Kamala Harris Finally Addresses The Fly™ & Now We Can Never Talk About It Again

During the Vice Presidential debate last week, there was an special guest the internet could not stop talking about — and it wasn't Sen. Kamala Harris or Vice President Mike Pence. The Fly™ has since become something of a celebrity, and on Wednesday night’s Rachel Maddow Show, host Rachel Maddow finally asked Kamala Harris about the creature that landed on Mike Pence's head for two full minutes.

“We could see it at home, could you see it sitting next to him?” Maddow asked. Harris then pursed her lips together, gave a pained smile that looked like she was trying not to burst out laughing, and slowly nodded her head “yes.” Maddow put her head down on her desk for a moment to catch her breath and then, like the rest of us, wanted to know more. “Did you have feelings about… like did you have the instinct to…” she started, making a swatting motion with her hands. Essentially, the question we’ve all wanted to ask: did Kamala have the urge to swat the fly away?

Harris answered with great humor and a twinkle in her eyes. “You know, Rachel, I think that it’s important that we kind of find a way for all of us to move on. And, you know, fly away from this subject onto something else,” Harris said, through laughter, showing the world that she was quite good at making puns, too. “Yeah.” 

The fly became the hottest topic of the debate, with people making jokes about how its presence was symbolic. The Biden campaign even immediately began selling fly swatters on their website with the text “Truth Over Flies” on the handle (they sold out almost immediately). But while the fly added a bit of levity to an otherwise boring night, conversation about it shouldn’t detract from the content of what Pence said, including his lies about the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, dodging questions about climate change, and his uncomfortable obsession with fracking.

What this exchange between Harris and Maddow has shown us is that Kamala Harris has more restraint and self-control than most other humans, because she managed to sit next to Mike Pence while a fly sat on his head for over two minutes and manage not to burst out laughing. I could never have achieved such a feat.