As Harris and Trump debated, social media had its own war
Adds Taylor Swift's endorsement, detail on other viral clips from debate and commentary
By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK, Sept 10 (Reuters) -While tens of millions of Americans tuned in to watch the debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on their television screens on Tuesday, a secondary battle played out on social media's smaller screens.
From theopening moment of the debate, Democrats seized onHarris' walk across the stage to shake Trump's hand and introduce herself, posting videos and photos.
"Kamala said you’re gonna shake my hand dammit!" social media user Adam James Smith posted on X, to over 68,000 likes.
Part of Vice President Harris' debate plan was to goad Trump into saying things that could become viral social media clips, advisers said earlier, and the debate suggested that strategy paid off. However, Trump's campaign and online supporters quickly declared victory after the debate was over, claiming a win for the Republican former president.
Harris' sometimes bemused, sometimes alarmed, sometimes skepticalfacial expressions as Trump cycled through a series of familiar falsehoods were quickly turned into memes. Trump's repetition of a false claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pet dogs and cats, though, probably inspired the most reaction.
"THEY'RE EATING THE DOGS," quickly trended on social media platform X, buoyed by thousands of posts - including many confused at the quote's relevance in a presidential debate, after Trump said "They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats."
As the debate ended, Harris scored the ultimate online victory."Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight,"Taylor Swift said on Tuesday to her over 280 million Instagram followers. "I'm voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them."
The post already had over 4.3 million "likes" on Instagram as of late Tuesday, two hours after it was posted.
Social media is playing an even more significant role in this year's election cycle than it has in the past, political strategists say. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have drafted content creators, or influencers, to push information on their party's policies and their candidates.
"(Social media) both is what people think and shapes what people think," said Shannon McGregor, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
Overall, Trump far outperformsHarris and her campaign on followers. TheHarris campaign's official Kamala HQ account has 1.3 million followers on X, compared to the Trump campaign's 2.4 million, for example. However, her campaign has received over 100 million "likes" on its videos on TikTok versus Trump's 44 million.
TRUMP DECLARES 'BIG WIN'
Trump's campaign and his supporters jumpedon his response as he discussed Harris' economic plan, calling itsimplistic and a copy of her boss President Joe Biden's agenda.
"Run, Spot, run," Trump said, in reference to apopular book series used to teach children to read in decades past. The term was quickly trending on X.
Harris put Trump on the defensive Tuesday with a stream of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes, analysts said . But the Trump campaign, and Trump himself, quickly declared victory on social media after it was over.
"People are saying big win tonight," Trump declared on his Facebook account after it was over, in a post that quickly had nearly 30,000 likes. He also appeared before reporters and said the moderators were "unfair" to him.
The Harris campaign also declared debate victory in a statement Tuesday night.
Both sides quickly seized on Trump accusing Harris of failing to "meet with (Benjamin) Netanyahu when he went to Congress," referring to a July visit to Washington by the Israeli prime minister, and said she "wanted to go to the sorority party." Harris met with him separately.
Harris supporters on X rallied behind the vice president, who is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically African American sorority, with posts like "sorority party to the polls."
On TikTok, Make America Great Again Inc, a Trump-supporting super PAC, also posted a series of victorious videos after the debate to its 3.6 million followers, including a clip from a CNN focus group in which a Pennsylvania voter said post-debate, "When facts come to facts, my life was better when Trump was in office."
Reporting by Stephanie Kelly, additional reporting by Allende Miglietta; Editing by Heather Timmons and Deepa Babington
آخر الأخبار
إخلاء المسؤولية: تتيح كيانات XM Group خدمة تنفيذية فقط والدخول إلى منصة تداولنا عبر الإنترنت، مما يسمح للشخص بمشاهدة و/أو استخدام المحتوى المتاح على موقع الويب أو عن طريقه، وهذا المحتوى لا يراد به التغيير أو التوسع عن ذلك. يخضع هذا الدخول والاستخدام دائماً لما يلي: (1) الشروط والأحكام؛ (2) تحذيرات المخاطر؛ (3) إخلاء المسؤولية الكامل. لذلك يُقدم هذا المحتوى على أنه ليس أكثر من معلومات عامة. تحديداً، يرجى الانتباه إلى أن المحتوى المتاح على منصة تداولنا عبر الإنترنت ليس طلباً أو عرضاً لدخول أي معاملات في الأسواق المالية. التداول في أي سوق مالي به مخاطرة عالية برأس مالك.
جميع المواد المنشورة على منصة تداولنا مخصصة للأغراض التعليمية/المعلوماتية فقط ولا تحتوي - ولا ينبغي اعتبار أنها تحتوي - على نصائح أو توصيات مالية أو ضريبية أو تجارية، أو سجلاً لأسعار تداولنا، أو عرضاً أو طلباً لأي معاملة في أي صكوك مالية أو عروض ترويجية مالية لا داعي لها.
أي محتوى تابع للغير بالإضافة إلى المحتوى الذي أعدته XM، مثل الآراء، والأخبار، والأبحاث، والتحليلات والأسعار وغيرها من المعلومات أو روابط مواقع تابعة للغير وواردة في هذا الموقع تُقدم لك "كما هي"، كتعليق عام على السوق ولا تعتبر نصيحة استثمارية. يجب ألا يُفسر أي محتوى على أنه بحث استثماري، وأن تلاحظ وتقبل أن المحتوى غير مُعدٍ وفقاً للمتطلبات القانونية المصممة لتعزيز استقلالية البحث الاستثماري، وبالتالي، فهو بمثابة تواصل تسويقي بموجب القوانين واللوائح ذات الصلة. فضلاً تأكد من أنك قد قرأت وفهمت الإخطار بالبحوث الاستثمارية غير المستقلة والتحذير من مخاطر المعلومات السابقة، والذي يمكنك الاطلاع عليه هنا.
