VIDEO: Hecklers, Screaming Matches Turn Debate Into Spectacle

Shouting matches! Heckling! The gnashing of teeth and rending of garments! And that was just the audience!

The first debate in the Ninth District special election took place Monday night, and for one night only, the basement of Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills may as well have been the setting of a WWE cage match.

After , a special election in the Ninth District was set for Sept. 13.

As the date nears, things have percolated to a serious boil.

It was clear from the crowds outside—which exchanged pleasantries more common between Red Sox and Yankees fans—that the debate was likely to be heated. The real heat was just coming from the floor, not the podium.

Numerous times, debate moderator Richard Hellenbrecht, a Community Board chairman from outside the Ninth District, had to insist that the packed house quiet down, lest people be escorted from the premises.

Every time Assemblyman David Weprin, D-Little Neck, accused his opponent of being in lockstep with the Tea Party movement, he got a Bronx cheer that was probably heard that far away.

Weprin had a hard time getting his points across, thanks in large part to the near-constant shouting that greeted his every talking point. Geriatric screams of “stop the spending” could be heard as a response to the Democrat’s repeated suggestion that the federal government should tax millionaires and corporations.

The video above demonstrates another Weprin heckler who couldn't take it anymore, and escorted himself out. The moment came after Weprin was asked by the debate panel what about Bob Turner scared him.

Turner’s answers were more commonly heard but on more than one occasion, Weprin supporters in the back shouted “liar,” as Turner suggested his campaign’s refrain that Medicare and Social Security could be maintained while still cutting federal spending by a third.

At one point, the “liar” shouts almost started a shoving match in the back of the room.

When Weprin suggested that Turner’s proposal was impossible, a member of the Turner faithful in the crowd shouted. “Nothing’s impossible!”

At another point, the crowd seemed to get to the Assemblyman, who, upon returning to his seat from the podium, gestured to a member of the gallery and asked “Do you want to stand up here and try to talk?”

The proposal, mercifully, went unheeded.