Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Democratic challenger Katie McGinty taped the first debate of their heated U.S. Senate contest Monday afternoon at KDKA-TV studios. The event will air at 7 p.m. on CBS in Philadelphia and will be available on the KDKA web site after it airs.
Here are some key points from the taping Monday afternoon:
Attacks off the top: If you want to see more of the attacks that are playing out on so many TV ads already, by all means watch the first 10 minutes of the debate. The beginning consisted of the candidates basically rehashing in their own words the attacks already flooding your airwaves — each seeming to try to knock the other off stride. McGinty accused Toomey of being a Wall Street insider. Toomey said McGinty had enriched herself by handing out taxpayer-funded grants to companies that later gave her high-paying board positions.
None of them seemed to land the kind of blow that might change the course of a neck-and-neck race, though you can expect to hear more about one particular dust-up over police endorsements (more on that below).
What was most fascinating was watching the candidates try to parry these attacks live. Toomey cast his time as a derivatives trader as time working “in New York finance” in his 20s, when he said he worked very hard and started at the bottom.
McGinty didn’t directly rebut Toomey’s attacks, but said independent fact-checkers have criticized them as false or misleading.