The Trump-Harris Presidential Debate Did Not Rise to the Occasion, According to Five College Students

By Chloe Adams

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’ fiery exchange during the Sept. 10 United States presidential debate disappointed five Boston University students who said they hoped for a civil showdown — one rooted in facts. 

All five BU students said the candidates allotted excessive time towards trading insults and agreed Trump's false claims frustrated them.

“It felt like a clown show with shot after shot,” Matheus Alves, a 20-year-old BU student from Stow, Massachusetts, said with a shrug. “I think it makes the U.S. look stupid.”

Alves wished to see the candidates behave more cordially instead of their ongoing tit-for-tat, but what unfolded after the matchup impacted him even more, he said.

Alves noticed his family members sending online misinformation to one another about immigrants in Ohio after being deceived by Trump’s inaccuracies, he said. 

BU student Corinne Keaney, 18 from Norton, Massachusetts, also said the showdown lacked decorum, and like Alves, the insults were not the only remarks she found unnecessary.

“There was a lot of stuff he [Trump] said about immigrants and eating the animals, and there was a lot of fearmongering about kids becoming radicalized at school in terms of gender and sexuality,” Keaney said.

Trump asserted more than 30 false claims during the presidential debate, while Harris delivered about 17 inaccuracies, according to news reports.

Kyra Leininger, a 20-year-old BU student from Dallas, Texas, said Trump projected more extreme falsehoods than his opponent.

“There’s a difference in the level of severity from each candidate's remarks,” Leininger said. “It’s not true that babies are killed at birth — that's a very different type of misinformation compared to her [Harris] kind of misconstruing the context of a statistic.”

Leininger wanted Trump and Harris to delve deeper into discussions surrounding other hot-button issues, such as social justice rights, instead of squandering time with their put-downs, she said.

The candidates’ jabs began early on during the ABC News broadcast of the presidential debate. One of Trump’s initial barbs happened when he accused Harris of copying President Joe Biden’s economic plan for America, and later, Harris slammed Trump for being weak. Their back-and-forth digs ran throughout the televised event.

Amanda Lohnes, the president of BU’s Republican group, said she is voting for Trump based on his border control and economic policies. Even still, his impertinent remarks and misleading rhetoric — especially about immigrants in Ohio — did not please her, she said.

“Trump's biggest problem is he's a bit of a hothead, and if you set him off on one thing, he'll basically just say whatever is on his mind,” Lohnes said. “I read the news, and I don't know what's real anymore.”

Shreyas Puducheri, a 21-year-old BU student from Huntsville, Alabama, said he expected Trump to assert inaccuracies on stage last month based on the COVID-19-related falsities he spread during his 2020 presidential campaign.

Puducheri said he is disappointed Trump’s debate strategies have not changed but is confident in Harris’ campaign progress after Biden dropped out of the race.

“Now we actually have an election,” Puducheri said.