Overview

The 2020 Democratic Party Presidential Debate in Des Moines is the seventh 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate held in late January 2020 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Background

On January 11th, 2019, the Democratic National Committee announced the list of candidates that would participate in the first primary debates.^[1] The list of candidates includes:

Former Vice President Joe Biden
South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar
Vermont Senantor Bernie Sanders
Mr. Tom Steyer
Massachussets Senator Elizabeth Warren

Developments

Warren-Sanders Feud

Leading up to the debates, Warren confirmed that Bernie Sanders had told Warren that he did not believe a woman could win the presidency. Sanders continued to deny the allegations during the debate.

Warren, however, stood by her statements. She continued by saying of the controversy, "Bernie is my friend, and I am not here to try to fight with Bernie. But look, this question about whether or not a woman can be president has been raised and it’s time for us to attack it head-on, and I think the best way to talk about people who can win is by looking at people's winning records. So, can a woman beat Donald Trump? Look at the men on this stage. Collectively, they have lost 10 elections. The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they've been in are the women, Amy and me."

On Twitter, people debated the moderators' line of questioning regarding the controversy. Twitter^[2] user @MEPFuller tweeted, "Bernie unequivocally denies saying he didn’t think a woman could beat Trump. The moderator then asks Warren what she thought when Sanders said a woman couldn’t beat Trump. Wait, what?" The tweet received more than 5,900 likes and 745 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left).

Others urged supporters of both to move on from the controversy. Twitter^[3] user @cmclymer tweeted, "Listen, Bernie Sanders has made it clear he believes a woman can be elected president, and Elizabeth Warren has made it clear she can absolutely be that candidate. Can we all move on, please?" The tweet received more than 9,400 likes and 995 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

Throughout the night, the hashtag #CNNisTrash trended on Twitter. Redditor ^[4] Dashiell_Hammett posted about the hashtag in the /r/politics subreddit. The post received more than 40,000 points (88% upvoted) and 4,600 comments in less than 24 hours.

Later that night, people began replying to Warren's tweets with snake emojis, similar to the Taylor Swift Is a Snake meme. Twitter user @NathanJRobinson tweeted,^[5] "all the twitter replies to Elizabeth Warren's posts now are just increasing numbers of snake emojis." The tweet received more than 4,300 likes and 495 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left).

Writer Emily Crockett called the tactic "appallingly sexist" (shown below, right).^[6] She continued, "I mean, SNAKES?? The literal ORIGINAL symbol of why women can't be trusted??! (And yes, women can also be sexist against other women, because sexist tropes are the toxic sludge we are all raised with.)" Mediaite^[7] reported on the controversy that night.

At the end of the night, Sanders went to shake Warren's hands, but Warren kept her hands clasped. Some believed that Warren snubbed his handshake (shown below).

Bittigieg's "'J' Stood for Joint"

That night, The Washington Examiner shared a clip of Buttigieg answering the question "Would you promise that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, as Trump did?" during the debate on Twitter (shown below). Buttigieg responds by saying, "In order to get that done, we've got to work with our partners. The Iran nuclear deal, the technical term for it was the JCPOA. That first letter 'J' stood for 'Joint.' We can't do this alone, even less so now after everything that has happened."

Following the moment, people joked about the moment. witter user @HalSinger,^[8] tweeted a transcript of the response with the caption, "'J stood for Joint' is the most memorable line of the debate heh heh (also C stood for cannabis and P stood for pot)" (shown below, left). Many Twitter users referred to this line when criticizing his performance. For example, that night, Twitter user @ElieNYC^[9] tweeted, "Pete just told us that the 'J' in an acronym stands for 'joint' and SURELY people are noticing that he's saying nothing of substance, right? RIGHT? [checks Twitter] Goddamn it." (show below, right). The tweet gained over 600 likes in a day.

That night, the hashtag #NeverWarren trended on Twitter. Twitter^[10] user @oneunderscore__ tweeted, "FASCINATING data here about #NeverWarren, the No. 1 trend in the United States right now. The top three tweets about the hashtag in the world⁠--⁠from @johnpavlovitz, @mehdirhasan, @deetwocents⁠--all denounce people using it. The algorithm is generating an opposite reality." The tweet received more than 2,400 likes and 870 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Search Interest

External References