According to one critic, Gayle King seems “out of touch” about why there’s much backlash from “the masses” about her recent space flight.
The CBS Mornings star and five other crewmates completed a quick trip to space earlier this week for a historic Blue Origin New Shepard mission, the first in which only women were in the crew.
The trip received much criticism from online commenters and even several celebrities before and after it occurred.
During an interview, Gayle addressed her critics, asking, “Have you been?” and explaining the importance of her traveling to space with others.
She indicated she’d read some of the critical comments and was “disappointed,” also mentioning some people who said things she considered “friends” who she “likes.”
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However, Gayle’s recent response to the critics resulted in more backlash and a hilarious TikTok video calling her out.
Content creator called out Gayle’s response to critics about her space trip
Content creator @giyohnly1 shared a new TikTok video reacting to Gayle’s Entertainment Tonight remarks about those critical of her visit to space.
“What do you mean, ‘have we been,’ Gayle?” he asked after showing part of Gayle’s ET interview remarks.
“Of course, we haven’t been to space! We ain’t got that kind of money! I’m struggling to buy blueberries. Have you seen the cost of blueberries at the store? I love blueberries, but not for these prices,” he said.
In addition, he mentioned Gayle referring to herself as an “astronaut,” which is also what Blue Origin refers to her and her crewmates as in a report about the trip.
“Gayle, I hate to break the news so publicly. You’re not an astronaut,” @giyohnly1 joked.
He mentioned he didn’t want to seem like “a hater” as this space flight was likely inspirational for some people.
However, he asked what Gayle and her crewmates expected from “the masses” after this trip occurred.
He compared their journey to a voyage that millionaires and billionaires took to “the deep depths of the ocean” to see the Titanic wreckage.
“What was the reason? For what?” he asked, similar to why people are questioning Gayle and her crewmates’ brief space visit.
“If you don’t understand that, then you are a little out of touch,” he told Gayle.
Backlash continued after Gayle’s Blue Origin trip and video addressing critics
Critics continued to share their feedback about the trip as they called out Gayle, her crewmates, and Blue Origin, which Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also founded.
“what did her 11 minute ride accomplish?? NOTHING!!” one commenter wrote.
“It was a privileged pleasure ride. Nothing more,” another individual commented.
One commenter wrote, “Gayle King is crashing out, she got her feelings hurt!”
“Have we been really Gayle? We’re just trying to buy eggs!” they wrote.
Another commenter wrote, “Imagine being an actual astronaut and watching this?? I want to hear from them.”
In addition to critics blasting Gayle and her crewmates’ trip, several celebrities, including model Emily Ratajkowski and actress Olivia Munn, also criticized the mission.
While co-hosting Today with Jenna & Friends alongside Jenna Bush Hager, Munn questioned the purpose of the trip when so many other things were currently affecting people in the world.
Munn also called the heavily promoted Blue Origin space flight “gluttonous” during her televised remarks.
In her post-trip interview remarks to ET, Gayle mentioned that one of Blue Origin’s objectives is to find a way to remove waste from the Earth and put it into space.
It didn’t appear that this mission involved anything related to the objective of bringing waste up to space.
Instead, the women on board Blue Origin appeared in video clips where they enjoyed the view from the small space capsule’s windows and experienced weightlessness during a trip that lasted roughly 10 minutes.
