MAINE, USA — The first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden is in the books. At times the debate was chaotic—both talking over each other and not letting moderator Chris Wallace speak.
NEWS CENTER Maine's Hannah Dineen spoke with Maine party leaders about how they felt their candidates performed Tuesday night.
Maine GOP Chair Jason Savage said he thought Trump "did really well," while Biden Maine Senior Advisor Spencer Thibodeau said, "I don't think the choice was ever more clear," for voters deciding between Trump and Biden.
Conversation with Maine GOP Chair Jason Savage
Hannah: "How do you think your candidate performed in the first debate?"
Savage: "I think he did really well. I think we saw a president who has been leading who is ready to lead this country forward. then we saw his counterpart, Joe Biden who looked very uncertain, and frustrated, and feeble or frail, however, you want to describe it. President Trump was assertive, he knew what he wanted to say, wanted to do, and had total command over the facts."
Hannah: "On our Facebook posts last night, we saw people commenting, both Trump and Biden supporters, saying that the tone of the debate overall was a huge turn off for them. Do you think President Trump took it too far?"
Savage: "No, I actually think the structure of the debate could have been different. What I saw was Joe Biden continuing on past his two minutes on his comments and then trying to sort of filibuster on these things. On both sides, there were instances of the candidates trying to interrupt each other."
Conversation with Spencer Thibodeau, the senior advisor to the Joe Biden campaign in Maine
Hannah: "What do you make of how your candidate, Joe Biden carried himself throughout the debate?"
Thibodeau: "I don't think anyone could have expected it. I think one person showed up for the debate and one person showed up for, I have no idea what, right?"
"I think the current President's approach to the debate was chaotic and I think what he was hoping was that folks would turn off their televisions and not vote, and I think what Joe Biden did was flip that script and look right in the camera and talk to the American people about what's at stake in this election. Frankly, I don't think the choice was ever more clear."
Hannah: "Your candidate didn't stay out of the mud though. While the President did the majority of the interrupting, we saw Joe Biden call Trump a clown, he told him to shut up... is that the type of leadership you expected to see out of your candidate?"
Thibodeau: "I think there are two points on that. I think what people are looking for is a leader who will say the types of things we are thinking... but when you have the first 25 minutes devolve into those kinds of interruptions, I think Joe Biden did really well under those circumstances."