About

Tears In Brooklyn refers to an opening statement made by GOP Rep. Doug Collins during the December 2019 public impeachment hearings. During his closing statement, Collins said the impeachment "didn't' start with a phone call … it started with tears in Brooklyn in November 2016." The phrase "tears in Brooklyn" began trending on Twitter due to its dramatic quality.

Origin

On December 4th, 2019, @ABCPolitics tweeted a video of GOP Rep. Doug Collins saying "This is not an impeachment. This is just a simple railroad job, and today's [hearing] is a waste of time" and "It didn't start with Mueller, it didn't' start with a phone call … it started with tears in Brooklyn in November 2016" (shown below). The tweet gained over 1,000 likes and 420 retweets in a day.

Spread

On December 4th, 2019, many Twitter users compared the phrase to the song "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton. Twitter user @futurebird^[1] tweeted alternative lyrics for the song to fit the phrase "tears in Brooklyn" (shown below).

That same, Twitter user @CarollAlvarado_^[2] tweeted "I'm pretty sure "Tears in Brooklyn" was my AOL screen name in high school" which gained over 170 likes in a day (shown below, left). While many Twitter users mocked and criticized Collins' statement some Twitter users agreed with him. For example, that day, @AOLKeywordBantz^[3] tweeted, "Tears in Brooklyn is the greatest term I've heard to describe how this all started and how soft lefties are. Plus it's a sick ass name for a emo band in 2007" (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References