Woke CNN host Abby Phillip spoke to former astronaut Clayton Anderson about the Artemis II mission, which flew around the moon and travelled the farthest that humans have ever gone away from Earth, and tried to get Mr. Anderson to attack or denigrate President Donald Trump. He refused to do so, instead turning her insinuations on their head.
That came when Phillip asked Anderson, in the wake of the Artemis II astronauts completing their mission of travelling deeper into outer space than any humans in history and revealing views of the far side of the moon that have never been seen before, if President Trump “deserves any credit” for the mission and its success.
Anderson refused to get in cheap shots at President Trump, as Phillip obviously wanted him to. That began from the first, with the former astronaut being very positive and commented on how cool the mission was, saying, “I think it’s great for them. I’m very envious. I would love to be with them in that tiny little capsule, being so close to the moon.”
Building on that, he noted that this was a big moment and that America needs to be leading in space exploration, a matter of crucial importance to the nation and our national security. He said, “But it’s very important, and I agree with what Miles [O’Brien] said, that we got to be the best. We’ve got to be the leaders in space exploration.”
That is when he effectively praised President Trump rather than attacking him, noting that America is finally beginning the mission and journey again and that it is a great thing to see it taken so seriously. He said, “And so I love the fact that we finally have committed after 54 years to begin this journey again.”
Phillip tried to press him into attacking President Trump and getting in shots at him that would diminish his Artemis moment. She asked, “In your view, Clayton, does President Trump deserve credit for — he said today that he was given a choice to shut NASA down or keep it going. Do you think he deserves any credit for keeping it going?”
Anderson refused to play her game and attack the president, instead being upbeat about the whole thing. He said, “Well, I think the entire administration deserves credit, all the people that are involved picking [NASA Administrator] Mr. Isaacman. The politics of it to me is — is kind of fluff. I think that the key thing is, is that we’re doing it and that takes the efforts of a lot of different people.”
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Continuing, he stood the question on its head somewhat and cleverly insinuated that Congress has been at fault for not doing a proper job with the budget, noting that the budget needs to be consistent. He said, “It takes appropriate budget money, as we all know. We hope that the budget money will continue to be there because it will be required for us to get to Artemis III and then Artemis IV. So, you know, everybody’s taking credit.”
He then joked, returning to the positive, “I’m taking credit by being on your show and saying, ‘Hey, I was an astronaut for a while. You know, I lived on the space station. Give me some credit!’ So, you know — so it’s, it’s kind of a — it’s a humanitarian success.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video