Chuck Schumer shoots with the GOP’s Joe Pinion in a lone TV debate before the election

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer faced off against Republican rival Joe Pinion on Sunday night in the only debate between the candidates before Election Day.

Pinion spent much of the time blaming the Democratic powerbroker for inflation, immigration, opioid deaths and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“You bring home the bacon for sure — but a lot of people’s bellies are empty,” Pinion, 39, said.

Pinion was asked about the political violence after a attack by an alleged right-wing extremist about Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

“It’s Chuck Schumer whose divisive rhetoric has led to the environment we see today,” he said.

But Schumer held her ground in the hourlong debate moderated by Errol Louis and Susan Arbetter of Spectrum News at Union College in Schenectady.

“He was an expert. We heard a lot of punditry, a lot of finger-pointing, a lot of verbiage, but no real solutions. I didn’t just propose real solutions, I passed them on,” Schumer said of the former Newsmax host.

“I’ve been more productive as a senator and as majority leader than almost anyone else,” Schumer said at one point while highlighting legislative victories as a blockbuster bill driving microchip production to places like upstate New York.

Schumer also promoted the passage of the act called Inflation Reduction Act which aims to decrease the emissions of the United States by 40% by 2030.

“I think we’re going to start taxing the pollution that’s outside our borders,” Pinion said as he redirected his ire from Schumer to the Chinese government, which he also criticized for a lack of transparency at the start of the pandemic of COVID-19. .

Senate Democrats hope to maintain their slim 50-50 majority in the chamber in what experts say could be a tough election cycle for their party, which is also playing defense in the US House.

The polls show Schumer ahead by double digits against Pinion, which he received support of some police unionsalthough the margin appeared to have narrowed in recent weeks.

Pinion complained about the electric bills his mother received.

“Elderly people like my mother are terrified of the mailman because they think the electric bill will give them a heart attack. This is not a legacy of success, from my perspective, it is a legacy of failure,” Pinion he said of Schumer.

Pinion, a Yonkers native, said he opposed making COVID vaccines mandatory for school children, while Schumer said he would rely on expert advice.

The kingpin of the Senate, however, has been put on the defensive on some issues, with no clear answers on whether he personally supports the addition of members to the Supreme Court of the United States or requiring that parents be notified in certain circumstances when their child seeks an abortion.

Schumer, like Pinion, played the blame game on stage by saying that congressional Republicans were the reason illegal immigration remained a problem at the US border because of their opposition to legislative action on this issue and others in recent years.

But Pinion at one point noted that the Brooklyn Democrat should blame himself before criticizing former President Donald Trump considering the campaign money Schumer received from the real estate mogul before running for president.

“There is only one person at this stage who has received $80,000 from the Trump family,” Pinion said.