By Jacqueline Griswold
STAFF WRITER
Franciscan students gathered in a small conference room upstairs in the JC to witness a historical debate between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris, one that could decide the fate of America on Sept. 10. Around 8:30 p.m. the watch party started and students poured in excited to see the event unfold.
Many students were smiling and more came in right before the debate began. Professor Caleb Henry, a political science teacher at Franciscan University, got up in front of the eager crowd and introduced the situation, talking about the strategies of each candidate.
Emmagrace Brierley, a freshman marketing major, remarked, “I love Trump. I think that he’s an amazing person. He has amazing views towards America, and his policies are great. Him as a person, I think he’s human; I think he’s made mistakes in the past, but I think he’s grown from them, and I think he’s the best shot our country has of a good future.”
As the debate grew closer and closer to beginning, a countdown began. When the clock hit its seconds, students were chanting, “five … four … three … two … one!” After a few more seconds, the debate began.
The room cheered as the candidates appeared on the screen, many cheering Trump’s name.
The moderators, from ABC News, began the debate by asking the candidates about the economy and living costs.
“When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans were better off than they were four years ago?” David Muir, the male moderator, asked Harris.
Harris responded, “I was raised as a middle-class kid. And I’m actually the only person on the stage who has a plan that is about lifting the middle class and working people of America.”
Harris Continued, “I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people, and that is why I imagine and have actually planned to build what I call an opportunity economy. Cause here’s the thing. We know that we have a shortage of homes and housing and the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people.”
Harris continued by explaining her plan to fix this. “I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000, which is the largest child tax credit that we have given in a long time.”
“My passion, one of them is small businesses.” Harris commented.
She finished up by attacking her opponent’s polices for tax cuts.
Trump responded to this, “First of all, I have no sales tax. That’s an incorrect statement. She knows that. We’re doing tariffs on other countries. Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we’ve done for the world, and the tariff will be substantial in some cases. I took in billions and billions of dollars from China.”
Trump Continued, “Look, we’ve had a terrible economy, because inflation has, which is really known as a country buster, brakes up countries, we have inflation like very few people have ever seen before. Probably the worst in our nation’s history. We were at 21 percent, but that’s being generous because many things are 50, 60, 70 and 80% higher than they were just a few years ago. This has been a disaster for people.” Trump continued.
He also mentioned what has been happening at the border, and accused Harris and Joe Biden of letting illegal immigrants into the country.
“Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression,” Harris responded.
She also accused him of being a part of Project 2025, a political project aiming to promote conservative and right-wing policies to reshape the U.S. government and executive power if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election.
Trump responded he has “nothing to do with Project 2025.”
The candidates were also asked about the abortion issue that is dividing America.
When asked why he has been changing his views on abortion, Trump said, “Her vice-presidential pick, which I think was a horrible pick, by the way, for our country, ‘cause he is really out of it, but her vice-presidential pick says, ‘abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine,’ he also says ‘execution after birth,’ — it’s execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born — ‘is okay.’ And that’s not okay with me, hence the vote.”
Trump then continues sharing how he got the abortion vote back into the states and credits the six supreme court justices who made it possible.
He said he believes in exceptions to abortion such as rape, incest and life of the mother. Trump remarked how this issue has ripped America apart. “Every legal scholar, every democrat, every republican, liberal, conservative, they all wanted this issue to be brought back to the states where the people could vote.”
He said it is “the vote of the people.”
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.” Linsey Davis, the female ABC moderator, told Trump.
Harris accused Trump of lying and said, “Donald Trump hand selected three members of the United States Supreme court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe vs. Wade. And they did exactly as he intended and now in over 20 states there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or a nurse to provide health care. In one state it provides prison for life.”
Later in the debate the candidates were asked about the Israel-Hamas war.
Harris answered first, “Well, let’s understand how we got here. On Oct. 7, Hamas, a terrorist organization, slaughtered 1,200 Israelis.” She continued, “So absolutely I said then and I say now, Israel has a right to defend itself – we would. And how it does so, matters. Because it is also true far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.” She said, “What we know, is this war must end. It must end immediately and the way it will end is we need a cease fire deal and we need the hostages out. And so we will continue to work around the clock on that.”
Trump answered the question next, saying, “If I were president, it would’ve never started. If I were president, Russia would have never, ever, I know Putin very well, … have gone into Ukraine and killed millions of people.” He continued, “But when she mentions about Israel all of a sudden, she hates Israel, she wouldn’t even meet with Netanyahu when he went to congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers.”
Many issues were covered: the economy, abortion, IVF, the wars across the world, illegal immigration, fracking, January 6th, Afghanistan, race, insurance and climate change.
Both candidates made their closing statements, and Donald Trump got the last word. By the end of the 90-minute debate, it was clear it had been a mess.
The watch party was hosted by Anna Myron, a junior political science and history major, and Veronica Macdonald, a junior political science and philosophy major, who are both part of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
James Garcia, a sophomore economics major, commented after the debate, “Before I went to the debate, I thought this would really decide the election, now I think it won’t make much of a difference. I think the whole time they were pointing fingers at each other, just blaming each other for the problems that the country’s in right now.”
Garcia continued, “I thought Trump got a little heated sometimes, and he could’ve toned down his temperament. Harris pretty much just lied the entire night, stumbled over her words. So, the grand scheme of things, I don’t think it’s really gonna make much of a difference as I previously thought, so we just have to get out there and vote for Trump if we really want things to go our way.”