The Mary Sue

VP Debate: “I’m Speaking,” Lies, Flies, and Pink Eyes

October 07, 2020

The 2020 vice presidential debate concluded earlier, and while it wasn’t the awful spectacle that the first presidential debate of the race turned out to be, and Kamala Harris delivered exactly what we were all looking forward to seeing from her, it was still a mess in its own way—and, once again, the most memorable parts didn’t really have anything to do with actual policy.

First, there was Mike Pence’s literal pink eye. Whether it was conjunctivitis, commonly known as pink eye, or just an unfortunately similar look is hard to say, but either way, it was distracting, to say the least:

It was also just kind of humorous after Joe Biden’s eye caused a similar stir at CNN’s 7-hour (yes, literally) climate change town hall:

Although, people were quick to point out that pink eye can be caused by COVID-19, which makes Pence’s slightly more concerning as those around him announce they’ve contracted the novel coronavirus like they’re stepping forward to claim they’re Spartacus. If that, in addition to the plexiglass barriers

wasn’t enough to get people to associate Mike Pence with pestilence, the fly that took up residence on his head for a couple of minutes may have done the trick:

And of course, because this debate involved the Trump administration, there was plenty of lying and taking credit for things other people did going around, from Mike Pence touting the cleanliness of our air and water that the Trump administration has actively sought to undermine, to claims about our Paris Accord-free progress on climate. Pence also tried a bizarre tactic with saying the H1N1 “swine flu” would have killed far more people if it had been as deadly as COVID-19, but … it wasn’t, so comparing the response is strange, to say the least. COVID-19 has already killed about twenty times as many people.

However, the highlight of the night can be summed up in a single moment: Kamala Harris reminding Pence that she was speaking.

Pence wasn’t nearly the interruption machine Trump was at the last debate, but Harris was confident in the face of his nonsense all night, and it just felt good to watch.

(image: CSpan screengrab)

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