While Wednesday night's vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris covered important topics, the fly that sat on Pence's head for over two minutes became a viral moment. The fly became a social media superstar during its less-than-15-minutes-of-fame before leaving the vice president's head. Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign even got in on the fun, sharing a photo of the former vice president with a fly swatter. The photo gave Twitter users something to laugh about.
"Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly," the tweet read, alongside a link to the Biden-Harris campaign website. Biden's team also quickly got the URL "flywillvote.com," which redirects users to iwillvote.com, a site where people can check their voter registration and plan out how they will vote on or before Nov. 3. Lastly, the campaign began selling a fly swatter with "Truth over flies" printed on the handle. They have since sold out.
The fly's surprise appearance at the debate felt like a throwback to simpler times, when silly things could go viral on Twitter quickly. NBC Bay Area reporter Ian Cull even calculated that the fly sat on Pence's head for exactly two minutes and three seconds. People were mystified that Pence did not even swat the fly while it sat on his head. He simply ignored it and the fly just went on its way.
"I don't think it's ever a good sign when a fly lands on your head for two minutes," Steve Schmidt, the co-founder of the anti-Trump group Lincoln Project and 2008 presidential campaign manager for the late Sen. John McCain, said on MSNBC. "That's a sign all through history of sin, and historically, biblically, maybe you wouldn't normally say this — it's only safe to say this after midnight ... but a fly, he who commands the fly is always seen historically as a mark of the devil."