The Winston Room at the Sullivan Student Center was unusually lively on Tuesday, September 10. In an event organized by SLU Dems and the Hub, students of St. Lawrence University gathered together to watch the 2024 Presidential Debate hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Much had changed since the last debate in mid-July. President Joe Biden stepped down following a disastrous showing against his Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, making way for Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee for the Democratic Party. The night was especially consequential for many viewers curious about the performance of Harris, who was until August 7th, a relatively unknown quantity to the average American figure.
BINGO cards were distributed among the watchers, consisting of rhetoric used by former President Trump on inflation, China, and elections before the event. Though the two candidates shook hands before their opening statements, the cards were scratched off relatively early in the debate, as the exchanges grew tenser by the minute. In a stand-out moment, Trump repeated a debunked claim about Haitian immigrants in Ohio “eating the pets of the people who lived there” before being corrected by the moderator David Muir.
Trump’s views on immigration, inflation, and the competency of his administration were known to the world since before his Presidency in 2016. For Harris, on the other hand, this debate was an opportunity for her to make her claim to be one of the most consequential people in the world. “I was less worried about Harris failing to get her agenda across and more concerned about how she would stumble over the attacks from former President Trump.” says Elijah White ‘26, who is leaning towards supporting the Harris-Walz ticket.
Trump’s behaviour during the debate stood out to many people in the Winston Room, with many of his claims eliciting surprised reactions. “I don’t think he made a single statement about actual policy,” says Skylar White ‘26. “He talked a lot about the past and having the biggest and best rallies, and he was kind of being a negative Nancy.”
Though mainstream news outlets and debate-watchers received Harris’s takedowns of Trump with enthusiasm and declared her as the winner of the debate, there are still questions on Harris’s ability to sway the undecided voters based on this debate alone.
“The swing voters might say that they didn’t like the guy, but they had more money under Trump,” says Patrick Chase ’25. He believes that neither Trump’s nor Harris’s established bases are likely to sway. However, Trump being a former president whose policies were known to voters whose concern was money is an advantage. He finds that Kamala missed an opportunity to talk about policy and properly address grievances. “We knew how it was with him and she says that we’re going to turn the page and help the middle class. How?”
The stakes were extremely high during the Presidential Debate, with many looking for confirmation on how a potential presidency under either candidate pan out. Needless to say, with less than fifty-five days to go before the Election, people across the globe will be tuning in to see who gains the keys to the most powerful office in the world.