Elizabeth Warren appeared to reject a handshake from Bernie Sanders after the Democratic debate — watch the video and decide for yourself

Sahar Esfandiari

January 15, 2020 11:45 AM

Video footage from after the Democratic debate on Tuesday appears to show Sen. Elizabeth Warren rejecting a handshake from Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Bernie and Warren

The incident occurred as Warren went over to talk to Sanders after the debate finished.
It is unclear what the pair were talking about, but presidential candidate Tom Steyer described the scene to CNN as "an awkward moment."
Watch the video below and decided for yourself if Warren rejected Sanders' handshake offer.
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Video footage from after the Democratic debate in Iowa on Tuesday appeared to show Sen. Elizabeth Warren rejecting a handshake from Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The moment was captured in the video below, where Sanders reaches his hand out as Warren approaches him following the end of the debate.

Warren appears to clasp her hands together instead of taking the handshake, and the pair proceed to have what looks like an intense, serious discussion before Sanders turns and walks off the stage.

A slowed down version of the clip can be seen below.

Fellow candidate Tom Steyer was seemingly caught in the middle of the incident, later describing it as "awkward."

In the video, Steyer approaches Sanders with a smile on his face, but appears to quickly pick up on some tension as he looks from Warren to Sanders and then back again in confusion.

Following the debate, Steyer told MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "I don't know what they were saying, all I was trying to say is, 'Senator Warren, Senator Sanders, it's been great to see you, thank you for participating in this. And whatever there was going on between each other, I was trying to get out of the way as fast as possible."

He also described the incident as an "awkward moment" to CNN.

Sanders and Warren are the two progressive standard-bearers of the election race, and have refrained from engaging in political attacks on each other thus far, however their non-aggression pact is breaking down as the Iowa caucuses loom.