Second Debate Leaves Fordham Unimpressed
At 9 pm on Sunday October 9th, Fordham University hosted students in the McGinley Ballroom to watch the second presidential debate of 2016, streamed live on CNN.
Though first time voters are an integral part of each election, there was a sparse showing of students at this watch party. Over 200 chairs were set up in the large commons room, but only about 15 were filled.
This lack of attendance may be due to the long weekend and fewer students on campus, or it can be attributed to the general attitude towards this election: apathy and displeasure.
When asked about the overall tone of the election, student Molly Carney was not too optimistic. She said, “having to start off your voting career as choosing between the lesser of two evils is a weird way of looking at the democratic process, but is how many millennials in our generation feel.”
The evidence behind Carney’s claim lies within the students’ reactions to the contenders. The debate evoked jeers, laughs, and scoffs, often aimed at comments made by the infamous Donald Trump. There was no shortage of shock value as the candidates threw jabs at each other.
Trump said that Hillary Clinton has “tremendous hate in her heart,” and even called her “the devil.” When Clinton stated that “it is just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” Trump refuted, saying “because you’d be in jail.”
But Trump wasn’t the only one to elicit mixed reviews. When an audience member asked each candidate to say one nice thing about the other, Clinton turned her attention away from Trump and instead complimented his children, seemingly avoiding finding anything positive about her opponent, which drew chuckles from the observing students in McGinley.
The mudslinging left many viewers unimpressed, however. Senior John Brabazon said about the bickering, “you need a balance. You don’t want to go too over the top because it makes the whole country look bad. We need to look professional and look like we can be respected worldwide.” He later added, however, that it is necessary to expose the past misjudgments of candidates in order to better screen them.
Student Katherine Lichtenfels echos the same sentiment. She said, “you have to determine what this person is like personally. Do I trust them enough to vote for them as president? That’s part of voting for president; when making that decision you have to bring in their personal lives too. You have to look at the whole picture.”
Unfortunately for Trump, many of the voters’ concerns seem to circulate around his demeanor, his campaign, and especially his past remarks in which he talks about his sexual advances towards women. Lichtenfels said “I feel like the comments Donald Trump has recently made, as a woman, I can’t trust that kind of behavior or promotion of rape culture. He can’t control the country if he’s going to do that.”
Hillary shared the same feeling. When commenting on Donald Trump’s controversial remarks about women, Clinton said “What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women. And he has said that the video doesn’t represent who he is. But I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is.”
While Clinton was quick to condemn Trump, Trump classified his comments as “locker room talk” and he quickly changed the subject to discuss his plan to defeat ISIS.
Because of this, some students found it hard to defend Trump. When asked who he believed won the debate, Brabazon said “I think Hillary did because she looks much more professional. Donald Trump looked a little flustered; he kind of takes a question, spins it, and goes to a completely different topic. I think he looks bad doing that.”
Despite the evident bias of the students, they will continue to participate in the debates. Brabazon encouraged college students to vote and said “it’s a very consequential election that’s really going to set the direction for our country.”
In contrast, another student walked out of the viewing room and said, “I can’t stand to watch this sh** anymore!” Many snickered in partial agreement, others, like Brabazon, feel that it is more important than ever to watch and engage. He said, “especially as millennials, we’re the ones who are going have to put up with the effects of what’s going to happen, so our vote really matters.”
The third presidential debate will take place on Wednesday, October 19th at 9 pm.