Sanders Sidelined By Heart Procedure
Even as President Donald Trump has grabbed the daily political headlines, one of the mainstays in the national discussion has been Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. As democratic debates rage on in preparation for the 2020 US Presidential election, Sanders remains at the forefront of the contenders looking to unseat Trump.
On Tuesday, though, Sanders’ campaign announced he’d be taking a break from the campaign trail. His senior adviser, Jeff Weaver, told reporters that Sanders, 78, had blockage in one of his arteries and required two stents to alleviate it. The Associated Press has reported that Sanders will not campaign “until further notice.”
Multiple outlets have reported that Sanders felt chest discomfort last night at an event last night in Las Vegas. According to CNN, cardiologists familiar with the procedure said Sanders’ recovery should be “swift.”
Sanders is the oldest presidential candidate in the Democratic field. Trump is 73.
According to a Social Studio social media listening analysis, Sanders has drawn over 20,000 tweets on a daily basis for the past month. But in the past 24 hours (as of 2 pm ET), Sanders had just under 100,000 social media mentions. News of his heart condition broke at 10:30 Wednesday morning.
A word cloud analysis shows that common words and phrases mentioned about Sanders include “hospitalized,” “recovery,” “surgery,” “procedure,” and other words and phrases that could be expected.
Perhaps most interesting, however, is a look at Social Studio’s sentiment analysis. This reveals that Sanders’ name is receiving 51 percent negative sentiment across analyzed social media. A closer inspection shows some sarcasm that Social Studio is not taking into account, but also reveals a sampling of both the positive and negative posts being made.
We’ll continue to monitor Bernie Sanders and other topics across social media from our post in the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center in east Tennessee.