Seth Moulton

The two Democrats running for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts clashed repeatedly on Monday over their personal finances, the fine print of their support for Medicare for All and how long is too long for someone to keep serving on Capitol Hill.

The tone of the second televised faceoff between U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton was far spikier than their first confrontation in Springfield last month.

There, the discussion focused largely on their fitness for office and who was better positioned to resist the Republican Trump administration.

The gloves came off early this time, with Moulton throwing out a charge that attempted to link Markey to disgraced child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Markey dismissed Moulton’s assertion, which did not include specific details, as “absolutely reprehensible” and “the worst of the playbook of destruction and character assassination which is so characteristic of MAGA Republicans.”

Ahead of Monday’s debate, which was co-sponsored by Boston 25 News and WGBH-FM, Markey’s reelection campaign punched up a story by the left-leaning American Prospect delving into Moulton’s investments in defense technology companies.

On Monday, Markey kept up the same line of attack, again accusing Moulton, who serves on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, of getting rich off the very companies he’s supposed to regulate.

Markey repeated his call for Moulton to divest his holdings in those companies.

Moulton has repeatedly denied doing anything improper, stressing that he released a full version of his tax returns. He also repeated his criticism that Markey had only released his own return and not his wife’s.

Markey criticized Moulton, of Salem, in the debate’s early going for voting for a defense bill that helped fund the ongoing American war in Iran.

“Congressman Moulton voted for the $1 trillion budget that (President Donald Trump) and (U.S. Defense Secretary) Pete Hegseth was looking for,” Markey said. “That’s the money that’s being used in the war in Iran, Venezuela, Greenland (and) Cuba to come,” Markey said. “That is what’s causing the economic crisis in our country as well as national security.”

Moulton, a Marine veteran, briefly tried to take the high road at the outset of the debate, telling the moderators Kerry Kavanaugh, of Boston 25 News and Adam Reilly, of WGBH-FM, that he wasn’t “running against Ed Markey because I oppose his policies. In fact, we agree on most things.”

He dropped that civility quickly in the face of Markey’s criticism.

“I have seen Americans lose their lives because of your vote to send us to war in Iraq,” Moulton shot back. “So do not question my commitment to peace in the Middle East.”

An analysis by the nonpartisan PolitiFact concluded that Markey “cherry-picked” Moulton’s votes.

It is true that Moulton voted in favor of a 2025 defense authorization bill, which included “key provisions to provide robust oversight of the Defense Department, add guardrails to prevent the politicization of the military,” among other matters.

But when an appropriations measure that included defense spending came up in January and February 2026, Moulton voted against it both times, PolitiFact concluded.

Read More: In Mass.: Why the fight over wealth could decide the Markey-Moulton US Senate primary

Markey did not directly answer a question about whether he spends more time at his residence in Maryland than he does in his hometown of Malden. He repeated a familiar story about his father driving a milk truck for Lynnfield-based HP Hood.

“I’ve been born and raised in Malden, Massachusetts. It’s where I lived my whole life. And what Donald Trump is doing is he’s bringing out the Malden in me every time he attacks programs for kids in Malden ... I am one of those kids,” the 80-year-old pol said.

Moulton used the question as an excuse to again attack Markey over his tax returns.

“Why don’t you disclose half of your taxes that maybe show: Are you paying more taxes to Maryland than to Massachusetts?” Moulton asked. “What assets are you hiding in Maryland that you don’t want the voters of Massachusetts to understand?”

Both men called for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been tasked with carrying out the Trump White House’s mass deportation campaign and has come under heavy scrutiny for tactics that have left American citizens dead.

They differed, however, in how that should take place.

“The correct way to move is to have a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in our country, for the (Temporary Protected Status) holders, for the DACA holders,” Markey said. “For all immigrants, we need a pathway to citizenship for these people. They deserve to be protected. And that is what my goal is.”

Moulton went a step further, repeating a call for ICE agents, if applicable, to be prosecuted.

“We need accountability, which this current Senate has not delivered to the Trump administration,” Moulton said “You can’t enforce the law if you think you’re above it.”

“But I’ve also laid out a very clear immigration plan that includes putting immigration enforcement back in the Department of Justice where it belongs.”

Moulton, 47, has tried to make the race about generational change, focusing on Markey’s age. On Monday, Markey said he would step down if he were not able to serve. Moulton said he would support both term limits and age limits for sitting lawmakers.

The two men came into Monday’s debate in the midst of a race that has tightened steadily during the summer months.

Markey led Moulton 41%-35% in a University of New Hampshire poll released last month. Moulton trailed Markey by 13 points in a similar UNH poll in April.

Moulton trailed Markey by 17 points in a Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll in April and by 5 points in an Emerson College poll in May.

The primary is Sept. 1. The winner faces Republican John Deaton in November