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Undecided Voters React To What They Heard Or Didn't Hear In The Debate

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

I think it's safe to say performance overshadowed policy during the first presidential debate last night. So what did voters take away from President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden?

JAVON MCMILLAN: I feel kind of scared about Election Day honestly.

GREENE: Javon McMillan (ph) is a law student in Montana. He's one of the undecided voters we caught up with after last night's debate.

MCMILLAN: I think the biggest thing that I took away was stand back and stand by and watch the polls.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

McMillan is referring there to a series of comments President Trump made during the debate, telling the far-right extremist group called the Proud Boys to, quote, "stand back, and stand by." Trump also later urged his supporters to watch polling places.

MCMILLAN: I took that as a direct threat - along with other language like, they're coming to destroy your suburbs, and they are coming to destroy your businesses, your shops. I thought that Trump saw more value in his Black voters than he showed.

MARTIN: But McMillan says former Vice President Joe Biden did not do enough to secure his vote.

MCMILLAN: I don't feel like either party has Black people or poor people's best interests at heart because one side, I feel like, wants to keep people poor, and the other side doesn't even care.

GREENE: Zoey Shisler is an undecided voter in Tacoma, Wash., and was hoping to hear more about how the candidates would address the economy.

ZOEY SHISLER: I live in a city that the homeless population is increasing noticeably, even on my own street.

GREENE: But she feels Biden and Trump did not really talk about her concern.

SHISLER: The problem is is there's just constant conversation about the overall - like, GDP or the stock market. Is that really a good economy if people are not getting the wages that they used to and they don't have job security and they don't have health care?

MARTIN: And overall, Shisler says, for her, there's just a general lack of substance to help her make a decision.

SHISLER: All Biden has to do is convince me that he has policies that are going to replace Trump when he gets into office, and he hasn't convinced me of that. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.