly has come.

You know, your, your productivity on behalf of the state or the nation.

I, clearly voted for article five.

You know, while I was in the General Assembly... You know, I supported term limits over and over again.

So, the answer is yes.

I have no intention on running for more than two terms as attorney general, if I'm blessed enough to be elected.

So the answer very clearly, Gavin, is, yeah, I support term limits.

Should the General Assembly enact them as a law?

That's up to the General Assembly.

But, I have no intention to running more than eight years.

Gavin> Solicitor?

Solicit.

Pascoe> I absolutely believe in term limits.

And as you can see, I do not make friends very well.

I'm running for attorney general not to make friends.

I'm running for attorney general to clean this state up, and I'm the only one that has an anti-corruption platform.

I'm going to end the culture of corruption in South Carolina by doing the things that I've already told you that I'm going to do.

I'm fed up with the corruption in South Carolina.

I will not run for any other office.

For too long nationally, and this is not to castigate anybody.

It's true.

A.G., it stood for aspiring governor.

I will not run for any other office when I'm done being attorney general, I'm not even going into private practice.

I'm going to clean this state up.

We're going to protect our children better, and we're going to do, and we're going to get crime down in this state where we're not in the top ten anymore.

Those are the things that I'm going to focus on as your attorney general.

Gavin> All right.

Solicitor Stumbo?

>> On the term limit question, I know I can get this job done in two terms or less.

And that's my plan.

I don't plan on running more than two terms for A.G.

And of course I would agree that's the legislature's job.

If they want to impose term limits, I think there's good reasons for that.

I think there's good reasons for not, not doing that.

There's times where you need the institutional knowledge of somebody that can, especially in the criminal justice arena, that knows what they're doing.

You need somebody who knows what they're doing for any given job.

So I think there needs to be reasonable term limits, but that's a policy decision.

My plan is to, to accomplish the goal of leading the state in the right direction, fighting crime, keeping our kids safe, protecting our elections in South Carolina, protecting parental rights, protecting our citizens' right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, protecting our religious liberty.

And I plan to do all of those things and stand with our citizens to keep our families safe and stand with our law enforcement agencies and do that in two terms.

♪ ♪ ♪ Gavin> You can watch that entire debate on youtube.com/SCETV news.

For South Carolina ETV, I'm Gavin Jackson, Be well, South Carolina.

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