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Bernie Sanders Makes Appearance at Biden's Inauguration
Bernie Sanders arrives at Biden's Inauguration in a coat and mittens, and this was different than others who were in attendance who wore more formal wear. -
New Yorker writer tweets the photo of Bernie and it goes viral
New Yorker writer Rachel Syme, tweeted the image with the caption, "i need this picture to become the new 'i would prefer not to' stand-in." The post received more than 20,000 likes and 4,000 retweets in less than 24 hours. -
Twitter User, reposts the photo and recaptions the post. Thus creating the meme
This was parodied in a post by Twitter user @CamBNewton[5] that gained over 2,400 retweets and 20,000 likes (shown below). They wrote,
"Everyone else: wearing giant, dressy black and grey coats Bernie: This is my good jacket, and it keeps me warm. I’m wearing it." -
Mitten's Origin is revealed
Bernie’s mittens are made by Jen Ellis, a teacher from Essex Junction, Vt. She gave them to him 2 years earlier and was surprised when he began wearing them on the campaign trail. They are made from repurposed wool sweaters and lined with fleece made from recycled plastic bottles." The post received more than 230,000 likes and 46,000 retweets in less than 24 hours. Orders began to come in for Ellis, and she quickly sold out of merchandise. -
Bernie is all over the internet
Thousands of photoshopped memes began to emerge on the Internet. Bernie and his mittens were placed in historical moments, movie scenes, other memes, and on Social Media. It even made its way into the meme "This could have been an email". -
Bernie turns the attention into a way to raise money
With the growing popularity, Sanders began to sell merchandise using the photo; this included plates, T-shirts, stickers, and wine glasses. Sanders responded good-naturedly to the meme and its various derivatives and he decided to sell sweatshirts featuring the photograph to raise money for charity and the proceeds amounted to roughly $1.8 million.