Arizona Senator Mark Kelly on presidential election, Middle East conflict and more

(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) joined Margaret Brennan Sunday on Face the Nation to talk about the presidential election.

Currently, Kelly, along with his wife, former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords, are in Michigan to campaign for the Harris-Walz ticket, as Michigan, according to Brennan, is a "key state to a potential Harris or Trump victory," but Vice President Harris is said to be "facing challenges among black men, working class people, as well as the Muslim and Arab populations skeptical of the White House support for Israel's wars."

When asked what he was hearing from the voters in that state, Kelly said:

"[My wife] and I have been out [in Michigan] for a couple days. We've been campaigning across the country, Michigan, I've been in North Carolina, Georgia as well. I'll be back to Arizona here soon. The vice president was out here speaking to Muslim organizations and the Arab community about what is at stake in this election and addressing the concerns that they have. What we're hearing, issues about the economy, about gun violence, about, you know, supporting American families and the difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. You know, Kamala Harris, who has a vision for the future of this country, Donald Trump, who just wants to drag us backwards."

Talks then came to an American man who was killed in Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike. When Brennan asked if the war and "the expectation it could escalate could cost Democrats both a seat in the Senate and potentially the presidency," Kelly replied:

"Nobody wants to see escalation and it's tragic when any innocent person, whether it's an American or Palestinian, lose their life in a conflict. [Monday's] one year since October 7th, when Israel was violently attacked. Israel has a right to defend itself, not only from Hamas, but from Hezbollah and from the Iranians. But, you know, [my wife and I], you know, we feel for the community here who's been affected by this. And that's why the vice president was out here earlier, a few days ago, meeting with that community. 

During the interview, Brennan and Kelly talked about foreign actors trying to manipulate voters ahead of the election, with the lead on election threats at the Department of Justice, Matthew Olsen, saying the Russians are "highlighting immigration as a wedge issue," which is a key issue in Arizona.

Brennan asked Kelly if he is seeing "targeted information operations really focusing in on Arizonans right now," to which Kelly responded saying:

"Not only in Arizona, in other battleground states. It's the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and it's significant. And we need to do a better job getting the message out to the American people that there is a huge amount of misinformation. If you're looking at stuff on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Instagram, and it's political in nature, and you may- might think that that person responding to that political article or who made that meme up is an American. It could be- it could look like a U.S. service member. There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China. We had a hearing recently, with the FBI director, the DNI, and the head of the National Security Agency. And we talked about this. And we talked about getting the word out. And it's up to us, so thank you for asking me the question, because it's up to us, the people who serve in Congress and the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it's not going to stop on November 5th."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Kelly, click here.