Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s interruption of Republican challenger Scott Brown’s closing remarks at a forum in Manchester on Sunday morning prompted the Brown campaign to say that “it appears Senator Shaheen is growing rattled and more desperate in the closing days of the campaign.”
The chairman of the state Democratic Party, Raymond Buckley, responded on Twitter that “the juvenile trash talk by the Brown crew is pretty pathetic. (It) shows a lot about who Brown really is deep down.”
In a video released by the Brown campaign of a small slice of the event at Temple Adath Yeshurun, Brown is saying in his closing remarks, “…look at the record on business. She’s voting against small business 100 percent of the time. She has a zero rating from the National Federation of Small Business. I received their endorsement, not only then but from the Chamber of Commerce….”
Shaheen, who had previously delivered her closing remarks, leans forward to her microphone and interjects as Brown is speaking: “A Koch brothers funded organization.”
In the video, the moderator, sitting between Brown and Shaheen, raises his index finger toward her as people in the audience – presumably Brown supports – begin booing her and saying “that’s rude” and “very rude.”
Brown says, “No, no. I’d like to defer to Senator Shaheen.”
Shaheen then says, “I think you objected to my saying that. And given the support you’ve gotten from the Koch Brothers, I don’t know why you’d object to my saying that.”
Brown answers, “Well, because I was in my closing, and I gave you the courtesy to allow you to speak.”
Some members of the audience cheered and applauded.
Brown spokesman Elizabeth Guyton said, “On the heels of Scott Brown’s decisive back-to-back debate victories, it appears that Senator Shaheen is growing rattled and more desperate in the closing days of the campaign. This has become a pattern for Shaheen, who interrupted Brown often during the NH1/CNN Debate last week.”
See this week’s Granite Reports for our analysis of last week’s debates.
View the snippet from the forum below.