Trump Ally Widely Mocked For 'Star Wars' Drone Gaffe. He Says It Was A Joke.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Pa.) is either a total space cadet or is trolling the universe after he appeared to mistake a “Star Wars” prop for a captured drone.
In fairness to the Trump-endorsed Republican who lost to Democrat Josh Shapiro for governor in 2022, we’ll give him his say first: He insists he was knowingly using the image as a meme.
But he absorbed nearly a day of online mockery for writing a serious-sounding statement about the government response to the drones. And it was accompanied by a photo of a “Star Wars” TIE fighter replica on a truck with the headline: “Breaking News: Crashed drone in Orange Beach retrieved from water, and taken to undisclosed location for further investigation.”
It is inconceivable that the federal government has no answers nor has taken any action to get to the bottom of the unidentified drones. The fecklessness of this administration was on display last year when a Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to fly over the entire… pic.twitter.com/qWqyH3dnkI
— Senator Doug Mastriano (@SenMastriano) December 16, 2024
He received a community correction and some online sass for the apparent blunder. Among prominent people chiming in were former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and CNN’s Jake Tapper. Critics also called him “dumb” and “stupid.”
I take the actual drone story seriously but re the below, I’m pretty sure Red Leader Garven Dreis shot down that TIE fighter in ep IV A New Hope https://t.co/MD4nRsZqQ7
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 17, 2024
Wow
— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@AdamKinzinger) December 17, 2024
Leaked footage reveals that they're armed with space lasers! pic.twitter.com/vIGkLsDAQZ
— A𝕏EL (@AxelTheDoby) December 17, 2024
— CletusVanDamme (@CubbiesFan82) December 17, 2024
You can’t be that stupid, or can you?
— Mario 🇺🇸🇵🇱🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@PawlowskiMario) December 17, 2024
Doug please this is so embarrassing
— pamela 🎡✨ (@tisthepamseason) December 17, 2024
I'm sorry, you're an elected state senator????
— Sean Murphy (@seanhalfcourt) December 17, 2024
Mysterious drones appearing over New York and New Jersey have captured the public’s imagination but federal officials say they don’t pose a threat.
Mastriano sure seemed rattled but asserted that the farce was with him ― and he turned his response into an indictment of “modern day ‘journalism.’”
— Doug Mastriano (@dougmastriano) December 17, 2024
