--- title: Presidential Debate: The Most Tweeted Ever description: As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off in the first presidential debate of the election, more tweets than ever were sent off. canonical: https://time.com/4508981/presidential-debate-twitter-clinton-trump/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-27T04:02:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:25.578Z article:section: Politics og:title: This Was the Most Tweeted Presidential Debate Ever og:description: The hashtag debates. og:url: https://time.com/4508981/presidential-debate-twitter-clinton-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ff25f542fba6892/6988a7a42dce01578c9eacd0/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-37.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4824 og:image:height: 2714 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL First Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Was the Most Tweeted Presidential Debate Ever twitter:description: The hashtag debates. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ff25f542fba6892/6988a7a42dce01578c9eacd0/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-37.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Was the Most Tweeted Presidential Debate Ever > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 27, 2016 4:02 AM UTC  Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump stand on stage as Debate moderator Lester Holt looks on during the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York on Sept. 26, 2016. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump stand on stage as Debate moderator Lester Holt looks on during the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York on Sept. 26, 2016. Joe Raedle—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 27, 2016 4:02 AM UTC The [first televised showdown](http://time.com/4508932/presidential-debate-trump-clinton-television/) between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was the most-tweeted presidential debate ever, according to Twitter. The social network provided the receipts, as millions of tweets were sent out during as the two candidates duked it out during the 90-minute debate. Trump was the most talked about candidate on both Facebook (79% of the conversation) and Twitter (62% of the conversation)—[not that all of that chatter was positive](http://time.com/4229252/google-twitter-presidential-elections-predictions-analysis/). The Republican also had the top moment on social media: when he exclaimed that his best quality was his “temperament.” That remark, and Clinton’s response, was the most talked about moments on both social networks. Other top moments include Trump’s comments on [New York City’s now defunct stop-and-frisk policy](http://time.com/4504215/donald-trump-stop-and-frisk-chicago/) and an exchange with Clinton on a plan for defeating ISIS. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4508981/presidential-debate-twitter-clinton-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4508981/presidential-debate-twitter-clinton-trump/"},"headline":"This Was the Most Tweeted Presidential Debate Ever","datePublished":"2016-09-27T04:02:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:25.578Z","description":"As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off in the first presidential debate of the election, more tweets than ever were sent off.","url":"https://time.com/4508981/presidential-debate-twitter-clinton-trump/","keywords":["Debates","Tech","Hillary Clinton","Social Media","2016 Election","facebook","twitter","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ff25f542fba6892/6988a7a42dce01578c9eacd0/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-37.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ff25f542fba6892/6988a7a42dce01578c9eacd0/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-37.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL First Debate","caption":"Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Face Off In First Presidential Debate At Hofstra University","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4508981/presidential-debate-twitter-clinton-trump/","name":"This Was the Most Tweeted Presidential Debate Ever"}}]}] ```