Rubio slams movie for omitting Armstrong planting American flag on the moon

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Friday slammed an upcoming biopic about Neil Armstrong for failing to include the astronaut planting an American flag on the moon.

Ryan Gosling, who plays Armstrong in the movie “First Man,” defended the move earlier this week, saying the moon landing was less an American achievement than a “human” one.

{mosads}”This is total lunacy,” Rubio tweeted in response to the report. “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.”

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

“I think this was widely regarded in the end as a human achievement [and] that’s how we chose to view it,” Gosling told The Telegraph. “I don’t think that Neil viewed himself as an American hero. From my interviews with his family and people that knew him, it was quite the opposite. And we wanted the film to reflect Neil.”

NASA at the time of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission debated between planting an American flag or a United Nations one on the moon but ultimately chose an American one. The move was criticized by some as territorial. The mission, the first successful manned mission to the moon, made Armstrong the first person to walk on the lunar surface.

The movie hits theaters Oct. 12.