Area viewers not impressed: ‘It was 90 minutes of waste’
Horrible. A train wreck. Disgusting.
The presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton on Monday night pushed some Albuquerque voters and debate watchers into a mild despair and triggered cringes as the candidates interrupted each other and talked over the moderator.
“It actually makes it so where I don’t want to see another debate, because you aren’t getting information. It was 90 minutes of waste,” said Jesse Sparrow, a Republican owner of a local construction business.
Sparrow, 56, said he supports Trump and the debate didn’t change his mind,
but it didn’t make him love his party’s candidate.
The same was true for Democrat J.J. Juckette, 66.
Juckette, a quality manager for an Albuquerque health care company, was appalled at how the two, especially Trump, interrupted each other and moderator Lester Holt.
“I don’t think either candidate really faced any of the issues straight on because I feel like they were batting back and forth about who was more powerful,” she said.
Interrupting and talking over Holt was the main complaint from viewers who spoke to the Journal after the debate.
“Whatever happened to the decorum? Whatever happened to the professionalism? If you’re from a foreign county, and you’re watching this, it’s like a TV show,” said Republican Michael Beach, retired. “We’ve watched debates going back to Nixon and Kennedy. How do you put into words what we saw tonight, the debacle? It was horrible, horrible.”
Longtime Democrat Michael Smerechniak, 89, said he remembers the Nixon/Kennedy debate of 1960.
“Nixon was completely unprepared, and I’m glad he botched up the debate,” Smerechniak said. Monday’s debate was not as disappointing, he said.
“I was surprised by Trump’s debating ability. I think he did better than I expected, not necessarily presidential, but he came out with a lot of facts, whether they were true or not,” he said.
And doesn’t that sum up the American predicament in this election, his daughter Elena Kayak said, who like more than a dozen other Albuquerque voters randomly contacted for this story chose not to even watch the debate.
“I did not watch the debate at all because he (Trump) is such a hater and a misogynist and uninformed, and he’s reality TV, is what he is,” Kayak said. “So it’s almost like watching a circus, a play acting, like he’s play acting the role of a presidential candidate.”
Chris Musello made it through about two-thirds of the debate before he had to step away from the television.
The 65-year-old Democrat sighed wearily at Trump and Clinton’s back and forth.
“I was troubled by it. These are important things, and I remember when Republican and Democrats argued with each other, they thought and they debated and they hammered out policy,” he said.
But the debate seemed like an entertainment show to him.
“I thought that Trump was abrasive and a braggart, and he interrupted and was rude and defined most issues in terms of himself, and I don’t think that matters to most people in the electorate,” he said.
Beach, a Trump supporter, wanted to hear about “health care, about the second amendment, about taxes, about gay marriage and straight marriage, about constitutional law.”
Not all the “bullying,” said Neil Dean, 51.
“The top comment that I have is that I felt Donald Trump was kind of being a bully and that doesn’t mean he didn’t make some good points, but I thought he wasn’t not only bullying her (Clinton), he was bullying the moderator as well,” Dean said. “Clinton did a better job answering questions, but all that being said, Donald did better than I thought he would.” But Dean is a Clinton supporter. “You know, if you’re pulling for a person, you think they are doing better,” he said.