This is the strangest moment in the history of political debates

Florida's incumbent Republican governor Rick Scott refused to debate his Democrat opponent, former governor Charlie Crist, last night. We'd assume the reason why was a hoax, if we didn't have video evidence.

As the debate's moderator, Elliot Rodriguez of CBS Miami, explained to laughter and jeers from the audience, it was about an electric fan. Really.

We have an extremely peculiar situation right now... Now, let me explain what this is all about. Governor Crist has asked to have a fan, a small fan, placed underneath his podium. The rules of the debate that I was shown by the Scott campaign said that there should be no fan. Somehow there is a fan there and for that reason, ladies and gentlemen, Governor Scott will not join us for the debate.

The fan in question:

After seven minutes it was announced that Scott had changed his mind and would go on stage. But those seven minutes were enough time for the incident to be dubbed fangate and for Charlie Crist's fan to get its own parody Twitter account.

The election for Floria's new governor will take place on 4 November. Currently Scott and Crist are neck-and-neck in the polls.

Watch a video of the bizarre incident here:

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