Social media has been raving about a fly that appeared during Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate.
What We Know:
- For exactly two minutes and three seconds, the fly got very comfortable on Vice President Mike Pence’s hair, not moving at all as he answered questions about racial injustice and whether justice was done in the Breonna Taylor case.
- As viewers bounced on the opportunity to seize and make memes of such a moment, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden joined in on the fun to everyone’s surprise. Biden, or his social media coordinator, tweeted a behind-the-scenes shot of him holding a flyswatter. “Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly,” the caption read, followed by a link to give to the Biden–Harris campaign.
Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly. https://t.co/CqHAId0j8t pic.twitter.com/NbkPl0a8HV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 8, 2020
- He quickly followed up by posting the link, flywillvote.com, which redirects to iwillvote.com. Biden’s team retweeted a post from his strong supporters at Team Joe. A flyswatter graphic reads jokes like, “Don’t let this debate buzz off,” and, “Truth over flies”. According to Biden’s merch website, this swatter is already on sale for $10.
- Evidently, the fly swatters became an instant hit. The Deputy Director of Direct Marketing for the Democratic National Committee, Zach McNamara, tweeted after the debate that the Biden campaign has now sold 15,000 of them.
- Zach McNamara also mentioned that they saw the internet and their supporters sharing a viral moment online, so their digital team came together “on the fly”. He replied that the goal was to show that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will forever pick “truth over lies, science over fiction, and unity over division”.
Aside from the fly jokes, Biden took a minute to congratulate Senator Kamala Harris by tweeting she made them very proud. At least this fly brought a smile on everyone’s face amid all this chaos and pandemic that the world is going through.
