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Sanders gets the most Twitter engagement in GOP debate

by Jesse Byrnes - 12/16/15 9:20 AM ET

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) again enjoyed some of the highest engagement on Twitter during the fifth Republican presidential debate on Tuesday night.

Sanders saw the largest growth in followers on the social media platform during the prime-time event, followed by GOP candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson.

{mosads}Twitter said that the most tweeted moment of the debate in Las Vegas was an exchange between real estate tycoon Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who also captured the most talked-about moment on Facebook.

Still, Sanders sent the most retweeted message of the night, with his tweet stating, “We must combat anti-Muslim bigotry and all forms of discrimination,” being shared more than 10,000 times.

Repeat after me: We must combat anti-Muslim bigotry and all forms of discrimination in our country and in our world. #GOPDebate

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 16, 2015

The account for Sanders, who has more than 1 million followers, live-tweeted the debate, with several tweets shared more than 4,000 times. Trump, who has 5.31 million followers, got nearly 3,000 shares for a tweet. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, got more than 2,000 retweets for a message focused on gun control.

Sanders, who trails Clinton by 22 points in the RealClearPolitics index of national polls, has enjoyed a committed online following throughout his campaign and has repeatedly captured some of the most online enthusiasm in the GOP debates.

Tags 2016 debates 2016 Democratic primary Bernie Sanders GOP debates