Mike Pence's off-the-cuff comment about "that Mexican thing" during Tuesday's vice-presidential debate has become a social-media sensation with the farcical phrase going viral only minutes after it was uttered.
The Indiana governor's resonating crack is reminiscent of the uproar surrounding Mitt Romney, who during his 2012 debate with President Barack Obama remarked he had "binders full of women" in line for jobs.
The phrase was triggered after Pence's Democratic opponent Tim Kaine stated: "When Donald Trump says women should be punished, that Mexicans are rapists and criminals, or John McCain's not a hero, he is showing you who he is."
"Senator, you've whipped out that Mexican thing again," Pence shot back, referring to Trump's campaign rhetoric about punishing women who have abortions and building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out illegal immigrants.
Within minutes, social media exploded to comment on the phrase, which even got it's own Twitter hashtag, #ThatMexicanThing, and website, ThatMexicanThing.com.
Much of it was from the Latino community who saw it as a rallying cry to defeat the Republican ticket in the general election next month.
On Twitter, the tweets came fast and furious:
Trump had plenty to say about the debate in a flurry of tweets, but none of it focused on Pence's "that Mexican thing" remark.
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