A handful of things resulted from the second round of the Democratic debates Tuesday night: candidates reinforced their presidential plans; they further differentiated themselves from each other; policies were touted.
Oh, and Twitter users created hundreds of the most amazing memes and gifs in response to an otherwise gabfest of familiar talking points among a few frontrunners who have already made their political stances quite clear. That may not be the best sign for Democrats, who have struggled to agree on how exactly they will prevent Donald Trump from being re-elected.
But absent of the details to win the White House in 2020, there were a number of top moments that inspired Twitter users to tweet graphics and photos to match their moods while watching the debate.
Some of them included major clapbacks, like when Bernie Sanders scolded Ohio Sen. Tim Ryan when the two were sparring over the Vermont senator’s Medicare for All plan. When Ryan told Sander’s he didn’t know particulars about the proposal, Bernie bellowed: “I wrote the damn bill!”
Other moments that inspired the creativity of folks on social media included how little time the moderators seemed to give certain lower-polling candidates. One of them was Marianne Williamson, who appeared to be routinely cut off extra quickly after each of the few times she got a chance to speak.
https://twitter.com/devonm3/status/1156374309348216832?s=20
When Elizabeth Warren used her time to ignore a question and talk about a medical patient who she said was near death because of exorbitant healthcare prices, her fellow candidates and some people in the audience chuckled. “This isn’t funny!” Warren shot back, silencing every single soul in the building.
https://twitter.com/Maroonsista/status/1156362168973058049?s=20
Finally, it was hard to ignore the elephant in — or not in — the room: the lack of diversity on the debate stage. As lottery fate would have it, the lone two top-polling Black presidential candidates (California Sen. Kamala Harris and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker) were scheduled to participate in Day 2 of the second Democratic debates on Wednesday night. In fact, the lone Black person who got any TV time in the debate Tuesday night was Don Lemon of CNN, which was hosting the debates. And so, of course, it was Lemon who was the moderator to bring up the topic of how to “heal the racist divide in America” in the era of Trump.
https://twitter.com/JPDrews/status/1156379490097999873?s=20
Scroll down to see dozens more of meme and gif reactions and responses to the first night of the second round of Democratic debates.
