Mark Kelly apologizes for offensive 2018 joke

Arizona Senate candidate Mark Kelly (D) on Thursday apologized for an offensive joke he made in 2018 while discussing his brother’s return from space.

Kelly, a retired astronaut, addressed the Boy Scouts of America, Northern New Jersey Council in 2018. During a Q&A portion, Kelly was asked about physiological changes his brother Scott Kelly, also an astronaut, underwent after returning.

“It’s gotten so bad, that we recently had to release him back into the wild,” Mark Kelly quipped, adding, “He’s like halfway between an orangutan and a Howler Monkey. We’ve even changed his name to Rodrigo. He lives in the woods.”

"My brother's year in space was really hard on him and we tried to bring some light to his difficult ordeal, but this comment does not do that and I apologize and deeply regret it,” he told the newspaper.

The footage was surfaced by businessman Moses Sanchez, a Republican who ran for mayor of Phoenix in 2018.

I am supporting incumbent AZ US Senator McSally with money even though I’m not in AZ, so obviously I am not a fan of Captain Mark Kelly USN (ret) who is her opponent in this election. That being said, what does this apology tell us about the man, his campaign, his supporters and his perception of his voters?

No one in the military for any length of time would come anywhere close to needing an apology for this wry commentary on long-duration space flight. The number of unprintable comments on living conditions on ISS make this one, given to a Boy Scout Council, as pure as the driven snow in comparison. So what pushes this button when we, his non-supporters, are shrugging in puzzlement.

My best guess is that, in the use of ‘Rodrigo’ in conjunction with the animal terms and living in the woods, he fears giving offense to Latinos. Arizona is, no surprise, heavily Hispanic at 24%+ and that is, almost certainly, a bulwark of the expected Democrat Base. New Jersey native Captain Kelly came to Arizona through his 2nd marriage to US Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), a native of Tucson, in January of 2007. As such, even with a putative lead of 7% in the polls, he probably desires to be in front of any irritation that this ‘joke’ may produce.

What it says about the Democrat speciality of Identity Politics that serves to DIVIDE AMERICANS is, to me, the important IMPLICIT piece in this story. For all of their accusations of hate mongering, from Reagan, to the Bush Presidents and now to Donald Trump, it is this tactic of alienation and jealousy that is their most used weapon. So Captain Kelly fears that Rodrigo is enough to lose this election suggests to me that his campaign has this tactic at the forefront rather than a positive message to all Arizona!

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