Gabbard is most searched on Google after Democratic debate

GoogleTrends showed Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) as the most-searched candidate of Wednesday night’s Democratic debate after entering the event in Miami as a relative unknown. 

Map: before and after the #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/7y3iNoJR1N

— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 27, 2019

Ahead of the debate, which was the first of two featuring 20 Democratic White House hopefuls, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was the most searched candidate of the 10 hopefuls who would appear on stage on Wednesday, while Gabbard was the fourth-most searched. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) were second and third, respectively.

{mosads}During the debate, Gabbard moved into the top most-searched spot, followed by Booker.

Warren, who has been steadily climbing in the polls in recent weeks, was third most searched during the event.

Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, is polling at just 0.8 percent in the RealClearPolitics index of polls while trailing front-runner former Vice President Joe Biden by more than 31 points.

Gabbard’s most visible moment of the evening came in an exchange with rival Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) after he said the Taliban was behind the 9/11 attacks.

“The reality of it is if the United States is not engaged, the Taliban will grow. And we will have bigger, bolder terrorist acts, we have got to have some presence there,” Ryan said of needing a military presence in Afghanistan.

Gabbard disputed his plan, saying that the Taliban “was there long before we came in and will be there long after we leave. We cannot keep U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan thinking that we are going to somehow squash this Taliban.”

“I didn’t say squash them,” Ryan pushed back. “When we weren’t in there they started flying planes into our buildings.”

“The Taliban didn’t attack us on 9/11. Al Qaeda did,” Gabbard said before they talked over one another.

Gabbard emerged as the top-searched candidate despite having the third-lowest amount of speaking time, clocking in at just over 6 minutes for the nearly two-hour event.

Booker had the most speaking time at 10 minutes and 35 seconds, followed by O’Rourke with 10 minutes and 15 seconds. Warren clocked in at just over 9 minutes.

The second night of the Democratic debate is slated for Thursday. It will feature Biden and other top-tier candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), along with six other hopefuls.