#RefundWarren trends after Bernie Sanders denies telling Elizabeth Warren that 'a woman can't beat Trump'
Shortly after Senator Bernie Sanders denied reports of telling Senator Elizabeth Warren that a woman cannot win the 2020 presidency, Twitter erupted with the hashtag "#RefundWarren." The hashtag began trending on social media on Monday as Sanders supporters accused Warren of maligning her progressive rival. The presidential hopeful's supporters also encouraged anyone who had donated to Warren's 2020 campaign through the ActBlue platform to request a refund.
Warren, a 2020 top Democratic contender, on Monday, confirmed a report mentioning an exchange between her and Sanders in 2018 about a potential female Democratic nominee in 2020. She claimed he disagreed with her belief that a woman could win against President Donald Trump. Warren and Sanders, two longtime friends, had met privately in Washington D.C. in December 2018 to discuss the possibility of running against each other, according to CNN. Sanders, 2020 Democratic frontrunner, however, has flatly denied the claims made by Warren.
"It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn't win," Sanders said in a statement on Monday. "It's sad that, three weeks before the Iowa caucus and a year after that private conversation, staff who weren't in the room are lying about what happened."
Ever since Sanders' statement, multiple Twitter users have posted screenshots purporting to show ActBlue processing refunds of their donations to Warren. While several others posted screenshots of refund request emails that appeared to show ActBlue stating they were "currently experiencing high volumes."
"Act Blue is literally at max capacity from people asking for refunds of their Warren donations...on the eve of the last debate before Iowa. She was already in deep trouble, but the desperate & disgusting lying & smearing was unexpected. Karma works fast sometimes," Twitter user Pat the Berner wrote.
"Elizabeth Warren's plan to get attention is going exceedingly well. No one will forget the first negative donation day in history. Brilliant move," wrote another user.
Twitter is a bloodbath right now. It has been all day tbh. @ewarren you really shouldn’t have done what you did. That story wasn’t even remotely true of Bernie himself and for you to fundraisers off of it— ugh. #RefundWarren is trending and I understand why. Shameful.
— Keith Rubino (@KeithARubino) January 14, 2020
Actor and musician Greg Cipes also took to Twitter to slam Warren for her claim. Cipes said that Warren is "revealing herself as a fake, not so great politician, trying to use dirty below the belt cheap tactics to hurt a real public servant of the People like Bernie. Her shenanigans Ain't gonna help boost her failing campaign. She's just another politician."
Although many claimed they were requesting refunds for their donation, several other Warren supporters used the same hashtag to donate more to the Massachusetts Democrat's campaign. It is not yet clear how many Warren donor refunds ActBlue has processed or processing or the number of donations made surpassed the number of refunds.