Elizabeth Colbert Busch and Mark Sanford traded jabs on stage last night at the first and only general-election debate before next Tuesday’s special election in South Carolina. Then the Democrat—and current front-runner—threw an uppercut. “When we talk about fiscal spending and we talk about protecting the taxpayers, it doesn’t mean you take the money we saved and leave the country for a personal purpose,” Colbert Busch said in an obvious reference to Sanford’s use of state funds to fly to Argentina to visit his then mistress (who is now his fiancee).
The line drew cheers from the clearly pro-Colbert Busch crowd and prompted one debate moderator to offer, “She went there, Governor Sanford.” The Republican, however, either didn’t hear the dig or simply played deaf. “I couldn’t hear what she said … What was the question?” he said, before awkwardly pivoting to talk about the sequester.
Here’s the game tape:
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