At the close of a Monday evening forum between Maine’s Second Congressional District candidates Congressman Jared Golden (D) and State Rep. Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent) hosted by NBC-affiliate News Center Maine, the news station abruptly cut off Theriault’s closing statement for a commercial break — a blunder the station attributed to an error in their computer system.
Monday’s candidate forum marked the second time Golden and Theriault have taken the stage together to go head-to-head on policy issues before the November election, after a debate hosted by WGME last week.
[WATCH: Highlights from Golden v. Theriault ME-CD2 Debate…]
Throughout the candidate forum the two candidates sparred on a wide array of issues, including the economy and budgetary policy, Maine’s housing crisis, energy policy, abortion and gun control.
Golden played defense on his support of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a massive spending package that allocated hundreds of billions of dollars to “green energy” and climate change initiatives, and which has been used as key line of attack against the three-term incumbent by his Republican opponent.
Theriault reiterated claims that Golden “flip-flopped” on the Second Amendment due to Golden’s reversal on gun control following the Oct. 25, 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, after which Golden announced that he would support a ban on so-called assault rifles.
On the issue of abortion, Golden stated that he is “100 percent pro-choice” and supports legislation that would codify the standards of Roe v. Wade into law, and pushed Theriault to answer what sort of federal legislation he would support.
Theriault rebutted Golden by saying that while he is pro-life, he would not support a federal ban on abortion, saying the issue is not “one size fits all” and should be left up to the states.
When it came time for the two candidates to offer their one-minute closing statements, the News Center Maine moderator prompted Golden to go first, in accordance with a coin flip.
While Golden was able to complete his closing statement in full, Theriault’s statement was cut off after about 30 seconds by a promotional video for News Center Maine itself, in what the station described as a “technical glitch.”
In an editor’s note posted at the top of their article on the candidate forum, the station claimed that the abrupt commercial break was caused by an error in their computer system.
“If you watched it live, you know Theriault’s closing statement was cut off by a commercial break. It was caused by a timing error in our computer system, for which we take full responsibility. It’s an error we want to correct right now,” the editor’s note reads.
In a post to X just minutes after the conclusion of the forum, Theriault said that his closing statement “got cut off,” and again referred to his campaign’s common refrain of calling Golden a “flip-flopper.”
The video of the candidate forum uploaded by News Center Maine to their streaming platform and YouTube channel include the full closing statement segment of the discussion.
Despite the “technical glitch,” the Theriault campaign quickly released a statement claiming victory in the forum.
“Tonight, Jared Golden continued to flip-flop his way through this debate and further entrench himself as the Washington politician who cares more about winning re-election than the people he serves,” said Theriault campaign spokesperson Preya Samsundar.
“Austin’s message of putting people over politics continues to resonate with voters across the district and that’s why they’re ready to entrust him to bring more balance and less extremism to Washington,” Samsundar said.
In response to questions from the Maine Wire, Newscenter Maine said they apologized immediately to Theriault’s campaign for the error — which they said was caused by a North Carolina-based automation computer.
Additionally, the network re-aired both closing statements in subsequent segments.
“[W]e re-aired the full closing statements again with a brief explanation at the top of our 11pm Newscast last night, and again today at the top of the 4:30am, 5am, 6am, noon, 4pm, 5pm and 6pm newscasts,” said Mike Redding from Newscenter.
“We also immediately posted entire closing statements on our social media platforms with an explanation. We plan to re-air the debate in its entirety this Saturday, October 12, 9-10am,” Redding said.
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