Real Life Survival Guide

Jonathan McNicol Went To A Presidential Debate (So The Rest Of Us Wouldn't Have To)

Connecticut Public Radio | By Jonathan McNicol

Published October 17, 2016 at 8:48 AM EDT

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This was the actual debate hall. This was as close as I -- and almost all of the press, for that matter -- ever got to the actual debate hall.

Jonathan McNicol / WNPR

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Chris Matthews is, as you might've guessed, incredibly loud.

Jonathan McNicol / WNPR

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The press all just watched the debate on TV. Just like you did at home.

Jonathan McNicol / WNPR

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At one end of the Filing Center, they set up 'the spin room,' an area where surrogates for each of the campaigns come out after the debate and, ya know. Spin.

Jonathan McNicol / WNPR

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Republican strategist Boris Epshteyn with three-sided, Republican red, official Donald J. Trump for President fonted name placard. (You'll note that his Toblerone spells it "Epsheteyn," by the way.)

Jonathan McNicol / WNPR

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Obama for America 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe. I was shocked to hear that he "thought Hillary Clinton did a very good job of talking very clearly about the struggles families are facing, the struggles of our small businesses." (No I wasn't.)

Jonathan McNicol / WNPR

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Mark Cuban unofficially spinning for Hillary Clinton. (Cuban is pictured here; I swear.)

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"Omarosa was terrible at spinning," according to Mike Pesca. "And she would have this conversation with me that no reasonable person would say, ‘Wow, that’s a real conversation.’ You would just say, 'Oh my god. What’s wrong with this person?' "";s:3:"u

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Earlier in the day, before the debate, I left the secure area to just kind of walk around on the campus, to find some people I could maybe relate to more directly. College students. Teenagers.

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"I'm very passionate about politics," 17-year-old Sarah Dowd told me, "and since this is the first time that I can vote, I'm doing everything that I can to be politically active because it's my right as a citizen to do that."

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I saw a "Deez Nutz 2016" hat. I saw a "Trump Killed Harambe" shirt. I saw signs that read, "EVERYONE SUCKS 2016," "Han Shot First," and "Seinfeld Costanza 2016: A Campaign About Nothing."

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Reporting from the first presidential debate at Hofstra University on Long Island: some stooge.

Jonathan McNicol / WNPR

See, we were supposed to send a whole team of people to the first presidential debate on Long Island. We were supposed to do an episode of The Colin McEnroe Show from Hofstra.

But then a bunch of parts of that plan fell through -- mostly because one semi-important figure in the whole thing just, well, totally forgot to get himself credentialed. So, in the great tradition of people like Biff Henderson, we sent producer Jonathan McNicol to the debate. Alone.

He brought back the photos above and the audio report below.

Jonathan McNicol Went To A Presidential Debate (So The Rest Of Us Wouldn't Have To)

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