Mike Pence didn’t have a pitchfork or horns during his debate with Kamala Harris on Wednesday, but Steve Schmidt, a prominent “Never Trumper,” suggested the fly that landed on the vice president is proof of his ties to the underworld.
Schmidt, who worked for John McCain and George W. Bush before leaving the GOP in 2018 because of President Trump and later co-founding the Lincoln Project, told MSNBC host Ari Melber that a fly landing on someone’s head for two minutes, as one did to the vice president during Wednesday night’s debate, has long been considered a sign of evil.
“I don’t think it’s ever a good sign when a fly lands on your head for two minutes. You know, that’s a sign all through history of sin, and historically, biblically, maybe you wouldn’t normally say this — it’s only safe to say this, Ari, after midnight. But a fly, he who commands the fly is always seen historically as a mark of the devil,” Schmidt said.
Melber laughed at Schmidt’s comment. He asked Schmidt to confirm that he was joking and noted that the fly could have landed on anyone.
“But it didn’t. It landed on Mike Pence. And it says something, maybe something karmic about the status of the campaign as it implodes,” Schmidt replied.
Melber again laughed off the remark.
“On the fact check what Steve Schmidt has said about the [polling] numbers is true. What he said about the ultimate moral reckoning of whether the fly connotes evil or devil or Nosferatu is above my pay grade. But I can’t confirm it,” he said.
Many viewers were distracted by the fly that landed on Pence’s head during his debate against Sen. Harris. The Biden campaign seized the viral moment and created a fly-themed fundraiser mocking the vice president.
