Disappointing, dreadful, messy and a train wreck.

That’s how young voters described Thursday’s CNN debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, their first debate of the 2024 election season.

GBH News convened a panel of six Gen Z voters previously featured in our video series Politics IRL to rehash the debate.

The group included Republican, Democrat, progressive and undecided voters from varying backgrounds. Here’s what they had to say.

The good, the bad and the ugly:

The panel immediately noted that the debate felt long, boring and low-energy. They lamented the lack of fact-checking by moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

“I think this debate just shows the kind of phenomenon that I would say is very present in politics across the board where politicians are fully disconnected from what the actual needs of voters are,” said Kunal Botla, an 18-year-old progressive.


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Biden and Trump’s debate performance could encourage more voter apathy, said Clyve Lawrence, a 21-year-old progressive.

“I think that a lot of people who until now were not really tuned into the election and were ... dreading the choice of Biden and Trump came into tonight, saw how both Biden and Trump were acting and felt really like, continue to be apathetic,” Lawrence said.

Audrey Grant, a 22-year-old Democrat, added, “I don’t think anyone wants to be reliving 2020, and it’s a complete reminder tonight of where we are and how we literally haven’t moved on since 2020.”

Tim Smyth, a 24-year-old Republican, viewed the debate as “probably a very, very positive night for the Trump campaign more so probably a negative night for the Biden campaign.”

“Certainly he looked very confused up there,” Smyth said.

Though performance and delivery were top of mind, the young voters were also eager to discuss how the candidates answered questions and addressed the issues.

On Biden’s performance:

Botla and Lawrence said they believe that Biden has had some successes in office in efforts to reduce inflation and student debt, help the middle class, and tackle immigration. But he didn’t emphasize those successes enough during the debate, they said.

Grant and Botla said Biden did a poor job of portraying himself as the sitting president, making his words feel empty.

”A lot of the worst fears of Biden were confirmed and some of the worst fears of Trump were actually not confirmed,“ Lawrence said.

Biden’s age also raised some concerns.

“I’m not trying to discredit Biden because of his age, but when you have performances like that at the debate, you have to wonder, as a young voter: Is this man in his full mental capacity to be president?” Grant said.

Abigail Meyers, a 20-year-old Democrat, said Biden’s performance was a distraction from Trump’s words.

“I think Biden’s performance, in addition to the comments that people are making about his age, are kind of overshadowing the terrible things that Donald Trump was saying throughout the debate,“ Meyers said.

On Trump’s performance:

Panel participants described Trump as restrained and composed. Some said they thought the former president is a better debater than Biden, and avoided personal attacks and name-calling.

”Trump — having any sort of life and energy to him was like a breath of fresh air,“ Grant said.

Smyth said Trump ”attacked Biden where Biden has failed and then showed the American people where he wants to lead the country with his vision.“

“I would definitely say this debate showed Trump was back in the game a little bit,” said 21-year-old Ky Urban, who is a Republican.

However, Lawrence said Trump was weak on foreign policy.

“The way he answered the NATO questions felt pretty dodgy to me,” Lawrence said. “I think that both candidates handled Israel pretty poorly. The way Trump said that he wants Israel to finish the job felt very appalling to me.”

Most of the group said Trump didn’t answer questions directly and lied frequently.

Who won?

Smyth: “Trump.”
Urban: “Trump.”
Grant: “The American people lost.”
Botla: “Society as a whole lost.”
Lawrence: “Neither side won.”
Meyers: “No one won.”

The takeaway

Botla said Biden needs to shift his strategy, market himself better and emphasize his successes more.

Grant said Biden “Needs to appeal to young voters who have a lot of reservations about voting for him. ... To see him flail in the debate was incredibly disappointing.”

Lawrence said, “I do think that this debate should be a wakeup call for the Democratic party to explore options beyond Biden or strengthen very heavily the message around Biden.”

Urban and Smyth plan to vote for Trump while Lawrence and Grant are leaning third party. Botla and Meyers said their Biden vote is “hanging by a thread.”