Twitter’s High Was Hillary Clinton’s Low at Democratic Presidential Debate

The highlight of the evening on Twitter was also former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s low point at the Democratic presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday.

Clinton’s response to Senator Bernie Sanders’s challenge, “Why, over her political career, has Wall Street been a major, the major, campaign contributor to Hillary Clinton?” drew the biggest response on Twitter and irritated feedback from viewers.

In defending herself she made a reference to 9/11 and the period during which she represented the state of New York in the U.S. Senate:

“I represented New York, and I represented New York on 9/11 when we were attacked. Where were we attacked? We were attacked in downtown Manhattan where Wall Street is. I did spend a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild. That was good for New York. It was good for the economy, and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country.”

https://youtu.be/4uQutU7FzcQ

It may have been the most-discussed moment of the night, according to Twitter, but for Clinton it mostly got negative reviews.

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/665727288890277888

https://twitter.com/not_tom_hanks/status/665727734509907972

https://twitter.com/Lis_Smith/status/665727911085797376

The Twitter response was sufficient that the moderators noticed, and asked Clinton for a response.

https://youtu.be/y7Ciy2tK494

The other candidates onstage — Sanders and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley — also had their moments on the social network. Asked how high he might like to raise taxes on the wealthy, Sanders said it wouldn’t be as high as it was during the 1950s when Dwight D. Eisenhower — a Republican — was president: 90 percent. “I’m not that much of a socialist compared to Eisenhower,” he said.

Sanders later revisited the most memorable moment from the last debate, when he said, “I’m still sick and tired of [hearing about] Hillary Clinton’s emails,” which overall was the second-most-tweeted-about moment of the night.

O’Malley’s best moment, according to Twitter, came when he borrowed a line from President Obama and called Republican front-runner Donald Trump an “immigrant-bashing carnival barker.”

Overall, Clinton was the most discussed candidate of the night; she was mentioned in 45 percent of tweets about the debate. Sanders came in second with 41 percent. O’Malley, no surprise, came way back in third place with 14 percent.

Sanders won the battle for new followers, adding 11,000 during the two-hour debate. Clinton added 4,800; O’Malley, 4,100.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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