Danbury Candidate Says He Won Debate, Demands Apology From Mayor

Monday evening (10/23/23) Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito and Democratic challenger Roberto Alves took the debate stage at the Amber Room in the Hat City.

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By all accounts there were fireworks throughout the debate but one moment in particular has the Alves' camp in an uproar.

The Alves campaign even released a statement in the press that read in part:

Danbury Democrats are incensed at Esposito’s repugnant, direct, and deliberate attack on the Alves family which was made even more egregious by the fact that one of Alves’ two children was in the audience.

We asked Alves about the debate and the comments during our Wednesday (10/25/23) interview on the I-95 Morning Show.

Lou: You and the Mayor had your debate on Monday evening, can you give us an evaluation? What did you experience there?  How did it go? 

Alves: "Thank you guys, I believe we won the debate and I'm sure the other side is going to say the same thing but again, the video is up there, it's live, you can go watch it. We got our points across, I gotta be honest with everybody I'm really disappointed with Dean Esposito and his antics. The amount of lies were just ridiculous, he got really angry, he was yelling because he couldn't backup his record, we call out the lies. He would just resort to this angry person and it was like debating a child. Anybody who has ever tried to argue with their children, you know what that is like. Then it got to one point, the man insulted my family and I demanded an apology from him, leading up to that because he continues to lie about me defunding the police. You guys have heard me say it on record, I've said it over and over I will not defund the police, I think Danbury needs more police officers. It's gotten to the point over two elections, four years that the lies just continue. I had my mother, my son and my wife in the crows and you know Dean, they demand, I demand an apology for them. I yielded my time on a minute and a half question to see if he would just do the right thing as a person and apologize. He doubled down and he insulted my family, it's on tape. A lot of people were just taken back that he would do that but he just shows, over and over he shows that he's unfit to be Mayor. He doesn't act like a Mayor, when the job gets tough, Dean Esposito can't handle the stress. He's shown over and over that this job is too stressful for him."

Lou: You put out a press release about this too saying Dean Esposito lobbed a vile, repugnant attack on your family. What is it that he said? What member of your family was it about? 

Alves: "After I demanded the apology, you know he didn't apologize to them and you know, he points out that and again when you bring in a family like that, it's just below the belt. You don't do that, where is the civil discourse? He points, as he's pointing he goes and to your mother, a senior citizen, your wife and to your son, a 10 year old child, he goes I commend them for putting up with you and it just was loud and completely inappropriate in that setting."  

Roberto Alves and his people shared the video in question with the press, this is one of the videos that was sent out..

The clip above is a portion of the evening's exchanges. Hat City Blog has the full debate posted.

You can listen to the remainder of our conversation with Roberto Alves below. The clip picks up right where the last one left off.

Listen to the full (10/25/23) interview with Roberto Alves below.

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