Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris faced each other on the presidential debate stage for the first time Sept. 10, engaging in a heated, contentious back-and-forth that drew the attention of Northeastern students across various political affiliations. 

Northeastern University College Republicans, Northeastern University Political Review and Young Democratic Socialists of America at Northeastern all held separate watch parties for the debate, which was hosted by ABC News. Emotions at the group viewings ranged from amusement to concern and confusion.

“It’s kind of like, you know when you want to look at car crashes?” said Katie Buffinger, a third-year cell and molecular biology major who attended the Young Democratic Socialists of America, or YDSA, watch party.

Attendees of the meeting hosted by Northeastern University College Republicans, or NUCR, expressed strong support for Trump throughout the debate, but said that his performance would not affect their votes. Students at the Northeastern University Political Review, or NUPR, and YDSA watch parties also said the debate would not change their view of the candidates, but were set on voting for Harris in November.  

At NUCR, the atmosphere was lighthearted, and students erupted into laughter when Trump, speaking about Harris’s economic policy, said, “She doesn’t have a plan. She copied Biden’s plan and it’s like four sentences,” and again when Trump quipped he was going to “send [Harris] a MAGA hat.”

But the group expressed frustration when Harris began to speak of her middle class upbringing, saying she was raised by a “hardworking mother, who worked and saved,” a part of her identity that’s been a cornerstone of her campaign so far. Harris drew attention to how her background contrasts with Trump’s, saying, “The values I bring to the importance of home ownership are based on knowing that not everyone got handed $600 million on a silver platter.”

NUCR Vice President and fourth-year political science major Matt Cosentino said he was confident about Trump’s abilities early in the debate. 

“So far, he seems to be doing well again. But clearly it’s a lot more competitive than it was going to be,” Cosentino said. “A lot of people were withholding a vote on Biden because of his age, and now that’s not the case.”

Cosentino also expressed concerns about Trump’s vice president pick, J.D. Vance. 

“I think Vance is a smart guy, but I don’t think he appeals to any voters that don’t already support Trump. … In retrospect, he might not be the best choice,” Cosentino said, adding that the issues he was most anxious to see debated were “border security and energy policy.” 

Cosentino also said that his voting intention for November was set in stone, and the outcome of the debate would not sway him. “I’m going to vote for President Trump,” he said. “I supported [Governor Ron DeSantis] in the primary, but right now [Trump is] what we have.”

The sentiment was reiterated by students of all political affiliations throughout the evening. Every student The News spoke to had already decided which way they’d be voting this fall and said that the debate would not sway their opinion. 

Maya Einhorn, a third-year bioengineering and biochemistry combined major who attended the YDSA watch party, said that she decided to watch “partially for entertainment purposes, but also, I completely stopped watching Trump media because it depresses me, so I feel like I had to give him a chance.” 

“Recently I’ve encountered a few people who say they’re not going to vote or who are voting for Trump, and I have nothing to say in response about Trump’s actual policies so I wanted to learn a little bit,” she said, adding that this was an unsuccessful endeavor and she “didn’t really learn anything” because of Trump’s lack of policy talk during the debate. 

The lighthearted atmosphere at NUCR was also present at the YDSA and NUPR meetings, with Trump still receiving the majority of the laughs, but for a different reason. Students ridiculed his claim that his administration did a “phenomenal job with the pandemic,” and Trump’s tangent about the Taliban and “Abdul” was received like a stand-up comedy routine.

“It was obvious people were amused. They were reacting to Trump lying, making his inflammatory comments,” fourth-year politics, philosophy, and economics major and NUPR President Zoë Goffe said. “People were definitely silent and listening when Harris was speaking. She’s changed her stances a lot, so people wanted to hear why.”

At NUPR, many of Trump’s arguments were met with skepticism. As the debate went on, students grew increasingly frustrated with the former president’s false claims, including that Harris wants to “do transgender operations on illegal aliens,” which was met with laughter and made one watcher ask “Where did that come from?”

When discussing the Israel-Hamas war, Trump victoriously announced that the war “would have never started” if he was president, and again NUPR members were unconvinced. One watcher said “He just straight up doesn’t want to talk about it.” 

The Israel-Hamas war was also a talking point at the YDSA meeting, with multiple students saying that it was the issue they were most eager to see discussed. One of these attendees was second-year political science and international affairs combined major Ada Lewis, who described the war as a “big button issue for a lot of young liberals.”

“I take issue with Kamala Harris’s stance on [the Israel-Hamas war]…the administration still won’t even label it a genocide — very problematic,” Lewis said.

Despite this, she was “significantly more confident” about Harris’ ability to perform well in the debate compared with President Joe Biden and referred to her as “absolutely a step up” from Biden, who dropped out of the presidential race in July. She added that she expected Harris to come into the debate with “a lot more facts, statistics, tangible policies and also just the ability to publicly speak, which is apparently pretty rare as we saw in June.” At the halfway point, Lewis felt positively about Harris’ performance and said, “I think it’s been pretty good. She’s wiping the floor with him and he’s scrambling.”

Turning to the question of who won the debate, according to mainstream outlets, it was Harris. A CNN poll found that 63% of registered voters said that Harris outperformed Trump. ABC also reported a polling victory for Harris, albeit a smaller one, with 57% of watchers saying that Harris gave a better performance and 34% saying Trump did. 

Northeastern students gave answers in support of both candidates. 

“I think overall Trump won, just because of how I anticipate the American people perceiving it and hearing his soundbites. He dominated her and got a lot more speaking time and attention,” Einhorn said. “I thought Harris was a lot more presidential, composed and coherent, so I think she should win.”

But others had different thoughts. “I actually think she may have won, or I lean more towards that. There’s a lot of things she hit very well, and she had good statistics memorized,” Buffinger said.  

Both Einhorn and Buffinger thought Harris did a good job strategically targeting specific voting groups. 

“Because there’s been a decrease in Black male interest, she added the stuff about Obama’s birth certificate,” Buffinger said, referring to how Harris brought up that Trump spread the false “birther” theories about President Barack Obama being ineligible to serve as president because he didn’t have a U.S. issued birth certificate.

“I would definitely say that Harris won the debate,” Goffe said. “I don’t think that her performance in the debate led to improvements in her chances to win the election. I think voters are very short sighted … a lot can happen in two months.”