Thursday night, a big black house fly landed on the debate stage and stopped Tom Suozzi from speaking. The fly looked like the one that gave former Vice President Mike Pence his most famous viral moment.
The Pence 2.0 moment reminded me of the wayward house fly that stole the show during the 2020 vice presidential debate in Utah. In fact, kids now use the bug as a Halloween costume.
The Long Island congressman yelled, "Governor! Governor! Governor!" at Hochul, who was clearly annoyed, as he tried desperately to get her attention and defend his record on LGBTQ issues.
But unlike Pence, who didn't notice the huge bug buzzing around, Suozzi swiped his hand across his face to try to catch it.
"I caught the fly and squashed it, just like I'll squash the crime crisis!" After the debate was over, Suozzi told The Post in a phone call.
Hochul criticized Suozzi for taking back some of the controversial things he said in support of the "Don't Say Gay" bill, which was signed into law by Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. The "Don't Say Gay" bill makes it illegal to talk about gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom.
The Long Island politician had trouble seeing, both because he couldn't get Hochul's attention and because of the annoying thing flying around his head.
Later, Hochul's campaign press secretary Jen Goodman made fun of the chaos by tweeting a picture of Suozzi and Pence standing next to each other and writing:
Same vibes. pic.twitter.com/hO6ngbMdtJ
— Jen Goodman (@jengoodman75) June 17, 2022
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