Steven Crowder on his YouTube show right before seeing Sam Seder
Steven Crowder from the debate with Ethan Klein and Sam Seder.
YouTube/Louder with Crowder
  • Conservative commentator Steven Crowder fled a debate with left-leaning pundit Sam Seder.
  • Ethan Klein didn't tell the conservative pundit that Seder would join their debate, Crowder said.
  • Crowder's name was trending on Twitter after Klein posted footage of the short-lived debate.
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The internet is dunking on conservative comedian Steven Crowder after he was duped into a debate with left-leaning political commentator Sam Seder.

Crowder made it onto Twitter's top 10 trending search terms on Tuesday, with many viewers criticizing Crowder for fleeing the debate with Seder, who surprised Crowder during a Zoom debate with YouTuber Ethan Klein of H3H3 Productions.

In 2018, Seder and Crowder were scheduled to debate at the Politicon conference, but Crowder did not attend the event. Seder is the host of the Majority Report, a political talk show on YouTube with one million subscribers.

Crowder is a political commentator with 5.5 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, which has been criticized for racist commentary and COVID-19 misinformation.

In March of this year, YouTube removed a video from Crowder's channel that mocked a COVID-19 relief bill to benefit Black farmers, calling the plan "reparations" for "colored farmers." While YouTube removed the video for containing COVID-19 misinformation, the platform said the video did not violate its hate speech policy, OneZero reported.

The YouTuber has faced punishment for violating policies in the past. In June 2019, his channel was temporarily demonetized by YouTube after journalist Carlos Maza called him out for homophobic harassment, though the monetization was reinstated a year later.

Crowder invited Klein to debate, but Seder arrived as a surprise

On a March 30 live stream on Crowder's channel, the conservative pundit mocked Klein, the host of the YouTube channel H3H3 Productions, for saying that "you shouldn't think about" what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "tells you what to do," but that Americans should just follow the agency's guidelines.

Two months later, in May, Klein responded on his own live stream, sparking a back and forth that culminated when Crowder invited Klein onto his show to talk on June 7, saying the debate would be a "lay-up."

Crowder and Klein entered a Zoom call under the impression that they'd be debating the CDC's policies and issues of tech censorship. But instead, Klein brought Seder to join the debate.

"Oh no, it's Sam Seder! What a f---ing nightmare! I had no idea this was going to happen," Crowder said when Seder appeared. After 15 minutes, Crowder left the call.

During the YouTube video featuring the short-lived debate, Klein described Crowder as "one of the most hateful, bigoted people" on YouTube.

The video quickly spread on Twitter

YouTube viewers were hyped for the much-anticipated debate between Crowder and Seder. Before the footage aired online, streamer Hasan Abi, who shares progressive political thoughts on Twitch, tweeted that he was "stoked for the debate."

After Klein published the video, the conversation really started to pick up, with Twitter users mocking Crowder for refusing to participate in the call with Seder.

Influencers in the conservative online space, like Tim Pool and Lauren Chen, decried the whole event, calling it "drama" and Klein "pathetic."

On his own YouTube channel on Tuesday, Crowder criticized Klein for the surprise guest. Crowder showed what he said were Twitter direct messages with Klein, who said he would be "down to debate." A message purportedly from Crowder then asked that there be "no tricks, no zags."

He also showed what he said was an email Crowder's dad Darrin sent to a producer of Klein's H3H3 podcast, writing, "we never play 'Gotcha' with these things and would expect the same."

Klein and Crowder did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

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