Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made a good effort in his first one-on-one debate in his short political career, his spokesperson Katrina Pierson told Newsmax TV.
"I will say that Mr. Trump got his feet wet," Pierson on Tuesday told host Joe Pagliarulo on "The Joe Pags Show." "There was no reason really to go out there and to give them anything extra as far as taking on the moderator," she said, "because if he would've changed tactics then that would've worked against him later on."
Pierson told Pagliarulo that much thought was put into what Trump was going to talk about and what he intended to avoid in his matchup Monday with Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump accomplished what he set out to do, she said.
"We're talking about 100 million people who don't watch news on a daily basis that tuned in last night and there was one thing that they were looking for," she said. They weren't looking for policy, but whether the candidates on stage matched the image they project in their ads. Trump did, she said.
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Clinton, Pierson said, "was your typical politician who did not answer the questions and who did not defend herself when it came to the emails, when it came to TPP, when it came to anything."
Trump initially kept quiet until it was his turn, but finally jumped in to interrupt moderator Lester Holt because he let the discussion go past the two-minute time limit, which let topics change, she said.
"When you're talking about five or six different things particularly with someone who's never done this before you want to wait your turn but then once you realize you're not going to get a turn unless you interrupt he had to interject and defend himself," Pierson said.
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