Who won the third presidential debate on social media?
Wednesday night marked the end of the presidential debate season, but there were probably enough verbal jabs that will live in the memory of voters until Nov. 8 when American voters cast their ballots to elect the 45th president of the United States.
Missed the debate? Here are the top moments on social media, according to data released by Twitter and Facebook.
As was the case in the last two debates, GOP nominee Donald Trump generated the most activity on Twitter -- @realDonaldTrump was the focus of 59 percent of #debate conversation compared to @HillaryClinton’s 41 percent. He also beat out Clinton for the top retweet of the debate, and it wasn’t even a tweet that originated during the debate, during the day Wednesday, or even during the year 2016.
The original tweet may have been from 2013, but Trump’s and Clinton’s exchange on Russia and Putin -- who was Putin’s puppet -- was the third tweeted #debate moment. Here’s how it played out:
TRUMP: He has no respect for her. He has no respect for our president. And I’ll tell you what: We’re in very serious trouble, because we have a country with tremendous numbers of nuclear warheads -- 1,800, by the way -- where they expanded and we didn’t, 1,800 nuclear warheads. And she’s playing chicken. Look, Putin...
WALLACE: Wait, but...
TRUMP: ... from everything I see, has no respect for this person.
CLINTON: Well, that’s because he’d rather have a puppet as president of the United States.
TRUMP: No puppet. No puppet.
CLINTON: And it’s pretty clear...
TRUMP: You’re the puppet!
CLINTON: It’s pretty clear you won’t admit...
TRUMP: No, you’re the puppet.
However, the second most tweeted moment was when moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump if he would accept the results of the election. “I will look at it at the time,” Trump responded. Trump’s claims about a “rigged” electoral process is causing some anxiety among Republicans, who think it sets a bad precedent for the country.
The number one tweeted moment involved Trump and Clinton discussing the treatment of women. The 2005 video of Trump making lewd comments about women may have been the topic of discussion during the second debate, but, as more women come forward to accuse the GOP nominee of sexual assault, his treatment of women continues to attract attention.
The business-mogul may have had a larger share of the Twitter conversation, but his Democratic rival gained nearly twice as many followers. @HillaryClinton attracted 13,000 new followers while @realDonaldTrump attracted 6,000.
As for the most tweeted issues, foreign affairs topped the list, followed by the economy, reproductive rights, terrorism, and immigration.
On Facebook, Trump also generated more conversation -- 56 percent -- than Clinton -- 44 percent. But the top social moments on Facebook differed than those on Twitter.
The fourth biggest moment was when Trump claimed he should have gotten an Emmy. In third place, Trump’s comments about the Clinton email probe in which he called the FBI and DOJ -- the governing bodies of the investigation -- “disgraceful.”
The second biggest Facebook moment occurred when Trump and Clinton debated over who was the most “fit” to occupy the White House. Trump said to Clinton, “Now John Podesta said you have terrible instincts. Bernie Sanders said you have bad judgment. I agree with both.”
As for the number one social moment on Facebook was Trump’s exchange with Chris Wallace over Aleppo:
WALLACE: Let’s turn to Aleppo. Mr. Trump in the last debate, you were we were both asked about the situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo and I want to follow up on that because you said several things in that debate which were not true, sir. You said that Aleppo has basically fallen. In fact there are -
TRUMP: It’s a catastrophe. Have you seen it? Have you seen what’s happened to Aleppo?
WALLACE: Sir, if I may finish my question. There are quarter million people still living there and being slaughtered.
TRUMP: That’s right and they are being slaughtered because of bad decisions.
WALLACE: If I may just finish here and you also said that Syria and Russia are busy fighting ISIS, in fact they have been the ones who have been bombing and shelling eastern Aleppo and they just announced humanitarian pause, in effect admitting that they have been bombing and shelling Aleppo. Would you like to clear that up, sir?
TRUMP: Aleppo is a disaster. It is a humanitarian nightmare but it has fallen from any standpoint. I mean what do you need a signed document? Take a look at Aleppo - it’s so sad when you see what’s happened.
Similarly, Iraq, Syria and ISIS reigned as the most discussed topic on Facebook, followed by Russia and Ukraine, then abortion, immigration and the WikiLeaks release of John Podesta’s emails.