Bernie Sanders Turns Up the Sass with GOP Debate Live Tweets
The Republican Party’s (GOP) second Presidential debate was held at the Reagan Library on Sept. 16. Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Carly Fiorina were all in attendance, answering questions and debating with one another as they competed to win over voters and increase their chances of becoming the GOP’s 2016 Presidential candidate.
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, and like many Americans, he tuned into the debate that night. Using the hashtag “#DebateWithBernie,” Sanders actually live tweeted the entire event.
Well, at least until he got bored.
Live-tweeting the debate starting now. #DebateWithBernie pic.twitter.com/iQFf3dj7Hb
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 17, 2015
Throughout his campaign, Sanders has spoken out about a lack of media coverage of the “real issues” that people want to hear about. At a town hall meeting back in August in Conway, N.H., CNN quoted him saying, “The American people… increasingly understand that corporate media is prepared to discuss everything 24 hours a day, seven days a week except the most important issues facing the American people… Media sees campaigns being soap operas and football games, rather than a serious discussion.”
When Sanders sat down to watch the latest GOP debate, he wondered if that theme would continue:
At a time when media looks at politics like a baseball game, will the serious issues be discussed tonight? Let's see. #DebateWithBernie
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 17, 2015
Throughout the night, Sanders challenged the Republican candidates via Twitter to address what he feels are the nation’s primary concerns right now. He did it all with a sarcastic tone that garnered him thousands of retweets. He tweeted wondering whether Rubio would “have the courage” to connect California’s drought with climate change. When Kasich said “Let’s get to the issues,” Sanders tweeted “How about income inequality, climate change and childhood poverty?”
Much to Sanders’s disappointment, these issues did not come up. “Can these guys talk about anything other than their desire to go to war?” he tweeted.
As the night continued, Sanders’s frustration with the Republican candidates was increasingly evident as he began to call them out and tweet directly at them:
Yes @ChrisChristie. George W. Bush — gave us Iraq war, Wall St crash — was one of our great presidents. You are right. #DebateWithBernie
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 17, 2015
One of his most retweeted statements was a particularly sassy one aimed at Trump:
Trump. What a pleasant and humble person. Can't stop saying kind and generous things about his fellow Republicans. #DebateWithBernie
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 17, 2015
After a long night without comprehensive discussion on issues like childhood poverty, racial justice, income inequality, affordable college, immigration reform, or any of the other issues that Sanders wanted to hear about, he threw in the towel.
Rich get richer. Everyone else gets poorer. And all these guys can talk about is war and defunding Planned Parenthood. #DebateWithBernie
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 17, 2015
Does anybody on the stage believe that our gay brothers and sisters have the same rights as the rest of us? Anybody? #DebateWithBernie
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 17, 2015
Thank you all. I've had it. I'm going home. Talk to you soon. #DebateWithBernie
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 17, 2015
Speaking in New York a few days after the debate, Sanders described his experience watching the debate. “I couldn’t take it. The energy was leaving my body.”
“We are talking about the issues that matter to people right here. In a three-hour [debate] there was no discussion about wealth inequality, the need to end institutional racism.”
