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Is Donald Trump Tweeting The ABC Democratic Debate? It Looks Like No, & That's A Surprise

by Mara Flanagan

While the Democratic candidates tackle tough subjects, the internet is asking one more critical question. Is Donald Trump tweeting the ABC Democratic debate? The answer appears to be no. For a frontrunner who is notoriously willing to sound off on his fellow candidates, it's surprising to see his Twitter feed silent.

Update: Ultimately Donald Trump did tweet during the ABC Democratic debate, but not until the veeerry end. At 10:44 p.m., he tweeted a response to one of commentator George Stephanopoulos' remarks:

.@GStephanopoulos stupidly believes that Hillary wants to run against me because she said so. She says that so people believe it - opposite!

Glad he cleared that up. Trump live-tweeted the first Democratic debate back in October. USA Today reports that Trump did it for his supporters, tweeting, "At the request of many, and even though I expect it to be a very boring two hours, I will be covering the Democrat Debate live on twitter!" Hillary Clinton responded, ".@realDonaldTrump Glad you'll be watching. It's going to be 'huge.'" That night, according to TIME, Trump criticized Clinton for her email scandal and complimented Bernie Sanders' approach to it. He implied that Lincoln Chafee and Martin O'Malley would both have unsuccessful presidential bids, said the candidates sounded "rehearsed", and decided that no one stood out as a "STAR". He did ultimately compliment Clinton, tweeting, "Like her or not, Hillary did what she had to do in the debate last night—get through it. Her opponents were very gentle and soft!" He took to Twitter once more during the November Democratic debate. MSNBC reports that Trump went after O'Malley, tweeting, "Hillary and Sanders are not doing well, but what is the failed former Mayor of Baltimore doing on that stage? O'Malley is a clown." Some of Trump's other controversial tweets include:

Though Trump is done on the debate stage for 2015, he has a busy start to 2016. The Washington Post reports that the first Republican debate of 2016 is scheduled for January 14 at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center in South Carolina, hosted by Fox Business. That's followed by three GOP debates in February and two in March. Democrats have a slightly less demanding schedule. The first Democratic debate of 2016 will be held on January 17 in Charleston, South Carolina, hosted by NBC and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. They'll follow that up with a PBS debate in February and another debate in March hosted by Univision and The Washington Post.

Glad we got that cleared up. Trump may be staying away from his keyboard this evening, but it'll be interesting to hear whether he addresses the debate during his campaign event Monday in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Image: Ralph Freso/Getty Images