In a history-making presidential debate, Trump and Clinton came together on the stage for the first time this election season for a full 90 minutes.
It was the most viewed and most tweeted debate in history exceeding 84 million viewers and 10.3 million tweets, setting the bar higher than it ever has been in the 60 years of televised presidential debates.
UC Illusions filled with over 100 students joined together to take in the record-breaking presidential debate. Photo by: Ashley Kairis
It was an event for many WCU students who gathered in the UC Illusions room to watch the debate together. The event was organized by Last Minute Productions and was open to all WCU students.
“I think it’s important that you keep things equal and don’t show favoritism to one candidate or the other and we tried to do that with our decorations,” said junior, Courtney Smith, Leadership Coordinator of LMP.
As the night went on, many people cheered for Clinton with noticeably less support for Trump’s remarks.
The lack of Trump support raised confusion in the room. As it turned out, there was a separate viewing party with a life-sized cardboard cutout of Trump in the UC Multipurpose Room.
“The multipurpose room was sponsored by the College Republicans club. It was very lively, we defended Trump in every way,” said WCU student and new member of the College Republicans, adding, “It would be strange if a Hillary supporter came in.” The turnout for this viewing party was around 50 students.
With well over 100 WCU students in UC Illusions viewing party open to all, everyone sat at attention as they bared witnessed to nearly 2 hours of a commercial free but certainly not lie free debate.
Both candidates referred to fact checkers during the debate and many media including Politifact live fact checked what the candidates were saying.
“In the end, I believe that Clinton supporters came away thinking she won and Trump supporters came away thinking he won. The key for the candidates is to try and influence the few out there that are undecided,” said Todd Collins, associate professor of political science and public affairs.
College Republicans host their own viewing party with a cardboard cut out of Trump. Photo by: Lauren Stogner.
The exchanged attacks between the candidates took merely seconds to ignite in social media posts. The more memorable one-liners from the debate spread like wildfire. In the span of 90 minutes, reactions from all over the world flooded all platforms of social media.
“The interruptions were childish, rude, and wrong,” said freshman, Syd Spampinato of Trump’s numerous accounts of speaking over Clinton during her allotted two minutes.
“Unfortunately, I think Hillary won. Trump was too quick to interrupt and I don’t think he fully thought out what he was saying before he said it,” said junior, Nicole Fox.
Another WCU student with the same republican affiliation saw Trump as the winner.
“I think Trump won, especially when he talked about the NAFTA trade agreement. Hillary really had no comeback towards that,” said junior, Drew Hunt.
The moderator, Lester Holt, focused on three topics: “America’s Direction,” “Achieving Prosperity,” and “Securing America.”
Several students of the viewing party speculated as to whether or not he was assertive enough for the job.
Many people in conversation during the viewing party also commented on how the candidates carried themselves under pressure.
“When he got pushed into a corner he tried to revert back to the Donald Trump of the primaries and it backfired. You cannot be that way when it is a one-on-one debate with someone as vetted as Hillary Clinton,” said sophomore, Thomas Pauley.
The big question to eligible voters at the end of the debate was very simple: who won? If either candidate, who benefited in poll numbers, in favorability, and who connected with the undecided voters?
Students sat at blue and red round tables discussing the many differences in the presidential candidates. Photo by: Ashley Kairis
“In general, I would give the edge to Clinton. She managed to steer the conversation towards topics that benefited her like Trump’s business dealings and away from ones that hurt her like Bengazi,” said Christopher Cooper, department head of political science and public affairs.
Looking ahead to the two additional presidential debates on Oct. 9 and Oct. 19, students share what was missing from Monday’s debate and what they hope to see in the debates ahead.
“I think a more diverse question base would give us, as the American public, a better understanding of their platforms,” said freshman, Burgin Mackey.
“Immigration wasn’t really talked about. There were a lot of social topics missing,” added junior, Lauren Stogner.
Voters, especially those who are not yet decided, got to see for themselves how each candidate envisions how they would run the country and there is more to come with the next presidential debate.
