Marco Rubio Slams U.S. Flag Omission In ‘First Man,’ And Twitter Users Pounce

August 31, 2018 at 12:37 PM

Ryan Gosling’s new Neil Armstrong biopic, “First Man,” seems to have sent Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to the dark side of the moon.

The movie premiered on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival, and viewers noticed that one moment from the 1969 moon landing was not re-enacted in the film: when NASA astronauts Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin plant the American flag on the moon.

The Canadian-born Gosling said he decided not to include the flag-planting because Armstrong’s accomplishment “transcended countries and borders,” the Telegraph reported.

He added: “I’m Canadian, so might have cognitive bias.”

Since the moon landing was a U.S. mission, Rubio wasn’t happy to have it attributed to earthlings in general.

He made his displeasure known on Twitter Friday morning.

This is total lunacy. And a disservice at a time when our people need reminders of what we can achieve when we work together. The American people paid for that mission,on rockets built by Americans,with American technology & carrying American astronauts. It wasn’t a UN mission. https://t.co/eGwBq7hj8C
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 31, 2018

Although “total lunacy,” as Slate conceded, is “a good moon pun,” Twitter users quickly blasted Rubio’s tweet, saying the senator should focus on other things besides griping about Ryan Gosling movies.

Glad you’re feeling outraged about this and not, say, the several recent mass shootings in your state
— Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) August 31, 2018

You know what’s total lunacy? The US has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country.

One in five children here don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

The average college grad has 37K in student loan debt.

But yeah, have a kanipshin about a movie.
— Allison Floyd (@AllisonRFloyd) August 31, 2018

One person wanted to make sure Rubio was referring to the right flag, since President Donald Trump seemed confused last week.

Uh, this flag? pic.twitter.com/QJnL5lJOwA
— Kate Corcoran (@Kcorc) August 31, 2018

Others just noticed a ripe opportunity for snark.

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yeah man, get Non and Zod to put that flag back where it belongs pic.twitter.com/U0iNUnyYjH
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) August 31, 2018

And one guy attempted to put everything in perspective using an astronaut analogy.

Marco Rubio is the kind of guy that eats all of the dehydrated ice cream first and then tells the other astronauts that it was never loaded on to the shuttle.
— mikey babb (@that_mikeyguy) August 31, 2018

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