“Well, not at the Kennedy School—” Crisman-Cox began.

“But you take them, right?” Nader said.

“Well, not right now,” Crisman-Cox stammered, as the crowd roared in laughter.

Nader went on to answer that not only had Gore won the election, it was the fault of the Democratic Party that the election had been so close in the first place.

“He’s a very good speaker to audiences he’s presenting to,” Crisman-Cox said later, adding that he was unsatisfied with Nader’s response. “I think he knows how to sidestep questions to appeal to this audience.”

When Harvard College Democrats President Andrew J. Frank ’05 confronted Nader on environmental issues, Nader challenged him to name the five major forms of solar energy. When Frank stopped after several to say that the question was beside the point, Nader chastised him.

“Read up on it,” he said.

Afterwards, Frank said he made a mistake by asking the question, but maintained his position.

“On the merits of the issue he was very clearly wrong about it,” Frank said.

Nader’s question-and-answer session was frequently interrupted by interjections from the floor, as some audience members shouted accusations and questions at the candidate while he spoke.

The final three minutes of the session were chaotic. A group of supporters of former presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche began chanting a song mocking Nader.

“He’s trying to destroy our constitution! Don’t you see, people?” yelled Tory Harrison, a member of the LaRouche group.

“Stop closing your brain down!” Nader retorted.

Many of those in attendance said that though they agree with many of Nader’s positions, they were frustrated by his decision to run.

“I loved what he had to say,” said Noah Hertz-Bunzl ’08, who worked for Nader in 2000 and is currently a Kerry supporter. “I’m so disappointed that he’s running in a situation where we have two parties and he’s going to swing the election to Bush.”

Asked at a press conference afterwards if he was surprised at the hostile questions, Nader was nonchalant.

“Harvard’s always been like this,” he told The Crimson.

—Staff writer Michael M. Grynbaum can be reached at grynbaum@fas.harvard.edu.