On Sept. 26, MSMS students piled into Hooper auditorium eagerly awaiting the kick off of the first presidential debate of the election season.

As the clock struck 8 p.m., students saw candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton walk out onto a stage at Hofstra University located in Hempstead, NY. After shaking hands, they retreat to their podiums; between them sits NBC anchor Lester Holt, moderator of the debate. Holt laid the ground rules: “The 90-minute debate is divided into six segments, each 15 minutes long. We’ll explore three topic areas tonight: Achieving prosperity, America’s direction and securing America.”

Beginning with the topic of American prosperity, it was readily apparent that the foundations of Clinton and Trump were miles apart. In response to how to improve the national economy, Trump called for a plan that resonates strongly with trickle-down economics in which  “the largest tax cut since Reagan,” in the words of Trump, would be placed upon the upper class business owners operating in the U.S. Trump hopes that this would help keep jobs in the United States rather than allowing them to be expedited out of the country. “So what I’m saying is, we can stop them from leaving. We have to stop them from leaving. And that’s a big, big factor,” said Trump.

Responding to the same question, Clinton called for an increase to the minimum wage and a move to improve the infrastructure of our nation, which would provide more employment. “We can deploy a half a billion more solar panels … That’s a lot of jobs; that’s a lot of new economic activity,” Clinton stated.

Clinton’s economic plan also includes a need to have fair trade deals with other leading countries of the world. This is evident when she states, “I think that trade is an important issue. Of course, we are 5 percent of the world’s population; we have to trade with the other 95 percent. And we need to have smart, fair trade deals.”

The disparity of the two nominees’ platforms seemed to shrink momentarily at the beginning of the discussion of race relations in America and the direction of America as a whole. During the beginning of the two nominees’ discussions of the topic, they both agreed that in inner cities all over the nation minorities are living in awful environments riddled with violence. The disparity grew again when the candidates spoke on the way they would bridge the race divide that can be found in many American cities.

Clinton called for a more extensive training of police and a call to “get guns out of the hands of people who should not have them.” In his segment, Trump called for a reinstatement of the use of “stop and frisk,” which was found to be unconstitutional in New York in 2013.

Following the discussion of “America’s direction,” the next topic discussed was “securing America,” beginning with the topic of cyber security. Clinton, who is well versed in her own cyber security scandals, called for a large increase in national security to protect the country from those who would want to disclose information in either the public or private sector. Like Clinton, Trump went on to state that as a nation “we have to have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare” without stating how to do so.

Looking over a transcript of the debate, it is obvious that the debate was as much a mud-slinging competition as it was a meeting to discuss platforms. Trump is known for his flippancy, so Clinton had a lot of ammunition on her hands in the debate. For example, she referred to Trump’s previous statements of looking forward to a housing crisis and the possibility of Trump’s evasion of taxes. At the same time, Trump referred to a few of Clinton’s numerous scandals, bringing up the rigging of national poles within the DNC and her infamous e-mail debacle.
Sitting in Hooper auditorium, it was commonplace for roars of laughter to be heard as many students found the debate to be as entertaining as it was informative. There will be two more presidential debates shown in the upcoming months for those who would wish to learn more about the possible future leaders of their country, or those who are looking for a quick laugh.