“It is a joke to call an event like the one that transpired tonight a debate.”

These are the words that journalist Ted Koppel said about the 2001 Republican presidential debate. This quote single-handedly describes the presidential debate that occurred on September 26th, at 9 o’clock in the afternoon.

The presidential debate between candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was a pure joke of a debate. Throughout the entire hour and a half, it seemed to be a live broadcast of two children having a screaming match over who gets the best toy in the box. These are the people planning to run the country.

Before the debate began, audience members were told to not interfere with the debate, meaning no applause, cheers, or outbursts. This rule was very quickly thrown out the window when Trump stated, “I will release my tax returns when she releases her 30,000 emails.” The statement regarding the recent email scandal earned Trump quite the applause amongst his supporters in the audience.

This presidential debate may lead viewers on to believe that everything is organized when, in fact, this is just a mess of arguments and time constraints that were ignored. Each candidate was supposed to receive two minutes of time to discuss their stance on vague topics and two more minutes to rebuttal their opponent’s argument. This was, just like the silence in the audience, thrown out the window. With both candidates going over their allotted time, the debate was a mess with interruptions – mostly from Trump – and evasion of the question – both candidates being at fault.

Year after year, debate after debate, the American people watch two people battle it out to see who comes on top. Last night’s debate merely displayed what seemed like a showcase of the popular kids and the bullies fighting for the crown over the playground.

The real question that needs to be asked is what did voters truly learn from this debate?