LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Michel, did you stay up to watch last night's presidential debate?
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
I did, and that's why I'm so tired today.
FADEL: Oh, my gosh. Same, same. So let's help each other stay awake for the show.
MARTIN: Deal.
FADEL: Now, we weren't alone, of course. This debate was the first, and it could be the only meeting between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and it drew a huge audience.
MARTIN: It did. And I bet, in part, that's because there were watch parties across the country, like this one in Philadelphia.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: With what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch.
(CHEERING)
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating...
FADEL: Now, this was a nonpartisan watch party, and Molly Hasson was listening for the vice president's agenda.
MOLLY HASSON: I have, you know, kids in college, and I want them to have the ability to live out their American dream. So I want to hear, like, a plan for making the economy strong again. And Kamala Harris saying that she has an opportunity economy. I love that.
MARTIN: James Turner was also there, and he says he was skeptical of Harris coming into the debate.
JAMES TURNER: I wasn't sold on Kamala Harris. I was sold on her tonight by her responses, by her integrity till they answered the questions, and she actually had a plan.
FADEL: Now, she didn't convince everybody. At another watch party in Milwaukee, Ken Dortzbach (ph) was still skeptical. He showed up to a gathering of Republicans who are Trump skeptics wearing a purple tie, a compromise, he says, between red and blue.
KEN DORTZBACH: It was unclear from me with Kamala Harris. Does - is she going to give us four more years of Joe Biden, or is she go to give us something different? And if it's different, what is that going to be? That really wasn't answered.
MARTIN: But for David Irwin, who says he almost always voted Republican, he said Trump's performance underscored why he's put off by the GOP nominee.
DAVID IRWIN: It'll be hard for me to say that I'm hoping for Harris as president. I will likely reluctantly have to vote for her because I find the alternative so distasteful.
FADEL: Now, Elizabeth Brown leans toward Trump on policies, but she's also considering voting third party.
ELIZABETH BROWN: I know that the Black community usually vote blue. We have no results. In my community, no matter who was in the White House, my life have not changed.
MARTIN: After watching the debate, Brown says she's still undecided between Trump and the couch. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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