'A hard watch': Students at Georgia Tech, site of Biden-Trump clash, react to debate

Much of Georgia Tech’s sprawling campus was barricaded by Atlanta police and Secret Service vehicles on Thursday evening. Blocks away, the CNN Presidential Debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump had begun.

Georgia Tech – famous nationwide for its engineering program – was suddenly at the center of politics. A campaign bus for Robert F. Kennedy idled outside a row of fraternity houses. Reporters made their way across the school’s quad to the debate hall, just minutes away on foot.

Some students, many of whom would be voting for the first time this election, watched the debate from a projector set up on a campus lawn. The mood was energetic, even though the students generally thought the debate went poorly.

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Emory Jackson, 20, a Georgia Tech student, said that he felt Trump won the debate, especially compared to his performance in the last election. He believes one of CNN's rule changes – the mute button – worked in Trump's favor.

"I think Trump did better with this debate. As we saw in 2020, he kept interrupting Biden. In the last debate, he didn't shut up. He should have shut up and talked about his policy," Jackson said. "But with this debate, I genuinely think the mute button helped Trump, since he didn't have the option to interrupt Biden. So instead, he was able to talk about the issues more."

Other students had mixed emotions about the debate. Sophia Scherrer, a freshman at Georgia Tech, said she was disappointed by Biden's debate performance.

"It was definitely a hard watch. I think Biden's performance was pretty weak. He was supposed to come off energetic, but he was very incoherent, and his responses weren’t great,” Scherrer noted. “But at the same time, while I think Trump was a better performer, a lot of what he said seemed to be very inaccurate.”

Age was another concerning factor for Scherrer. At 81 and 78, Biden and Trump are the oldest presidential candidates in U.S. history. “Both are a little too old to be running for president. It’s not a great situation on either side.”

Computer science major Zachary Elis said there was “a lot of pressure for Biden to come out and be on the top of his game.” Ultimately, he said his performance was lacking.

“It’s just not a strong showing for someone who we want to lead us for the next four and a half years.”

But Trump, Elis said, also had his good and bad moments – the worst being his reluctance to answer questions about the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “I think Trump’s weakest point was dodging questions, especially moments where they talked about Jan. 6. There was a lot of opportunity for him to answer for some of that. But he very clearly went back and said how great the country was on Jan. 6. He didn’t really respond to his actions on that day.”

As the debate ended and students began returning to their dorms, Jackson, with a Trump flag in hand, had a final suggestion on how the candidates could win over young voters. “To hell with the debate, they should just run a 40-yard-dash, and the winner gets to be president. They’re both old. They just need to run a 40.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia voters react to Trump and Biden's debate performance