Bernie Sanders prints off giant Donald Trump tweet and takes it into Senate chamber

The President-elect promised not to cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid during the campaign, but the Republican party is now trying to repeal Obamacare

Bernie Sanders took a giant print-out of one of Donald Trump's tweets to a debate in the Senate on Wednesday.

The Senate is currently debating the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, with the Vermont senator challenging a Republican plan to repeal the bill.

The tweet, posted to the President-elect's official account during the campaign period, proclaimed: “I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me.”

Mr Sanders said he brought the print-out because he wanted to make it clear that if Mr Trump did away with the act, he would be reneging on a promise made to voters — as well as potentially harming millions of lives.

The clearest way to highlight how hypocritical Mr Trump would be if he allowed the bill to be repealed, was with a print out of Mr Trump's own past words, Mr Sanders said.

The independent politician also said that getting rid of the act would be irresponsible.

“You don’t destroy a house, without having another house in which people to live,” he told Congress. “You don’t throw throw 30 million people off of health care without having a plan to provide health care to those people."

Mr Sanders added that if Mr Trump plans to cut Medicare or Medicaid, then he should openly admit now that he lied on the campaign trail.

“Millions of people voted for him on the belief that he would keep his word,” he said. “If he was sincere, then I would hope that tomorrow or maybe today he could send out a tweet and tell his Republican colleagues to stop wasting their time and all of our time. And for Mr Trump to tell the American people that he will veto any proposal that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid or that cuts Social Security.”

In addition to highlighting Mr Trump’s hypocritical habit of making deeply contradictory statements, Mr Sanders made another point with the cut-out, whether he meant to or not, about the central role social media has recently played in US politics.

The President-elect has been criticised by everyone from US foreign policy experts to China for his use of Twitter, and has caused arguments on subjects ranging from the re-ignition of the nuclear arms race to misogyny with his ill-considered posts.

Mr Sanders, meanwhile, has also been criticised for taking an extremely strong line over his opposition to the President-elect and using sometimes outlandish tactics to oppose him.

Mike Casca, Deputy Communications Director for Bernie Sanders, said former Republican leadership contender Ted Cruz chuckled on Wednesday, when he saw Mr Casca taking the tweet into the Senate.

Meanwhile on social media the oversized cut-out quickly became a popular meme, going almost viral overnight, with users eagerly photoshopping in alternative messages and sharing their jokes with followers.