Bernt: Bernie Sanders’ Twitch Debate Pre-Stream Leaves Viewers Cold

Twitch viewers were not “feeling the Bern” during the Vermont senator’s pre-debate livestream, and despite their requests for an appearance, Bernie never showed.

When the Sanders 2020 campaign created an official account on the globally popular game streaming channel, it drew a lot of attention. When the campaign announced there would be a Bernie Sanders livestream before and after Thursday night’s Democrat debate, the proverbial “hype train” intensified. Tonight, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern, it ran right off the rails.

Rather than Bernie Sanders, the thousands of young would-be voters were faced with three campaign workers at a table, talking about how much they admired the 77-year-old socialist. The live chat that runs alongside any stream on Twitch.tv was flooded with people asking for Bernie to play a game, or even just show up and talk to them. No such luck.

In the final moments of the stream, the hosts talked about going to watch the debate in “the big room” and then abruptly ended the stream with little more than a terse goodbye. And, well, that seems to be it. There will allegedly be another stream following Bernie’s showdown with Biden, Yang, and other Democrat hopefuls. If the viewers have not been too Bernt and give him another chance, perhaps he will finally show up to say hello.