MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Sunday ripped Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for appearing to be more riled up over a moment in the new “Barbie” movie than he is over Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) ongoing blocking of military promotions.
Tuberville is preventing promotions from advancing in the Senate — meaning the Marine Corps is currently without a confirmed leader — in protest of the Pentagon offering compensation for travel expenses to service members who receive an abortion in another state.
But Tuberville’s colleague Cruz, and other Republicans, appear more focused on the “really important question” of whether Barbie is communist after a fake map in the film appeared to endorse China’s claims to parts of the South China Sea, said Psaki, a former White House press secretary under President Joe Biden.
“No military leader out there is going to tell you they’re more worried about a cartoon map in a movie about a doll than about having qualified members of the military in a position to lead their troops,” she argued.
In a statement to Variety, a spokesperson for Warner Bros. Film Group said the map was “not intended to make any type of statement.”
“The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing,” they explained. “The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the ‘real world.’”
