Students discuss presidential candidates
Tuning in from the Silver Maple Ballroom and the Davis Center fireplace lounge, students watched the first presidential debate.
Preliminary reactions were generally negative, with students and residents commenting on their expectations being met.
The debate, hosted by Lester Holt of NBC, consisted of six 15-minute sections, focusing on six topics, with no commercial breaks.
Hosted at Hofstra University on Long Island, N.Y., candidates had two minutes to respond to questions posed by Holt that they had not received beforehand.
Before the debate began, students said they didn’t know what to expect.
“We’ll see if Hillary will sink to his [Trump’s] level,” first- year Jacob Ide said.
After the debate, Ide said he “was surprised it didn’t fall into a shouting match earlier.”
First-year Katie Bedell said she was both impressed and disturbed by the debate.
“Hillary’s ability to remain composed while her opponent blatantly lied repeatedly is inspiring,” Bedell said.
During the debate Clinton quoted First Lady Michelle Obama by saying “When they go low, we go high,” in response to Trump.
“All of this said, I did go to the debate with a bias towards Hillary,” Bedell said.
Bedell said she felt Clinton’s plans were structured well.
“I’m sure Trump supporters watched and experienced the debate very differently, but there is no denying the fact that Hillary provides concrete plans for her policies and Trump plays the blame game, she said.
First-year Chuck Jiang said he was not pleased with Trump’s performance.
“I wanna quit,” he said. “I don’t wanna hear Trump at all.”
