US election: Joe Biden’s campaign sells 35,000 fly swatters after Mike Pence debate

If you’ve been living under a rock to protect yourself from American politics, there is a bit to catch up on.

During the vice presidential debate between Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday, a house fly landed on Pence’s head.

The fly stayed there for several minutes, and for some reason people completely lost their minds.

Two hours after the debate ended, the Democratic Party had established several ways to capitalize on the joy online, including tweeting a photo of presidential candidate Joe Biden saying, “Put $ 5 in to help this campaign fly.”

Two hours later, Biden’s website was also selling $ 10 ($ 15) branded fly swatters with the phrase “the truth about flies.” A few hours later, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign announced that they had sold all 35,000 fly swatters.

On Twitter, the hashtag #flygate was trending all night, as were the words “fly”, “the fly” and “flies.”

Within minutes of the discussion ending, a quick-fingered web user had already created a Twitter account claiming to be the fly.

The account, FlyOnMikePence, posted a series of tweets and gathered nearly 7,000 followers, joking about needing to self-quarantine after landing on Pence’s hair. He also said he chose Pence because flies love things that are “dead inside.”

Shortly after the debate ended, Biden shared a photo of himself with a fly swatter that attracted more than 870,000 likes.

The Democratic Party also quickly established a voter registration site under the URL flywillvote.com.

Harris and Pence sat at a distance and were separated by two Plexiglass barriers during the vice president debate in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The debate attracted considerably more attention than previous vice presidential debates. Biden and President Donald Trump, both in their 70s, are two of the oldest candidates in US election history.

If Biden or Trump couldn’t serve, Harris or Pence would take over as president.