Twitter is absolutely certain Trump won the debate
Hillary Clinton is two for two after Sunday night's presidential debate, according to many pundits and polls. But if you ask tens of thousands of viewers at home, the town hall was Trump's, and Trump's alone.
After the first presidential debate in September, Twitter users agreed with most mainstream media outlets that Clinton won round one. Things swung the other way on Sunday.
Vocativ analyzed mentions of the candidates' names or Twitter handles in tweets that also mentioned words and phrases such as "is the winner" or "wins the debate" between 9:00 p.m. ET Sunday and 3:00 a.m. ET Monday. Nearly 140,000 tweets declared that Trump beat Clinton during Sunday's event, which took place in St. Louis, Missouri. Half that amount—nearly 60,000 tweets—expressed belief that Clinton was the superior candidate.
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After a weak performance at the first debate last month, Trump overcame low expectations leading up to Sunday's town hall event by appealing to his voter base. The Republican nominee threatened to put Clinton in jail over her private email server, berated Clinton for not using the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism," and claimed "there's never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that's been so abusive to women" as Bill Clinton. Trump even brought three women who alleged Bill had sexually assaulted them to the event.
Trump is the clear winner of #2! The best part was when he said she should be in jail!
— stephharkness (@13stephac13) October 10, 2016
Hillary is the Winner! #Debate#ImWithHer#EstoyConElla#StrongerTogether#Debateshttps://t.co/ixQnQJNfZd
— Natalie Penedo (@MinoritiesInUSA) October 10, 2016
@JohnJHarwood not on this planet...Hillary is the winner by a large amount!
— Daisy Martin (@GrandSnafu) October 10, 2016
See more reactions to debate performance here:
Clinton, who had the advantage coming into the second debate, went on the offensive regarding the video clip that caught Trump talking about sexually assaulting women, responding: "I think it's clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is." Clinton took her usual strategy of allowing Trump to be Trump—at one point, she even stated outright that she intended to not interrupt the Republican nominee.
Clinton stumbled, too, however, when the former Secretary of State responded to reports that she said politicians need to have separate policies in public, and in private in a Wall Street speech. Clinton offered a stilted explanation of this by referring to the 2013 biopic "Lincoln," and specifically, how Abraham Lincoln used the tactic to pass the 13th amendment to end slavery.
The final presidential debate airs Wednesday, October 19.
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See photos from the second debate:
