Top government officials spent an hour and a half debating whether a mystery passenger on Air Force One was alive or dead.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio dropped this wild revelation during his appearance on the Katie Miller Podcast, and it's absolutely one of the most absurd behind-the-scenes stories to ever leak out of the current administration. As reported, the whole ordeal went down while senior officials were flying back from China.
So picture this. Someone is conked out in a conference room aboard the most famous aircraft on the planet. Completely motionless. Not flinching at any of the commotion happening around them. And America's top diplomatic official is standing there thinking, "Are we looking at a corpse right now?"
Rubio described the person's breathing as "difficult," which only cranked up the anxiety level among the officials who were nervously eyeballing the situation. The sleeper showed zero reaction to surrounding noise or activity. But here's the kicker. Nobody wanted to be the person who shook someone awake from a really great nap.
"Because it's embarrassing if you wake them up," Rubio explained, imagining the awkward scenario where the person just mumbles that they were catching some shuteye. But on the flip side? Having an actual deceased individual aboard the presidential aircraft is a significantly worse outcome.
So what did these powerful decision makers do? They stood around for roughly 90 minutes going back and forth about whether to summon a doctor or just let it play out. Fortunately, the mystery sleeper eventually woke up totally fine, sparing everyone from what could have been a historic nightmare.
Rubio refused to name the deep sleeper, which naturally sent the internet into full detective mode. Social media users started throwing out guesses, with some jokingly suggesting it might have been Senator Mitch McConnell. There's absolutely no evidence for that claim or any other name floating around online.
The timing of this story is particularly juicy because Rubio recently dealt with another sleep-related controversy. About a month prior, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu from California grilled Rubio during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, asking if he'd witnessed President Trump dozing off during meetings.
Rubio flatly denied it. "On the contrary, the guy doesn't sleep, which is a big problem," he told the committee. Lieu pushed back hard, claiming he had video footage from a Cabinet meeting showing Trump with his eyes closed while Rubio was talking. Lieu even accused Rubio of lying to Congress right there on the spot.
Rubio held firm on his testimony. No formal congressional consequences from that exchange have materialized.
As for the Air Force One sleeping mystery, Rubio never disclosed when exactly the flight took place or which officials were involved in the lengthy deliberation. Now that everybody walked away unharmed, Rubio seems to find the whole episode pretty amusing in hindsight. The people who were standing around that conference room at 35,000 feet? Probably not laughing quite as hard.
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