Congresswoman Dabs During Senate Debate

Zach Montanaro | October 6, 2016
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So…this happened.

In their one and only debate for the Senate seat in California, Rep. Loretta Sanchez closed out her debate performance by -- and I kid you not -- “dabbing” in front of the audience and leaving everyone in bewilderment. Her opponent, state Attorney General Kamala Harris, could only look on and laugh.

(For those who don't know, "dabbing" is a dance move made popular by NFL star Cam Newton.)

The two women, both Democrats, are running to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.

It’s not exactly clear why Sanchez felt the need to do this after delivering her closing remarks. The Los Angeles Times reports that the moderator for the debate had told Sanchez several times that her time for closing statements was expired and tried to move on to Harris. Sanchez tried to talk over the moderator but eventually stopped, paused, and then struck the pose just as the camera turned to Harris, catching her surprised reaction. 

If that doesn’t scream “pandering” from the loudest rooftop available, I’m not sure what would.

Harris’ campaign certainly wasted no time jumping on the strange incident, replying to a reporter with:

After initially declining to talk about it, a spokesman for Sanchez replied to that with:

I don’t like to use the word “cringe-worthy” a lot, but I think this would be one of the few times where it could be appropriately used.

If you’d like to see the last few minutes of the debate, you can watch the video below. You can clearly see Harris' bewildered reaction around the 55:26 mark.

 

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