It was clear from the post-debate comments of those watching the early September presidential debate at San Diego City College.

Audience members wanted more from the candidates, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Comments such as “swivel(ed) around a question,” “not really giving any direct or concise answers,” and “candidates derailing too far from the topic” were expressed by multiple participants in the hour-long post-debate discussion led by Political Science Professor Nicholas Boushee on Sept. 10. 

The observations from these watch party participants were backed up by a City Times Media analysis that only approximately four percent of the words spoken by either candidate addressed directly their plans for their future adminstration.

City Times Media performed an analysis of the words spoken during the debate (15,467). Those words that identified plans for the future if they were elected totaled only 684,  approximately four percent of the debate.

City Times Media listened to the debate along with the audience, identifying statements from the candidates that describe their plans for their potential presidency. CTM listed these statements below, categorized by issues in the City College Community Agenda. 

CTM did not list statements made by the candidates that did not address their plans or statements that were directed at the other candidate’s plans. The goal was to identify what the candidates wanted to accomplish.

The City College Community Agenda is an ongoing survey of the City community members, in both English and Spanish, of what issues and questions they want candidates to address as they compete for their votes. If you have not submitted your issues and questions to the survey, please do so today. 

Civil Rights and Inequalities

• Harris: 
  • “Regardless of people’s color or the language their grandmother speaks, we all have the same dreams and aspirations, and want a president who invests in those, not in hate and division.”

Climate Change and Environment

• Harris: 
  • “As vice president, over the last four years, we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy, while we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels.”
  • “Part of building a clean energy economy includes investing in American-made products, American automobiles.”
  • “My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.”
• Trump:
  • “They need a whole desert to get some (solar) energy to come out. You ever see a solar plant? By the way, I’m a big fan of solar.”

College Affordability and Access

• The candidates did not address this during the debate. 

Criminal Justice

• The candidates did not address this during the debate. 

Economy and Taxes

• Harris: 
  • “We know that young families need support to raise their children, and I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000.”
  • “My plan is to give a $50,000 tax deduction to start-up small businesses, knowing they are part of the backbone of America’s economy.”

• Trump:
  • “We’re doing tariffs on other countries. Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we’ve done for the world. And the tariff will be substantial.”
  • “Everybody knows what I’m going to do, cut taxes very substantially.”

Election Reform and Politics

• Harris: 
  • “For everyone watching, who remembers what January 6 was, I say we don’t have to go back. Let’s turn the page on this. Let’s not go back. Let’s chart a course for the future and not go backward to the past.”

Foreign Policy

• Harris: (regarding the current Israel/Hamas conflict, which started Oct. 7, 2023): 
  • “What we know is that this war must end. It will end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal, and we need the hostages out, and so we will continue to work around the clock on that work.”
  • “We must have a two-state solution, where we can rebuild Gaza, where the Palestinians have security, self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve.”
• Trump: 
  • “Look at what’s going on in the Middle East. This would have never happened (if I were president). I will get that settled and fast, and I’ll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended. I’ll get it done before even becoming president.”

Gun Control

• Harris: 
  • “Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away.”

Healthcare and Reproductive Rights

• Harris: 
  • “I absolutely support reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade.”
• Trump: 
  • “As far as the abortion ban, no, I’m not in favor of abortion ban, but it doesn’t matter, because this issue has now been taken over by the states.”
• Trump: 
  • “If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our population less money and be better healthcare than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it. But until then, I’d run it as good as it can be run.”
  • “I have concepts of a plan.”
• Harris: 
  • “What we need to do is maintain and grow the Affordable Care Act.”
  • “We will do that (capping the cost of prescription medication for seniors at $2,000 a year) for all people, understanding that the value I bring to this is that access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it. And the plan has to be to strengthen the Affordable Care Act.”

Housing and Homelessness

• Harris: 
  • “We are going to work with the private sector and home builders to increase 3 million homes by the end of my first term.”
  • “I have a plan that is about allowing people to be able to pursue what has been fleeting in terms of the American Dream by offering help with a down payment of $25,000 down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.”

Immigration Reform

• Harris:
  • “The United States Congress, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Senate, came up with a border security bill, which I supported, and that bill would have put 1,500 more border agents on the border. It would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States. That bill would have put more resources to allow us to prosecute transnational criminal organizations for trafficking in guns, drugs and human beings.”

Transportation

• The candidates did not address this during the debate.