If you’re like me, you were tuned into the GOP debate last night, interested to see the altered dynamic that would present itself with Donald Trump self-removed from the event due to his disdain for, or fear of, Megyn Kelly (depending on who you’re listening to). While the debate managed to stay on the rails for the most part, it wasn’t without its personal attacks and sidetracking, normally reserved for Trump and his steady stream of unbecoming digs at challengers. As the debate progressed, I took to the Twitter-verse to see what people were saying, as well as to toss my own feedback into the oblivion of 140-character snippets of praise, condemnation, or outright hilariousness.
So, for your amusement, I thought I’d share some of my favorites. Spoiler alert: I’ve shamelessly nominated myself for this distinction a couple times. Just because I can. Feel free to scream “narcissist!” in the comments if you’d like.
After Marco Rubio suggested we beef up the military. You know, the one that’s bigger and much more expensive than anyone else’s?
We need more planes that go pew, pew, pew and ships that go chug, chug, chug. ~ Rubio #GOPDebate
— Aღanda (@GrnEyedMandy) January 29, 2016
After Ted Cruz threatened to leave the stage because he felt attacked, and Chris Wallace called him out on his crybaby antics.
Chris Wallace is about five seconds from saying, "Ted, you can leave too. Door's over there." #GOPDebate
— Adam Bonin (@adambonin) January 29, 2016
"I'm not leaving the stage no matter what u ask me" @marcorubio after @tedcruz says he might leave if he doesn't like questions #GOPDebate
— Gretchen Carlson (@GretchenCarlson) January 29, 2016
Dear foreign leaders,
Please don't say anything mean when I become president or I'm going to have to leave.
Yours kindly,
Ted#GOPDebate— Jasmine Dean (@jasminemdean) January 29, 2016
After Chris Wallace prefaced a question for Jeb Bush with the truth about the Iraq war.
Moderator to Bush: Your brother started a war in Iraq we're still fighting. Audience boos moderator for reminding people of this. #GOPDebate
— U.S. Dept. of Fear (@FearDept) January 29, 2016
After Rand Paul deviated from GOP talking points and started making sense.
Rand points out racist enforcement of drug laws.
Rand drops to -8 in the polls.#GOPDebate— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) January 29, 2016
After Ted Cruz effectively told us he’d make it legal again to deny insurance to those with pre-existing conditions without yet having a backup plan.
.@tedcruz: 1st I'll repeal #Obamacare. Then I'll try to pass a new plan. He just fucked every1 w/ preexisting condition. #GOPdebate
— SecularVoices (@SecularVoices) January 29, 2016
A few questions from Megyn Kelly were prefaced with video clips of previous statements by the candidates. It was a Brilliant tactic by the network to give context to viewers and prevent “I never said that” responses from candidates.
I see why Trump declined the #GOPDebate tonight. He wouldn't survive the videos of past statements. #GOPDebate
— deray mckesson (@deray) January 29, 2016
After Marco Rubio started his “Jesus Christ died for my sins” ranT.
Cue the Jesus-off. First up, @marcorubio #GOPDebate
— SecularVoices (@SecularVoices) January 29, 2016
We've entered the Jesus died for our sins part of the #GOPDebate.
— Rebecca Land Soodak (@RLSoo) January 29, 2016
Only #Rubio can pivot from a poll number question to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. That's awesome.#GOPDebate
— Neil B4Zod (@NeilB4Zod) January 29, 2016
Oh crap I had 'drink a whole bottle if someone says "Jesus Christ our savior who came and died for our sins" in my drinking game #GOPDebate
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) January 29, 2016
Mr. Christ, he invoked your name, you get 30 seconds to respond #GOPDebate
— Cooper Hewell (@cooperhewell) January 29, 2016
"Leave me out of this, Marco." — Jesus Christ #GOPDebate
— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) January 29, 2016
After a question about Kim Davis got directed to Chris Christie and he somehow transitioned to defeating ISIS.
In the same sentence, Christie defends Kim Davis and attacks Muslims for wanting to force their religion onto others. Wait, what? #GOPDebate
— Logan Smith (@LoganJames) January 29, 2016
Kim Davis question got turned into radical Islamic jihadists and then religious liberty without any irony. Amazing. #GOPDebate
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) January 29, 2016
After Ted Cruz hits a pet peeve of mine, mispronouncing “introduce”.
Please annunciate, @tedcruz. The word is not "innerdeuce". That's what you're dropping in this #GOPDebate.
— SecularVoices (@SecularVoices) January 29, 2016
After Ben Carson mentioned tapping into renewable energy sources.
"We need to be talking about new sources of energy, like running on treadmills, and unobtainium." -Carson #GOPDebate
— Ken Plume (@KenPlume) January 29, 2016
Hold up, did #bencarson just advocate renewable energy? Did he finally discover science exists? #gopdebate
— Asha Dahya (@Ashadahya) January 29, 2016
And finally, Ben Carson’s closing statement was a horribly uncomfortable recital of the Preamble to the Constitution.
.@RealBenCarson just recited the preamble like a kid in grammar school who just learned it. That was so cute. #GOPDebate
— SecularVoices (@SecularVoices) January 29, 2016
In case you missed it:
Do you have some favorite tweets from the night? Share them in the comments!
