Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk surprised quite a few people with a sudden visit to our nation’s capitol, but no one was more surprised than House Democrats whom Musk decided to skip talking to during his visit.
According to Politico, Musk strictly met with House Republicans:
But, at least this time around, the people who set the agenda in the House — members like Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House GOP no. 2, as well as Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who’s panel has substantial jurisdiction over Twitter — were the recipients of Musk’s attention.
In that same meeting was Jordan (R-Ohio), who runs the Judiciary Committee and serves as a standard-bearer for Republicans in their ongoing war with the Biden administration, as well as Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.). Comer is bringing in former Twitter executives on Feb. 8 to testify about their handling of a news story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Notably absent from that hearing agenda is Musk, who bought the company in October, and has since won Republican accolades for his “free-speech” approach to content moderation.
According to Politico, the meeting between Musk and Republicans involved discussions on the importance of the First Amendment, censorship of conservatives, and how Section 230 could be reformed.
Rep. Jeffries did ultimately see Musk but according to sources, this happened purely by chance. Musk still mentioned Jeffries in a tweet about his meetings on the Hill.
Just met with @SpeakerMcCarthy & @RepJeffries to discuss ensuring that this platform is fair to both parties
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2023
Musk shrugging off House Democrats has naturally displeased them. Some spoke out and either demanded that Musk answer for this.
“I think it’s seriously a mistake and I think it would be a good thing to have him come in and explain himself,” said Democrat Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky.
Politico also asked Rep. Adam Schiff his opinion and finished off the report with one of the most hilarious endings ever written by a major political news site:
“I am deeply concerned with how he’s running that company into the ground,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) when asked about Musk’s leadership of Twitter and time on the Hill. “It seems like a vanity project that is going wrong with an explosion of hate speech on that platform.”
Schiff then stepped into his Tesla sedan after a Monday night vote and drove off.
At this time, it’s still a mystery as to why Musk decided to solely meet with Republicans but one can make an educated guess. It’s pretty clear that Democrats have no love for Musk and have been pushing for his failure in his efforts to turn Twitter into a free-speech platform. It’s likely that he knows he can’t trust Democrats to have his best interests in mind and so he chose to ignore them.
With Republicans currently enjoying a majority in the house (no matter how slim), ignoring the Democrats saves Musk both time and headache since it’s highly likely that if he doesn’t get pure animosity from those he talks to, what he’ll be served up is lies, false promises, or subtle and overt threats.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member