Kansas Republican Senate candidate Hamilton praises Trump’s ‘fabulous job’ on pandemic

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Hamilton said he wants police officers treated as heroes, not targets for defunding, as advocated by protesters across the country who are pushing for reform following the deaths of Black people at the hands of law enforcement.

Hamilton, 60, a political newcomer who built a Kansas City area plumbing business, sketched out a hard-line conservative worldview during his first interview with The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle since entering the race in March.

“We need law and order. We don’t need chaos. The police, they’re servants and they’re heroes and we need to treat them like that,” Hamilton said, adding that calls to defund the police are the “craziest talk I’ve ever heard of.”

He praised President Donald Trump’s “fabulous job” handling the coronavirus pandemic and said he wants to confirm conservative judges if elected. Hamilton emphasized the need for better trade deals with China, but acknowledged economic confrontations risk harming Kansas farmers.

Hamilton said people are engaging in “revisionist history” around Trump’s pandemic response and that the president’s decision to restrict travel with China saved thousands of lives.

“And he got hammered for that by the Democrats -- were calling him a homophobe and everything else. Now they come on the backside of this and they say he didn’t act quick enough. Well, I mean you can’t have your cake and eat it, too,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton is little known outside the Kansas City area. But he has complicated what had been a mostly two-way Republican race between Rep. Roger Marshall and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach with a heavy round of television advertising ahead of the August 4 primary election. The winner is almost certain to take on state Sen. Barbara Bollier, the heavy favorite for the Democratic nomination.

Hamilton’s campaign beyond television has faltered at times. He turned in a rocky performance during the first Republican Senate debate in May and is skipping a Wednesday night debate in Wichita — giving up a chance to attract party activists and other committed GOP voters who will be watching.

He said he is missing the debate ahead of the wedding of one of his 12 children, who range in age from 17 to 38. The forum is set to focus on healthcare, and Hamilton said he would have stressed the need to repeal Obamacare.

“Let’s have free market ideas on healthcare,” Hamilton said. He called repeatedly for transparency in healthcare prices.

Hamilton voiced support for the initial pandemic-related shutdowns because of how much wasn’t known about the virus. The primary concern was to save lives. But he supports the moves in Kansas and nationwide to reopen.

“But right now, I mean, I’ve got an essential business and we’ve opened up, we’ve never shut down. We’re able to get out there and out and about. Not one of my employees have gotten COVID because we put in the precautions,” Hamilton said. “We’re doing the social distancing, we’re wearing the masks and the gloves and the glasses and we wipe down anything that we touch. I think that we can do that throughout this whole economy.”

Hamilton in a statement on Wednesday clarified that while he sold his company in 2017, he remained an employee until March 31, after the start of the pandemic.

Whoever wins the Senate race will enter a chamber mired in gridlock for years. Much of the Senate’s work during the Trump administration has centered on the confirmation of federal judges, a key election selling point.

“The more conservative, the better is my idea. And that’s why I wanted to go to Washington,” Hamilton said. “I’m pro-life 100 percent. All life is sacred, it needs to be protected. I have 12 kids. That is why I want to be a senator, so I can approve the conservative judges that President Trump will have a chance to appoint in the near future.”

During the June 17 interview, Hamilton declined to discuss U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch’s authorship two days earlier of the landmark opinion that provides protections from job discrimination for LGBTQ individuals. Asked if he was disappointed in Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, Hamilton said he hadn’t read the opinion yet.

“I’ve been out on the road campaigning. I’ll have to look into that,” Hamilton said.

Getting tough on China is a frequent theme of Hamilton’s TV commercials. Asked to elaborate on what holding China accountable looks like, the he said better trade deals are needed.

He said that if China doesn’t deal with the U.S. fairly, “we need to go someplace else and get better trade deals elsewhere.” Rising hostilities with China could raise the risks to Kansas farmers and exporters, he said.

“But you know I think President Trump is a master negotiator and that he is going to get us a good trade deal with the Chinese,” Hamilton said.

The Star’s Bryan Lowry contributed reporting

This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 1:09 PM with the headline "Kansas Republican Senate candidate Hamilton praises Trump’s ‘fabulous job’ on pandemic."