State senator seems to mistake Star Wars prop for drone, claims it was a joke

Pennsylvania state senator Doug Mastriano seemingly fell for the viral fake photo of a Star Wars TIE fighter circulating on the internet. These fictional spacecraft were used by the Palpatine-led Galactic Empire's fleet and were first spotted in the 1977 movie, Star Wars: A New Hope.

The original post, intended to be a meme, showed the life-size replica of the sci-fi prop on the back of a commercial truck and labeled it as a "crashed drone" found in Orange Beach, AL.

There's currently a stir about drones in the skies over New Jersey, with conspiracy theories floating around and politicians trying to use the panic to score political points. That seems to be what Mastriano was doing when he commented on the shot of the TIE Fighter on Tuesday, December 17, Sen. Mastriano said: "It is inconceivable that the federal government has no answers nor has taken any action to get to the bottom of the unidentified drones. The fecklessness of this administration was on display last year when a Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to fly over the entire continental United States before being shot down. Such should be viewed as a threat to our nation and citizens and action is long overdue. We have recourses and assets in our arsenal to get answers, but I suppose Ukraine is more important to the White House. January 20th can’t come soon enough."

Obviously, a lot of people roasted the Republican lawmaker for trying to stir up dissension over a Star Wars prop. His initial tweet has since gathered 5.2 million views at the time of writing this article.

However, when corrected by X Community Notes and subsequently called out by netizens, Mastriano insisted that he was only kidding. He tweeted several Star Wars memes to back up his claim:

He also put out a statement calling out the media coverage of his alleged faux pas.

For the record, his initial comment that accompanied the picture of the TIE Fighter prop is listed on his official website as his statement on the "proliferation of unidentified drones in the skies of several states, including Pennsylvania."

While these aren't the droids we were looking for, people are still trying to figure out what's happening in New Jersey. The FBI, Dept. of Homeland Security, and other U.S. authorities have said that the drones do not pose a threat to the citizens or national security, but have not made any definitive statement on the nature or origin of the objects.

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