Twitter is reacting after President Donald Trump in a tweet Wednesday accused the Democratic primary election of being “rigged.” As the 2020 election heats up, Trump seemingly threw his support behind candidate Bernie Sanders, alleging democrats are “taking the election away from him.” Just minutes earlier, Trump blasted 2020 hopeful Tom Steyer as “a major loser,” adding that “this is the second time with Bernie!”
They are taking the nomination away from Bernie for a second time. Rigged!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2020
The accusations quickly stirred social media, the president’s tweet gaining a flurry of reactions from those who both agreed and disagreed with his statement.
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“Trump be trying to divide the Democratic party like he’s dividing the country,” wrote one person. “United we win.”
“Democrats don’t believe in the democratic process and will always cheat — even within their own party,” another agreed with the president’s assessment.
“As much as Trump would love to tear the Democratic Party apart by having us do it ourselves, it’s not going to happen,” responded another person. “We’re all voting blue no matter who whether it’s Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, or some billionaire.”
“They are taking our democracy from our Republic,” wrote another, adding the hashtag “[GOP Coverup].”
This is far from the first time that the president has accused Democrats of rigging the election. In a series of tweets on Friday, Jan. 17 Trump slammed Democrats not supporting Sanders, echoing accusations from some Sanders supporters during the 2016 Democratic primary who claimed that the party had favored Hillary Clinton.
“They are rigging the election again against Bernie Sanders, just like last time, only even more obviously,’ he wrote. “They are bringing him out of so important Iowa in order that, as a Senator, he sit (sic) through the Impeachment Hoax Trial. Crazy Nancy (Pelosi) thereby gives the strong edge to Sleepy Joe Biden and Bernie is shut out again.”
Sanders, however, has largely dismissed Trump’s comments, outright denying them and accusing the president of attempting to create a divide among credits when responding to his Friday tweets.
“Let’s be clear about who is rigging what,” Sanders said in a statement, according to the Boston Herald. “It is Donald Trump’s action to use the power of the federal government for his own political benefit that is the cause of the impeachment trial. His transparent attempts to divide Democrats will not work, and we are going to unite to sweep him out of the White House in November.”