“Ms. Williamson, many of your opponents support a commission to study the issue of reparations for slavery, but you are calling for up to $500 billion in financial assistance. What makes you qualified to determine how much is owed in reparations?” CNN host Don Lemon, one of the three moderators, asked Williamson after former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke mentioned the issue.

“First of all, it’s not $500 billion dollars in ‘financial assistance,’ it’s $200 to $500 billion dollars payment of a debt that is owed. That is what reparations is,” Williamson responded, prompting resounding applause from the crowd.

“We need some deep truth telling,” the New York Times best-selling author continued, “it is time for us to simply realize that this country will not heal [without reparations].”

“All that a country is is just a collection of people,” Williamson explained. “People heal when there’s some deep truth telling. We need to recognize that when it comes to the economic gap between blacks and whites in America, it does come from a great injustice that has never been dealt with.”

“That great injustice has had to do with the fact that there was 250 years of slavery, followed by anotehr hundred years of domestic terrorist,” she added.

After criticizing the idea of starting a commission on reparations, the Democratic candidate advocated for action, before going on to justify her proposal to pay between $200 and $500 billion.

“What makes me qualified to say $200 to $500 billion dollars? I’ll tell you what makes me qualified, if you did the math of the ‘40 acres and a mule,’ given that there were four to five million slaves at the end of the Civil War… if you did the math today it would be trillions of dollars,” Williamson said, “and I believe anything less than $100 billion is an insult and I believe $200 to $500 billion is politically feasible today.”

Slavery has caused “an emotional turbulence that only reparations would heal,” she concluded.

Slavery has caused “an emotional turbulence that only reparations would heal,” she concluded, as the crowd cheered and applauded.

During the last round of the Democratic primary debates in late June, Williamson drew ridicule on Twitter after she criticized America’s healthcare system and argued that President Donald Trump won the 2016 presidency with his “Make America Great Again” slogan.

“I’ll tell you one thing, while it’s nice that we got all these plans, but if you think we’re going to beat Donald Trump by just having all these plans, you got another thing coming because he didn’t win by saying he had a plan. He won by simply saying ‘Make America Great Again,’” Williamson said during round one. “We’ve gotta get deeper than just these superficial fixes, as important as they are.”

However, some social media users appear to have warmed up to Williamson during her performance on Tuesday evening.

“People are gonna think that I’m trolling but compared to what else is up on this stage I think Marianne Williamson is actually winning this thing,” Donald Trump Jr., the president’s second son, tweeted. “This is amazing. No question she seems to be drawing the biggest applause of the night.”

“Everyone was making fun of Marianne Williamson and now she low key winning this debate #DemDebate #DemocraticDebate,” Twitter user @saintgreeedy added.