Where to start about last night’s presidential debate between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump?
How about with the fact that, throughout the 90 minute face-off, Trump appeared to be battling a bad case of the sniffles or some kind of allergy flare-up.
A live snapshot of tonights debate. #debatenight pic.twitter.com/E4kXDsnRoS
— Kilgore Trout (@CohibaSmkr) September 27, 2016
Seriously, someone pass this guy a tissue or some Vicks.
#TrumpSniffles #debatenight pic.twitter.com/fpn9bA19bd
— Mashable News (@MashableNews) September 27, 2016
“Snifflegate” quickly became a topic of discussion between Twitter users following the debate.
https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/780588272917553152
Trump noticeably drank a lot of water during the debate but never blew or wiped his nose – perhaps fearful of appearing unwell or vulnerable after he made such a fuss about his rival’s bout of pneumonia earlier this month.
Of course, there were some people online who semi-seriously joked that Trump had snorted something beforehand to get him pumped for the debate.
Donald Trump sounded like every coke head I ever ran away from at a party in1989.
— Lizz "Insufferable Wench" Winstead (@lizzwinstead) September 27, 2016
https://twitter.com/riaisawake/status/780593551709057024
But the accusation got major legitimacy when a sitting US governor, Howard Dean, just came out and said it:
Dean is a major Democratic party player: he’s the governor of Vermont, a former chair of the party, and ran for president in 2004.
He seems to be standing by the slur too: the tweet hasn’t been deleted. Dean’s accusation has divided people, naturally enough:
— Ξvan Ross Katz (@evanrosskatz) September 27, 2016
Maybe, but please remember, Governor, "When they go low, we go high." Those kinds of speculative accusations are beneath us.
— Jerry (@gwhilts) September 27, 2016
saying what everyone at home is thinking. Why all of the sniffing?
— Georgette (@GG_Regence) September 27, 2016
https://twitter.com/nickguillory/status/780592217236713472
BuzzFeed reports that, after the debate, Trump said his nasal issues were the result of a faulty microphone – that was perhaps done deliberately. ANOTHER CONSPIRACY!
“They also gave me a defective mic, did you notice that? My mic was defective in the room,” Trump said. “I wonder, was that on purpose? Was that on purpose?” he added. “But I had a mic that wasn’t working properly.”
