Joe Biden Jokes About Mike Pence's Fly at the VP Debate
Olivia Owen “A fly landing on Mike Pence's head and distracting America during the vice presidential debate" was not on our 2020 bingo cards, but, hey, we're living in strange times.
That exact event happened tonight when the vice president sat down to deliberate with Senator Kamala Harris in Salt Lake City for the only VP debate, less than a month before the 2020 presidential election. Toward the end of the debate, just when we thought our energy was fading, spirits were reinvigorated when a stray fly landed on Pence's head, very much visible against his white hair. And this wasn't a brief drop-in; the bug stayed put for two minutes and three seconds.
The fly on Pence’s head during the debate.
Viewers jumped on the opportunity to meme the moment, which was expected, but to the Internet's surprise, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden joined in on the fun too. First, he (or, more realistically, his quick-witted social media coordinator) tweeted a behind-the-scenes shot of himself holding a flyswatter. "Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly," the caption read, followed by a link to donate to the Biden–Harris campaign.
He promptly followed up by posting the link, flywillvote.com, which redirects to iwillvote.com.
And, because two tweets weren't enough, his team retweeted a post from Biden's grassroots supporters at Team Joe. The graphic of a flyswatter reads puns like, "Don't let this debate buzz off," and, "Truth over flies." According to Biden's merch website, this swatter is already for sale for $10.
Bug jokes aside, Biden also took a moment to congratulate his running mate, Senator Harris, for her performance at the debate. ".@KamalaHarris, you made us all proud tonight," he tweeted.
Update, 10/8:
The fly swatters were an instant hit, apparently. Zach McNamara, the Deputy Director of Direct Marketing for the Democratic National Committee, tweeted after the debate that the Biden campaign already sold 15,000 of them.
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now.
