Porstsmouth Herald - Ayotte Touts National Security Credentials

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By Jeff McMenemy

Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte believes GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is the "better choice on national security" than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

During an interview Tuesday with Seacoast Media Group's editorial board, Ayotte said she has disagreed with Clinton on issues the Democratic presidential nominee has been "deeply involved in," including the Iran nuclear deal and the pullout of troops from Iraq.

Stressing she's "certainly not going to guarantee anything that Donald Trump will say," Ayotte said she still thinks "he will be strong on national security."

She opposed the Iran deal because she believes it will allow the country " to keep its nuclear infrastructure." She also criticized a related deal that gave Iran "$1.7 billion in so called legal settlements designated to its military."

She pointed to Clinton's support of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, which created a vacuum "that has been filled by ISIS."

She believes "Trump will take us in a stronger direction in dealing with Iran."

Asked if she was embarrassed by some of Trump's controversial comments about women and the Gold Star mother who stood by her husband Khizr Kahn at the national Democratic convention, Ayotte said, "I've called him out on those issues."

She noted it became a national story when she had a "back and forth" with Trump for what he said about the Kahn family. "So where I've disagreed with him I'm going to be clear on that and I've done that," Ayotte said.

Ayotte -- a former state attorney general who's running for re-election in a high-profile race with Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan -- responded to questions on a variety of issues, including the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, national security, her effort to keep dark money out of the race and her votes to "redirect" money away from Planned Parenthood and to "community health centers."

"We have 30 of those, we have five Planned Parenthood clinics," Ayotte said.

She is opposed to taxpayer dollars being spent on Planned Parenthood because the organization performs abortions. "I am pro life as a matter of conscience," Ayotte said while noting "people have very strong feelings about this."

She touted her support "of preventative care for women," and said she worked successfully with Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, to suspend a recommendation made by a panel of health experts that would have prevented women age 40 to 50 from getting annual mammograms paid for by government insurance plans.

Ayotte defended the decision by the GOP controlled Senate -- which she supports -- not to hold confirmation hearings on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick B. Garland.

"We're in a divided court and a divided government and we should wait for the people to weigh in in November," Ayotte said.

She believes the next president should nominate the new Supreme Court justice, saying it's "going to have a big impact on the court because it's going to shift the court one way or the other."

She noted she voted for nearly 100 of Obama's judicial nominees and "several members of his cabinet."

Ayotte criticized Hassan for not accepting the "people's pledge" in an effort to keep the negative advertisements that are now flooding the airwaves out of their race.

"It was in place in the (Elizabeth) Warren, (Scott) Brown race and it actually worked to a big extent and I think most of that outside money because of that agreement stayed out of that race," Ayotte said.

She stressed it was the same pledge U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., offered to Scott Brown in their race.

Hassan's counteroffer, Ayotte said, wasn't a "serious" effort to keep third-party money out of the race.

"I offered it, if I didn't want it to be signed in, I would never offer it," Ayotte said. "I really did want this to be a race where we're just from our campaigns basically talking about what we stand for, what our differences are, rather than the situation that we've been in."

Ayotte touted her national security experience during Tuesday's interview, noting she has served six years on the Senate's Armed Services Committee, where she chairs the Readiness Committee.

"In a dangerous world, I have more experience on those issues," than Hassan, Ayotte said.

She believes we have a "home-grown terrorism problem" as the recent attacks in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota prove, and that's why it's important to give the FBI and other agencies the tools they need to deal with ISIS and their online presence.

"People are … being radicalized online by ISIS" Ayotte said.

But the U.S. also needs "to have the full strategy to defeat them where they have their territory in Iraq or Syria," she said.

Ayotte stressed her willingness to work across the aisle for the good of New Hampshire, and pointed to her early support of Obama's Clean Power Plan to address climate change. "We don't need to be the tailpipe for the Midwest power plants," Ayotte said. "The hardest thing is to stand up to your party."

She said one of the "big differences" between her and Hassan is her efforts to cut wasteful spending while the governor has a record of supporting "a number of tax increases." That includes the "LLC tax" that had to be repealed, which Ayotte said Hassan supported when she was the N.H. Senate majority leader.

"She has a history of supporting 100 taxes and fee increases," Ayotte said.

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