What Did Voters Think of Tuesday’s Presidential Debate?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER AND POLITICAL STRATEGIST: My focus group that occurred within minutes of the debate finishing was pretty unanimous that they want to give the power to shut off the microphones, at least lower them so that a candidate like Donald Trump cannot constantly talk over Joe Biden. It was a little bit done in the other direction but it’s much more Trump interrupting. They believe that whoever is the moderator should have the capability to silence them when they will not silence themselves. I know that that will be very controversial and that you’re going to have some issue in the Trump campaign whether or not they will accept that. I got to tell you, Trump’s constant interruptions were very, very bothersome to undecided swing voters and it did turn some of them against the president.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: OK. So, that’s really interesting coming from, as I said, someone who’s advised Republicans in the past on messaging and on how to actually win campaigns. Kevin Sheekey, is silencing the mic the way to go? Are there other things that need to be done?

KEVIN SHEEKEY, FORMER CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR BLOOMBERG 2020: Well. it’s not a lot he can do. Listen, what Frank said is remarkable, right. We’re having a conversation about turning off the mic of the president of the United States because you can’t abide by rules and he can’t have a civilized discussion. I think what you said across, you know, the rest of the world is, yes, they watched in horror in terms of what happened last night. They watched a president who is not so much a president as he is a Twitter troll and what happens when you bring a Twitter troll on to a debate stage. We used to call it a heckler. I think a Twitter troll is probably a better explanation of it now. You know, you could give him a red light that says his time is about to expire, I’m pretty sure this president is blowing right through a red light when he’s behind the wheel of a car on a debate stage. So, it’s clearly not going to work. It is clearly something that they can and will consider. I assume that it’s something they’ll have to do, if not for the Town Hall, which is a different format and the next debate sort of style event that will occur. But the third and final time that these two gentlemen will be together will be a format very much like this one, and I don’t think the Debate Commission, which has done this for a very long time and is very serious about what they do and wants to present topics seriously to the American public and to the world is going to abide by what happened last night.

AMANPOUR: Frank, you started by talking about the focus groups and you did one immediately after the debate. I think they are — well, I believe the undecided vote as you were saying, I’m not sure whether they’re from swing states, but nonetheless, undecided. I want to play a little bit of some of the things they were talking to you about, particularly when you asked them to describe in a word each candidate. Here we go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUNTZ: Michelle, word or phrase, describe Donald Trump tonight?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Horrid.

LUNTZ: Sarah?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chaotic.

LUNTZ: Rob?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unpolished.

LUNTZ: Ruthy?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crackhead.

LUNTZ: Trevis, word or phrase to describe Joe Biden’s night?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Better than expected.

LUNTZ: Better than expected. Sheryl, word or phrase?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would say that he was definitely more professional than Trump and I think he’s more a people person. I really do.

LUNTZ: Jennifer>

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Confident.

LUNTZ: Jerry?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Politician.