“You’ve got young people who want to go to school, who want to socialize, want to date, want to do things that young people do,” Sanders said during the Senate session, which was broadcast on C-SPAN 2.
“And they can’t do it and have been unable to do that for the last year," he added, noting that this "has resulted in a very sharp increase in mental illness in this country.”
The 79-year-old senator’s concern for the romantic prospects of America’s youth struck a chord across social media, according to the Huffington Post.
Many reacted to the senator's idea on Twitter. Among them, Tara Golshan, a reporter for the above-mentioned website, who humorously mentioned that Sanders was "watching out for the interests of [her] grandmother" with the suggestion.