On Tuesday, Oct. 6, current Vice President Mike Pence and vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris met up for the second debate of the 2020 election. While this debate had a few memorable moments, pretty much everyone was able to agree that this debate was much less of a train wreck than the one between Trump and Biden.

One standout moment occured when a fly landed right on top of Mike Pence’s head. Reid J. Epstein of the New York Times commented on the fly’s appearance.

“Vice President Mike Pence, his hair perfectly coiffed, never reacted to the fly’s appearance on the right side of his head,” Epstein wrote. “It stood out against his bright white hair, standing still for the most part but moving around slightly before, well, flying away.”

I believe that this fly added a much-needed dose of humor to the debate. Sometimes it is okay to take a step back and laugh to relieve some stress, and this fly did an excellent job of allowing Americans to do that.

The Washington Post’s Alyssa Rosenberg weighed in on the debate, maintaining that it was much less frustrating than the presidential debate.

“By comparison (to the presidential debate), the vice-presidential debate was the political equivalent of a dose of Ambien,” Rosenberg wrote.

I agree with Rosenberg. While there were some passive aggressive remarks and gestures towards each other, both candidates held themselves to a much higher standard than the actual presidential candidates.

Pence and Harris are two candidates who have very specific and vastly different beliefs regarding basic human rights. While I may not agree with some of Pence’s views, I understand that both candidates have experience as politicians. Each candidate knows how to manipulate an audience and to say what their party wants to hear, which is an important skill in politics.

ABC News reported that Pence may have exaggerated some of his responses to several topics in the debate.

“Before there were more than five cases in the United States, all people who had returned from China, President Donald Trump did what no other American president had ever done,” Pence declared. “…He suspended all travel from China, the second-largest economy in the world.”

In contrast, a quick fact check from ABC News confirmed that “Nearly 760,000 people entered the U.S. from China between December of last year and February, according to an ABC News review of traveler data.”

There were several other statements Pence made throughout the debate which proved to be incorrect. I’m not a politician, but I know that I wouldn’t want our country run by men who blatantly lie to their supporters and everyone else capable of voting.

The Washington Post’s Henry Olsen published an opinion piece on the vice presidential debate, entitled “Think of the VP debate as a dress rehearsal for presidential candidates in waiting.” I thought the title provided an interesting perspective on the debate. While it is somewhat making fun of the debate, the title does an excellent job of capturing the debate as a whole.

This debate was one to remember with the heated discussions between the two candidates and the fly landing on Pence’s head. I think that the fly won the debate. He stole the show with his ability to change a very serious and fiery debate into something humorous.