--- title: Presidential Debate: DonaldTrump, Hillary Clinton's Interruptions description: Trump's interruption count of 15 was fewer than the combined interjections of moderators Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper. canonical: https://time.com/4524739/debate-donald-trump-hillary-clinton/ author: Chris Wilson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-10T11:45:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:05:52.527Z article:section: Politics og:title: In Second Debate, Moderators Competed With Trump On Interruptions og:description: Trump interrupted Clinton or the moderators 15 times, compared to 55 in the first debate og:url: https://time.com/4524739/debate-donald-trump-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: In Second Debate, Moderators Competed With Trump On Interruptions twitter:description: Trump interrupted Clinton or the moderators 15 times, compared to 55 in the first debate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Donald Trump's Interruptions Down in Second Presidential Debate > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=6ce5241d-6672-4442-b1da-242e6a8b6e11&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Oct 10, 2016 11:45 AM UTC  by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Oct 10, 2016 11:45 AM UTC **Correction appended, Oct. 11** After a first presidential debate in which Donald Trump [repeatedly talked over](http://time.com/4509790/donald-trump-debate-interruptions/) both Hillary Clinton and moderator Lester Holt, the Republican nominee was more verbally subdued in the second face-off on Oct. 9, even as he [elevated his attacks to new levels](http://time.com/4524589/second-presidential-debate-donald-trump-nuclear/?xid=homepage). In fact, Trump’s interruption count of 15, according to an analysis of the transcript, was fewer than the combined interjections of moderators Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper, who had seven and 11, respectively. (Clinton interrupted Trump or the moderators five times.) By comparison, Trump’s count in the first debate was 55, [similar to those of Tim Kaine and Mike Pence](http://time.com/4519725/mike-pence-tim-kaine-interruptions/), who repeatedly talked over one another during the vice presidential debate. You can see every line from Tuesday’s debate in the interactive below. Interruptions are outlined in black. Of course, not everyone agrees on what counts as an interruption, as FiveThirtyEight [recently documented](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-many-times-did-trump-interrupt-clinton-in-the-first-debate-depends-on-how-you-count/). Rather than counting interruptions by hand, which is prone to inconsistency, this analysis uses the Congressional Quarterly transcripts for its tallies. **Correction**: This post originally misstated the date of the second debate. 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