- Wednesday night's debate between Vice President
Mike Pence and the Democratic vice-presidential nominee,Kamala Harris , was significantly more civilized than last week's political horror show between the president and Joe Biden. - That said, there were still some standout moments.
- The highlight of the night was when a fly landed on Pence's head and remained there for a full two minutes while the internet lost its mind.
- Pence repeatedly interrupted and spoke over Harris throughout the debate.
- He also used a question about the Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to pivot to a plagiarism controversy that sank Biden's 1988 presidential run.
- Scroll down to catch up on the biggest moments of the night.
Wednesday night's debate between Vice President Mike Pence and the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, was an exercise in civility compared with last week's political horror show between President Donald Trump and the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden.
But there were still some standout moments from the night.
Flygate
The highlight of the debate was when a fly buzzed around and then landed on Pence's head, remaining there for two full minutes while the internet collectively lost its mind.
—Jamie Lee Curtis (@jamieleecurtis) October 8, 2020
—Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 8, 2020
—HuffPost (@HuffPost) October 8, 2020
—Susan Orlean (@susanorlean) October 8, 2020
—Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 8, 2020
Harris knocks Trump over his debt
From a substantive angle, Harris made waves when she called out the president over
That detail came from last month's bombshell New York Times reporting on Trump's federal tax returns, and Harris also knocked Trump over another finding from the report: that Trump is deeply mired in debt.
"We now know Donald Trump owes and is in debt for $400 million — and just so everyone is clear, when we say in debt, it means you owe money to somebody," Harris said.
—ABC News (@ABC) October 8, 2020
Pence alludes to Biden plagiarism controversy
Pence raised eyebrows when he alluded to the plagiarism controversy that sank Biden's 1988 presidential campaign. He mentioned the snafu after Harris criticized the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"When you look at the Biden plan it reads an awful lot like what President Trump and I and our task force have been doing every step of the way," Pence responded, adding: "It looks a little bit like plagiarism, which is something Joe Biden knows a little bit about."
As Business Insider previously reported, Biden lifted portions of a speech by Neil Kinnock, a UK Labour lawmaker who challenged Margaret Thatcher. And according to a 1987 article in The New York Times, Biden acknowledged plagiarizing a law-review journal for a paper during law school and asked school administrators not to be expelled. Biden later said he made a mistake in the citation process.
Pence and Harris dodge questions about Trump's and Biden's health
Pence and Harris conspicuously refused to address questions about their running mates' health.
USA Today's Susan Page, the moderator of Wednesday night's debate, pointed out that either Trump or Biden would be the oldest US president on the first day of a term, with Trump at age 74 and Biden turning 78 in November. She then asked Pence and Harris about Trump's and Biden's health, and both debaters refused to give a straight answer.
Pence praised what he characterized as Trump's "exceptional transparency" about his health following his hospitalization last week for COVID-19. He also touted the Trump administration's pandemic response.
Harris similarly declined to directly address the question, saying instead that Biden was "forthright" and "honest" about his health and would continue to be transparent about the matter if elected.
Pence repeatedly interrupted and spoke over Harris
Pence repeatedly interrupted and spoke over both Harris and Page.
One of the lines Harris repeated throughout the debate — "Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking" — quickly made the rounds on social media. CBS News' Norah O'Donnell said: "Our team was following it very closely, and the VP Mike Pence interrupted Sen. Kamala Harris twice as often."
—CBS News (@CBSNews) October 8, 2020
—Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) October 8, 2020
—Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 8, 2020