Anne Snabes, Aya Fayad and Sophia Ceru
| The Detroit News
Voters across Michigan gathered to watch the first and possibly only presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, but it didn’t move the needle for a couple of undecided voters.
But the debate in Philadelphia did rouse the partisan faithful at a Democratic watch party in Ann Arbor and a Republican gathering in East Lansing. Democratic candidate Harris and Republican nominee Trump highlighted their conflicting visions for America on the economy, abortion, immigration and the 2020 election, among other issues.
Two undecided Michigan voters told The Detroit News they didn’t like the tenor of the debate and weren’t getting straight answers on the issues. Each one was weighing whether to cast a vote for president at all.
Tommy Krauter, who typically votes Republican and lives in Cass County in the Thumb, said a little after 10 p.m. that neither candidate had yet “answered a direct question.”
“Not even the first question was answered. … Kind of shocking, right?” he said.
Krauter, 45, said it “doesn’t even sound like the debate.”
“I’ve said for a long time that I think we haven’t had a presidential president since like the Ronald Reagan or JFK era,” he said. “That ideal of presidential president I don’t think will ever exist in my lifetime.”
More: Buss: Harris had good night, but leaves key questions unanswered
Krauter said he would either vote for Trump or leave that race on the Nov. 5 ballot blank. During Tuesday night’s debate, he said he was leaning toward not voting for president at all.
When asked about the candidates’ responses about abortion, Krauter said he wishes Trump “would have just answered the question directly like Kamala asked him to.”
“That would’ve been good to hear, because he did flip-flop down in Florida,” said Krauter, who described himself as a pro-choice voter.
Trump, who is registered to vote in Florida, recently announced he would vote against a proposal on Florida’s ballot that would ensure that abortions are legal until the fetus is viable, as determined by the patient’s health care provider. Trump had made previous statements criticizing Florida’s current ban on abortion after six weeks and suggested he might support the ballot proposal, comments that drew criticism from anti-abortion advocates.
Aimee Proulx, a schoolteacher who lives in Battle Creek, said far into the debate, “I’m embarrassed as an American that this is the best we can do” in reference to the two candidates.
Instead of “using the opportunity to talk about what they’re going to do,” Proulx said the two candidates were attacking each other and using hyperbole.
More: False and misleading claims made during Harris vs. Trump debate
Proulx, 49, said she is “staunchly pro-life.” When asked about the candidates’ responses on abortion, she said Trump, over the last couple of decades, “has shown us enough about himself to prove that he’s just going to go where he thinks the votes are.”
“He’s going to tell people what they want to hear,” she said.
Proulx said she didn’t like Harris’ pro-choice comments in which the vice president blamed Trump for the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and the decision by over 20 states to enact what she called “Trump abortion bans.”
“I’m not impressed with a woman who would say out of one side of her mouth, like, ‘We trust women to make decisions about their own body and how dare the government tell me I have to do things with my body,’ when she’s part of the exact government who wanted to force people to get COVID vaccines or who wants to, you know — like I’m not okay with that,” Proulx said.
The Battle Creek resident said she was originally interested in voting for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, but she said she is now undecided. Proulx said she would vote for “no one” or for another third-party candidate.
Democrats applaud Harris
On the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan, hundreds of UM students, staff and Michigan elected officials attended a debate watch party hosted by the student organization College Democrats at the school’s Rackham Amphitheatre.
Around 200 students and Democratic supporters flooded the auditorium ahead of the debate, some flaunting “Kamala” t-shirts and carrying signs and memorabilia reading “Students for Harris-Walz.”
Alec Hughes, a senior and co-chair of UM’s College Democrats group, said the debate was an opportunity for Harris to “clarify her policy stances” and “bring the energy to the debate stage” after she quickly replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee after he dropped out of the race.
The UM debate watchers welcomed Harris to the stage with cheers and applause while they laughed at Trump’s arguments, even yelling at the screen when he spoke on his immigration policies.
UM freshman Nolyn Steiner, 19, a political science major, said Harris “brings many of the things” Biden wasn’t able to during his June 27 debate against Trump that eventually led party leaders to pressure Biden into dropping out of the race and endorsing Harris.
Steiner, who said he will be voting for Harris in November, said Harris was “actually able to push back against Trump’s weak points” during Tuesday night’s debate compared with Biden’s performance.
“Trump demonizes marginalized groups, he targets racial and religious minorities. These things have a real impact, and it’s scary. It’s dangerous,” Steiner said. “In the last debate, with Biden and Trump, Trump performed badly, but Biden couldn’t push back against him. This time, with (Harris), things are a lot better.”
Students cheered when the debate moderators brought up abortion. The auditorium filled with screams and claps when the mediator countered Trump’s argument that Democrats support killing babies after they are born by noting no state has passed a law legalizing the killing of babies.
Mariah Stewart, 19, a UM junior from Holland, said she will be voting for Harris in November and that the debate “really let (Harris) shine through.”
“(Harris) presents herself as someone who can bridge the divisiveness we have within our party right now,” Stewart said. “She’s working for the working class, those who are underrepresented and not given support. Harris gives them that support, and that’s what I look for in a candidate.”
The issue of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drew intense interest from the Democratic watch party on a campus where activists have interrupted university events and set up an encampment to protest for the UM’s divestment of money from Israeli firms and military contractors tied to Israel.
Some snapped and clapped when Harris affirmed her intention to bring about a ceasefire and return of Israeli hostages in the region. Trump accused Harris of not really supporting Israel, a claim she denied.
“It’s really hard to be pro-Palestine because there’s such a significant amount of the people in this country are not,” Steiner said.
Hughes, the UM College Democrats’ co-chairman, noted that the Israel-Hamas war has “gotten very polarizing here on campus between students that are very affiliated with the Uncommitted movement (that) have been very critical of the Biden administration.” He said he hopes Harris makes her stance more palatable to Palestinian Americans who criticize the administration’s support of Israel’s attacks.
“I think Harris really has the opportunity to kind of pivot more towards students like that, to kind of regain their trust,” said Hughes, of DeWitt. “She was (one of) the first in the administration to make a very public call for like a ceasefire, and I’m really hopeful that she’ll make good steps to do that, assuming when she’s elected in November.”
Trump’s policy comments praised
The Michigan Republican Party hosted a debate watch party at Harper’s Restaurant and Brew Pub in downtown East Lansing, attracting a crowd of Michigan State University students. Republican congressional candidate Tom Barrett attended the event, watching the debate with young male voters.
Nate Stevenson, a Michigan State University junior from Brooklyn, Michigan, said he thought Harris and Trump did well in the debate but pursued different strategies.
“During the debate, Kamala gave the side of pulling at the heartstrings of the people, and Trump gave more of a policy and realistic look,” Stevenson said.
“I think Trump talked a lot more about what he’s going to do, and Kamala talked about bringing people together.”
“I think both sides need to work on some things,” he added, “but I think Trump did well and so did Kamala.”
MSU junior Chuck D’Angelo from Troy said he thought the ABC debate moderators were biased against Trump in the kinds of questions they asked, but the Republican candidate still persevered.
“I thought this debate was super biased to Kamala,” D’Angelo said, adding: “I don’t think they gave him the power to bring up anything he wanted to.
“They were attacking him, and I think he honestly did a good job.”
D’Angelo said Trump has an advantage because “I could walk around this campus,” and most “people would say they were better off in 2016 than now.”
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66e13030006a47a8a471121d5150720b&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.detroitnews.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2F2024%2F09%2F11%2Fundecided-michigan-voters-assess-harris-trump-debate-as-gop-democrats-cheer-on-their-hopeful%2F75163508007%2F&c=5963959517862618111&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-09-10 18:14:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
