Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Finally, an answer to the question that’s been on the minds of millions of Americans since last week’s vice presidential debate: did Kamala Harris see the fly too?

We finally got an answer to that question on Wednesday when MSNBC host Rachel Maddow posed the pressing question to Senator Harris herself. And Kamala Harris’s reaction was priceless.

“I just realized that I would kick myself if I didn’t just ask you before I let you go, if you noticed the fly on Vice President Pence’s head at the time during the debate?” asked Maddow while wrapping up a one-on-one interview with the Vice Presidential nominee.

Before Maddow could even finish her line of questioning, Harris responded with a laugh and a reproachful “Oh, Rachel!”, her tone that of an amused parent who is, nonetheless, trying to teach their wayward child some manners.

“We could see it at home!” Maddow pressed on. “Could you see it sitting next to him?”

Silently, Kamala Harris pressed her lips together and nodded, looking like she might be stifling a laugh. Maddow burst out laughing before Harris joined in with her own giggles.

“Did you have feelings about…like, did you have the instinct to…?” Maddow asked Harris before miming her own fly-swatting technique. At this point, both Maddow and Harris broke into fits of laughter, obviously enjoying the fleeting moment of levity.

Through laughter, Harris gave her final word on the subject: “I think that it’s important that, you know, we find a way, all of us, to move on and kind of fly away from the subject onto something else.”

As a refresher, #TheFly was a trending topic coming out of the vice presidential debate last week. As Vice President Pence and Senator Harris argued about important issues like healthcare and the economy, social media seemed to be much more focused on the insect that was on Mike Pence’s head for a full two minutes.

Once the Biden campaign saw that the fly was a trending topic, they began to sell fly swatter merch on Joe Biden’s official e-commerce store. The words emblazoned on the handle? “Truth over flies.” A staffer even revealed that the campaign sold over 35,000 fly swatters. The swatters are now sold out online.

We understand why Harris doesn’t want to dwell on the topic when there are, indeed, larger issues at stake come November. But we also can’t help but get a kick out of some light-hearted fun amidst an otherwise bleak news cycle and grueling election season.