First Presidential Debate Airs at ESU

By Nia Scott
Contributing Writer

On Sept. 26, starting at 8:30 p.m., ESU’s Political Science Club and the College Republicans, hosted a viewing of the Presidential debate in Stroud Hall.

The debate attracted students and alumni.

Some were democrats or republicans while others were independent considering third-party candidates.

Before the debate, both clubs were setting out snacks, drinks and pizza.

“I want students to be involved. They should be a part of the conversation and the political process. Whatever is decided in this election, affect all of us,” explained Christian Colon, a senior and the president of the Political Science club.

“I want people to vote and for people to be educated, no matter which side you are on,” said Matt Deegan, a sophomore and President of the College Republicans.

Among the students were some alumni, who wanted to watch the debate with the students.

“I regularly check by Dansbury and grab a copy of The Stroud Courier to see what is happening around campus. I saw an ad for the debate and wanted to come to see how interested students are in the election,” explained alumnus Jim McFadden, an ordained minister and substitute teacher, who attended ESU from 1979-84. He added, “When I was a student, no one cared about the election.”

Right before the debate was scheduled to begin, Dean Jeffrey Weber from the College of Arts and Sciences, spoke to the almost 60 students and alumni that attended the event, and then the debate began.

The debate was 90 minutes with no commercial breaks. It was held at Hofstra University and the chosen moderator was Lester Holt, anchor of “NBC Nightly News.”

He stated the debate would cover three topics, “Achieving prosperity, America’s direction, and securing America.”

Lester’s first question was focused on the economy, specifically jobs. He asked how each candidate would do a better job than the other in bringing jobs to Americans.

Clinton answered first, by saying she wants to “build an economy for everyone, not just people at the top.”

Specifically, she hopes to create jobs in “advanced manufacturing, innovation and technology, clean, renewable energy, and small business.”

Clinton also spoke of making sure women are being paid equally; she plans to make the wealthy pay more and to close the corporate legal loopholes.

Trump was asked the same question and talked about how jobs are leaving to go to other countries, “Our jobs are fleeing the country. They’re going to Mexico. They’re going to many other countries.”

Trump’s plan to bring back jobs to America is to cut taxes from 35 percent to 15 percent for big and small business.

He says he hopes if they have to pay less taxes, companies will bring their business back to America, and that companies that choose to go overseas will be taxed when they bring their goods back to America.

They covered several topics during the debate, including foreign policy, ISIS, and the economy. The part of the debate that students seemed to be the most interested in was the segment on race.

Clinton’s response was, “We have to restore trust between communities and the police. We have to work to make sure that our police are using the best training, the best techniques, that they’re well prepared to use force only when necessary. Everyone should be respected by the law, and everyone should respect the law.” Her response was met with cheers from a few students.

Trump started out by saying we need “law and order” in our country, and mentioning his endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police.

Then he moved on to talk about inner-city crime and used Chicago as an example.

“In Chicago, they’ve had thousands of shootings, thousands since January 1st. And I’m saying, where is this? Is this a war-torn country? What are we doing? And we have to stop the violence.”

During his time to speak Trump also suggested bringing back the “stop and frisk” policy that was once used in New York City, but found unconstitutional by a New York court.

Clinton also spoke about how we should be working to uplift black churches and black businesses.

She touched on the idea of community policing, “Now, I believe in community policing. And, in fact, violent crime is one-half of what it was in 1991. Property crime is down 40 percent. We just don’t want to see it creep back up. We’ve had 25 years of very good cooperation.”

Both candidates agreed that people on terrorist watch lists or no fly lists should not have guns or at least have strict regulations.

Each of them presented their ideas and plans on how to make America better.

Email Nia at:
nscott5@live.esu.edu