Americans tuning into the debate saw the fly land on the left side of Pence’s head as Harris discussed whether justice was served in the case of Breonna Taylor. While Pence ignored the fly’s presence, viewers quickly seized on the moment, sharing memes, images and videos of the Republican to social media.
“A fly lands on Vice President Pence during #VPDebate,” C-Span tweeted, alongside a video of the incident.
“I couldn’t take my eyes off the fly that perched on Mike Pence’s head during the debate,” former Democratic Coalition chair Jon Cooper tweeted.
“Update: the fly on Pence head has passed away from Covid-19. He was 1 day old,” comedian Dane Cook tweeted.
“The fly on Mike Pence’s head has captured more attention than anything Kamala Harris has said or done this whole debate,” comedian Savanah Hernandez tweeted.
“Pence has a fly on his head. Why?” filmmaker Chip Franklin tweeted.
“#VicePresidentialDebate2020 When they asked Pence about race. A fly landed on Pence’s head. The whole time he spoke the fly stayed there. Once he was done speaking on race the fly left. I think it’s a sign,” user @AfrDiasporaNews tweeted.
“The deep state planted a bug on @VP. The illegal spying is really out of control,” GOP Senator Rand Paul tweeted.
“EWWWWWWWWW that fly has Mike Pence on his stomach,” comedian Patton Oswalt tweeted.
Democratic President Nominee Joe Biden quickly seized on the moment to advance his campaign’s fundraising and campaigning efforts. Biden shared a link to flywillvote.com, a newly created URL that directs people to a Democratic National Committee website that helps to register voters.
Biden also tweeted an image of himself holding an orange fly swatter. “Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly,” the former vice president wrote.
Less than an hour after the debate wrapped, the official Biden campaign store began selling “Truth Over Fly Swatters” for $10.
A Twitter page that was created for the fly had garnered more than 60,000 followers at the time of publication.
And even Snapchat capitalized on the fly debacle with a Mike Pence Fly photos filter.
Harris has previously spoken about the scrutiny that women in politics face over their appearance, however, Pence’s appearance appeared to garner more attention tonight. Hundreds of internet users commented on the vice president’s eye, with some speculating that it could be pink eye.