Mike Pence succumbed to everyone’s secret museum impulse when he reached out and touched a piece of equipment clearly labeled “DO NOT TOUCH.”
The contact with the critical space flight hardware occurred during the Vice President’s tour of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Thursday and was captured by a Reuters photographer. Pence explained why he did it on Friday: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio dared him.
Rubio teased back that he warned Pence about breaking the hardware:
But NASA says no apology is necessary, tweeting at the Vice President that “it was OK to touch the surface” because they were about to clean the item anyway.
The image of Pence has now become a meme, with viewers joking about impulse control, Pence’s policy of not having dinner alone with women who aren’t his wife, and even the famous orb photo of President Trump.
The Vice President got in on the joke, and even tweeted a photoshopped image himself:
- Essay: The Tyre Nichols Videos Demand Solemnity, Not Sensationalism
- For People With Disabilities, Losing Abortion Access Can Be a Matter of Life or Death
- Inside the Stealth Efforts to Smuggle Starlink Internet Into Iran
- Natasha Lyonne on Poker Face and Creating Characters Who Subvert Leading-Lady Tropes
- How to Help the Victims and Community After the Monterey Park Shooting
- Why Grocery Staples Are So Expensive Right Now
- Quantum Computers Could Solve Countless Problems—and Create a Lot of New Ones
- Where to Watch All of the 2023 Oscar Nominees
- How to Be Mindful if You Hate Meditating