30 Of The Best Tweets And Reactions To The Democratic Debates

It's finally here! The first of many Democratic Debates for the 2020 election is here. They took place this past week, pitting 10 candidates against each other for the two nights of June 26 and 27 (and if you don't know who many of them are, here's a nice cheat sheet for you to use). The first debate had only one of the major front-runners (Senator Elizabeth Warren) flanked by relatively popular Beto O'Rourke and Senator Cory Booker. It contained a rather stand-out performance by Former Housing Secretary Julián Castro and an under-rated (and often unheard) John Delaney.

The second night (June 27) contained the rest of the campaign front-runners including Former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Other stand-outs that night included the rather airy self-help author Marianne Williamson and succinct and often silent (rumored to have his mic cut off) former tech executive Andrew Yang.

Each night's discussion touched on a wide range of topics, most notably immigration, healthcare, gun control, and race relations (in the case of Night 2). And each night's Twitter storm was just as varied, touching on a wide range of topics such as candidate attire, Elizabeth Warren's "parenting", the interesting inclusion of Spanish, and more.

1. One thing's for certain; the debate stage is PACKED.

@DavidBahnsen on Twitter

Even split up over two nights, the debate stage still feels too chaotic. And both nights featured a lot of yelling over one another.

2. Elizabeth Warren schooling everyone else.

@Will_Kellogg on Twitter

She did seem to stand out from question 1.

3. John Delaney screaming internally but getting to share none of it.

@jon_bois on Twitter

Poor John Delaney, the moderators never seem to give him any time. Like, at all.

4. Elizabeth Warren obviously schooling everyone...even more.

@heathbrown on Twitter

She did seem like an angry parent half the time.

5. Beto speaking Spanish was a hit...slowly

@iamtherog on Twitter

Beto O'Rourke decided to answer the first question partly in Spanish to...mixed opinion (as you will continue to see).

6. What was the question again? Nevermind, it's not important.

@MattGoldich on Twitter

Honestly they should have just given the candidates each two minutes to lay out their opinion in the beginning before getting to the question. Each candidate went off topic in the beginning just to make sure the viewers knew their opinions on, well, everything.

7. It's the emergence of a new meme! Part 1:

@Slade on Twitter

Basically the Internet's general response to Beto O'Rourke speaking Spanish.

8. It's the emergence of a new meme! Part 2:

wham-bam-thank-u-ham on Tumblr

And there are many more just like this one (probably enough to fill up a whole other list).

9. And the Russians are at it again.

@ktumulty on Twitter

As Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow began asking questions, their microphones didn't seem to work and MSNBC had to go to commercial break to fix the issue. Definitely not the network's best moment.

10. "She has a plan for that."

@bjrich_ on Twitter

This Twitter user decided to capitalize on the Elizabeth Warren meme stating she has a plan for basically everything.

11. So what are we actually debating?

@Travon on Twitter

Generally the candidates had rather similar views with only a few variations. There was very little true debate (although there definitely was some, don't get me wrong).

12. There seems to be a striking similarity between many of these candidates...

@Travon on Twitter

I'm just going to leave this here.

13. Some of them are just adorable.

@RobbySlowik on Twitter

Most people didn't even know half of these candidates existed before the debates...

14. But there's honestly just too many of them.

@TheDweck on Twitter

...and there's a reason for that.

15. Bernie Sanders after watching the first debate.

@gilbertjasono on Twitter

Granted, very little Spanish was used in the second debate so he wasn't alone.

16. Joe Biden did give some fishy answers...

@abandonless on Tumblr

He always seemed to be the last to raise his hand, and when he did, it was rather hesitantly.

17. Andrew Yang looked less than enthused.

@aparnapkin on Twitter

He did look bored half the time, although to be fair, he was barely called upon by the moderators.

18. Well that was awkward...

@roywoodjr on Twitter

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris definitely had the stand-out argument from both notes, and poor Bernie was in the middle of it. Literally.

19. When the candidates completely ignore the instructions.

@c3rtifiedginger on Twitter

There seemed to be a theme of this at the second debate especially.

20. When the candidates completely ignore the instructions part 2.

@umlindsay on Tumblr

It was a bit of a problem obviously.

21. Kamala Harris came prepared to take no prisoners.

@JacobSV27 on Twitter

She spoke so matter-of-factly the entire night, it was hard not to pay attention whenever she opened her mouth.

22. Marianne Williamson has another plan for her presidency.

@youneedtoclamdown on Tumblr

Her entire closing statement was focused on the defeat of fear using love. It was a rather unique closing statement to say the least.

23. After Kamala Harris and Joe Biden had their big clash on stage.

@MikeDrucker on Twitter

Yikes.

24. Ouch, that's kind of a burn on Bernie.

@republicanidiots on Tumblr

His slogan is "Feel the Bern" so...

25. Honestly, I'm kind of wondering this myself...

@TheDweck on Twitter

The self-help author evidently got a lot of attention from viewers on social media.

26. He would be the youngest President so far.

@JackeeHarry on Twitter

I agree, but you should probably throw out that nail polish.

27. Joe Biden did tend to say some of the same things over and over.

@rebel19 on Twitter

He was Vice President for 8 years, as he reminded the candidates quite a bit.

28. A+ Game of Thrones reference:

@WajahatAli on Twitter

I won't spoil Season 8 of Game of Thrones for you in case you've been living under a rock and haven't watched it, but basically Arya is a rockstar.

29. Was there a dress code for this thing?

@NeginFarsad on Twitter

There was perhaps an unspoken one, since many candidates were hard to distinguish from one another, as we've previously covered.

30. If the debates need to be more exciting...

@kashanacauley on Twitter

Another one I'm just going to leave here.

The next round of Democratic Debates is scheduled for July 30 and 31 in Detroit which will hopefully contain less candidates and more policy but one thing's for sure; social media will not disappoint.