At 12:30 AM, half asleep, I rolled onto my side and pressed snooze on my alarm clock. In an hour and a half, I would have journeyed to the other side of the city to fact check the US Presidential debate with a group of 50 other students.
Once I arrived to Newtral headquarters, I was greeted with smiles and energetic fist pumps that I halfheartedly returned between yawns. Nami and I had arrived an hour before the debate actually started, so we set up our computers, the Slack channels, and discussed our expectations. I drank a Red Bull.
Minutes before the debate, Politifact called in and mentioned that they had a document of over 150 pages prepared for instantaneous fact checking. I felt wholly unprepared. At this point I brought out a salad, but it froze in my fridge earlier in the day, so with disappointment and the taste of frozen, slimy greens in my mouth I turned to the TV.
Kamala and Trump walked onto the screen, and I raised my eyebrows when she cornered him for a handshake. There were scattered, nervous giggles from the students. The first hour passed quickly–I couldn’t believe it had been more than 15 minutes.
We worked out a system between six students–three of us would write down claims, and the other three would fact check them. These roles were fluid, and I switched between them depending on where the need was.
The Slack filled up with quotes that made us laugh, like Trump saying they were eating the pets in Springfield (false), or that Kamala wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison (false; I need it on a tee shirt).
Some of the things said were more concerning, like when Trump said that he would end the war in Ukraine, but refused to say that it would be in Ukraine’s favor, even when asked about that directly. Kamala baited Trump essentially the whole time, and was also generally misleading in her attacks of Trump, like when she said he swore it would be ‘bloodbath’ if he lost the election.
I fact checked that claim, and he did say that, but he said it while he was talking about the American economy. She made it sound like he was planning the purge.
The second hour passed as quickly as the first, and by the end I was feeling engaged and energetic. We took a group picture, and by then, there had been cameras flashing all night, and I realized all the student interviews going on in the background, and I wished I had worn makeup.
Once we stepped outside, I asked Sophia and Nami if they wanted to walk home with me, but they said no. I was full of energy! So we got an Uber, and I stayed the rest of the morning at Nami’s apartment.
Before I left my apartment, I found myself wishing I had said no to this event, because I was tired, and my head hurt, and I knew I had to be at school the next day. But I genuinely enjoyed myself, and it was something I probably won’t ever do again, so I’m very glad I went.
Newtral was encouraging and laughed and groaned with us when Harris and Trump said nonsense, and provided snacks and soda.
I’m grateful for the advice given for fact checking (using news sources’ sources) and also for the sale that Carrefour was having on Redbull.
