A political discussion at San José State between Democrats at SJSU and the College Republicans at SJSU was held on Monday in the Student Union to debate current issues.
A moderator presented a prompt and any student could respond and share their ideas. Students decided whether they were neutral, for or against supporting the prompt.
The Democratic and Republican students’ conversation included discussions of former president Donald Trump’s recent indictment.
Some attendees said Trump’s indictments were legitimate, while other students argued that the indictments were blown out of proportion.
James Demertzis, political science junior and a member of Democrats at SJSU, said he was excited to discuss Donald Trump and his indictments.
“When I look at the situation and what's happening with Trump, I see it as very objective coming from a legal standpoint,” Demertzis said. “So the fact that there's a lot of disagreement when it comes to it heightens my emotion on the topic and I feel like I have to voice my opinion on it.”
Annette Lees, kinesiology junior and the president for the College Republicans, said one of the topics she was eager to cover and discuss was also Donald Trump.
“I am definitely a Republican and a conservative, but I still just don’t align with Trump,” Lees said.
Lees said she felt that everyone needed to have more evidence to back up their claims because people couldn’t cite the information they sourced for the various discussions.
“In the future, if we had the exact topics at hand (before the debate), and people could research and bring sources with them, that would help a lot,” Lees said. “(Someone) didn’t know how many charges were against Trump. If we knew the details of that, then I feel like we could more effectively debate.”
Chima Nwokolo, political science junior and vice president for Democrats at SJSU, said it was a productive discourse and also said it’s beneficial to be able to peacefully disagree.
“It’s nice to be able to talk to people who are (from) different political sides from your’s,” Nwokolo said. “We should be able to converse and share their viewpoints because we’re all Americans, and in this country, we all have free speech.”
