Economics and tax reform took center stage at the third Republican Party debate Wednesday evening, as moderators struggled to reign in the candidates to follow their questions.
Ten presidential hopefuls aimed to stand out to potential voters. Questions ranged from social security to corporate responsibility, however the candidates often interrupted the moderators and each other as they scrambled to make their voices heard.
“Honestly I think this is one of the weakest of all the debates so far, just because I don’t think CNBC has organized this very well,” said Jean-Claude Faa, mechanical engineering junior. “They have just been personally attacking the candidates. There hasn’t been much constructive arguments. It’s just basically been the candidates defending their past record.”
Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz called out the moderators at one point in the debate for what he called a “cage match” debate.
“The questions asked in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media,” Cruz said. “The questions being asked shouldn’t be trying to get people to tear into each other.”
The large amount of personal attacks wasn’t only apparent to the candidates on stage. Ben Lenden, business freshman, said he was disappointed in the debate.
“There wasn’t a true winner to the debate in my opinion, the moderators didn’t really help with that,” Lenden said.” They didn’t ask the right questions; they sort of just pitted everybody against each other.”
Because of the aggressive atmosphere of the debate, some viewers were left wishing some other topics were covered.
“The topics all kind of flew together, but I would have liked to see a little more on police stuff and the Black Lives Matter rally,” Lenden said. “They talked about it in the democratic debate, and I would have liked to hear a little more of the Republican side.”
The topics of the debate rarely skewed away from economics and tax reform. Faa said he was happy with this, however.
“What I want to see as a future potential voter, is what they are going to do for the country,” Faa said.