Trump, Elon Spin Political Drama: Sunita Williams Denies “Abandonment” By Biden Admin

India-West News Desk

HOUSTON, TX – NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station have firmly rejected President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that they were “abandoned” in space and needed rescuing.

Sunita Williams, speaking from orbit, made it clear that she and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore were never stranded, despite Trump’s efforts to spin their situation into a political attack on former President Joe Biden.

“We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck,” Williams told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on February 13. “Help us change the rhetoric, help us change the narrative. Let’s change it to ‘prepared and committed.’” They repeated their stance to various other media outlets.

The two astronauts arrived at the space station in June for what was initially planned as a 10-day mission. They were supposed to return on Boeing’s Starliner, but NASA had to reassess after identifying issues with the vehicle’s thrusters. Their return was always being planned—there was never a question of them being left behind.

Yet Trump, falsely claimed last month that the astronauts were “virtually abandoned” by the Biden administration. He even called on Elon Musk’s SpaceX to “go get” them, conveniently ignoring that NASA had already contracted SpaceX months earlier for their return.

Musk, ever eager to amplify Trump’s narrative, echoed the claim that the astronauts were “stranded.”

NASA, unfazed by the manufactured controversy, announced it had actually moved up the astronauts’ return date to March 12, using a well-tested SpaceX capsule that required fewer safety checks.