Mike Pence tweets photoshop of himself with porcupine to defend ignoring ‘Do Not Touch’ sign at NASA

Vice President Mike Pence apologized to NASA Friday and jokingly blamed Sen. Marco Rubio after a photograph of him disregarding a printed sign that said “DO NOT TOUCH” made waves on social media.

The photo showed Pence pressing his hand on a piece of space-flight hardware on display at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Later, NASA released a statement saying that “touching the surface is absolutely ok,” despite the sign. 

Pence spoke to NASA employees as he and Rubio toured the center on Thursday, but it was the picture of Pence touching the display item that went viral. On Friday, he joked that Rubio dared him to touch the item, and that it wasn’t the first time he had fallen victim to a prank. 

Here are the tweets:

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/883408689285214211
Sorry @NASA…@MarcoRubio dared me to do it! pic.twitter.com/qIYtKOPyFhTweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/883408914196332544
Okay…so this isn’t exactly the first time this has happened. pic.twitter.com/6Y7b3UlJXe

And here is the original photo:

Mike Brown/REUTERS

NOW WATCH: Listen to the leaked audio of Australia’s prime minister mocking Trump

Feedburner