Stranded?

Follow-up to this post

As you know, two astronauts (photo) have been at the International Space Station for nine months instead of their original assignment of eight days. Now a small controversy has blown up around it because maybe they didn't have to be there all these months.

 

Elon Musk says he made an suggestion to the U.S. government last fall, offering to send SpaceX up to the ISS to get them and bring them home. But the president at that time would not allow it.

Elon speculates that they wouldn't allow it because of the political "optics" of the thing: he was aiding the rival political party during the presidential campaign, and they didn't want him and his company to look like a hero. 

Astronaut Wilmore says they knew nothing about the offer, but he believes it. Another article says ten times that the astronauts never felt "stranded", so they never needed rescuing--so Elon and the current president are spreading false claims.

Almost everything these days is political drama.