- Joe Biden's Democratic presidential campaign was quick to capitalize on the bizarre moment in Wednesday night's vice-presidential debate when a fly landed on Mike Pence's head for about two minutes.
- Shortly after, Biden tweeted out an old picture of himself holding a fly swatter, with the caption: "Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly."
- The Biden campaign also released a $10 fly swatter with the slogan "Truth Over Flies" — a play on the Biden slogan "Truth Over Lies." It sold out within hours.
- The Trump and Biden campaigns are vying to influence the online conversation with memes and spin capitalizing on viral moments.
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The Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, wasted no time fundraising off the bizarre moment during Wednesday night's vice-presidential debate when a fly landed on Vice President Mike Pence's head and sat there for nearly two minutes as he continued to speak.
"Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly," Biden tweeted with a link to his campaign fundraising page and an old picture of himself holding a fly swatter.
—Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 8, 2020The picture appears to be at least a year old, and was posted on Biden's Facebook page in October 2019.
During the debate, Pence and Biden's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, discussed the issues that have defined the presidential campaign — but the fly landing on Pence's head was perhaps the moment that attracted most attention on social media.
Within minutes someone had made a Twitter account for the fly, and people started sharing memes and jokes under the #PenceFlyHead hashtag.
The Biden campaign was also quick to seek political advantage from the moment, with Biden's tweet shared 234,000 times at the time of publication.
It followed up with campaign merchandise, with Biden tweeting out a link to a $10 fly swatter, with the slogan "Truth Over Flies" — a play on one of Biden's campaign slogans, "Truth Over Lies" — on the handle. At time of publication, it had sold out.
Quipping on the moment, Biden also tweeted out a link to the voter-registration site IWillVote.com with the message "FlyWillVote.com."
Republicans and Democrats have been seeking to influence the online conversation about the presidential election with memes and spin about viral campaign moments, conveying campaign messages in an irreverent way to reach out to voters.
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- The biggest moment of the Pence-Harris debate was a fly landing on Pence's head, which sums up how calm it was without Trump
- Fact-checking the vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris
Watch: 'Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking': Highlights from Kamala Harris and Mike Pence's vice presidential debate
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