Elon Musk and January 6

October 2024: Musk Said People Who Said: “Trump Is A Threat To Democracy Are Themselves A Threat To Democracy.” According to the Associated Press, “Musk also claimed that people ‘who say Trump is a threat to democracy are themselves a threat to democracy,’ a comment that was also cheered by the crowd of several hundred people packed tightly into the ballroom. Many more watched the event on X, the social media platform Musk purchased two years ago.” [Associated Press, 10/27/24]

October 2024: Musk Said, “Jan. 6 Was In No Way A Violent Insurrection.” According to TIME Magazine, “The most striking moment of the night was when someone asked why voters shouldn’t fear that a second Trump term would result in democratic backsliding. Musk’s response? He denied that Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to block the peaceful transfer of power, was an assault on American democracy. ‘Jan. 6 was in no way a violent insurrection,’ he said.” [TIME Magazine, 10/27/24]

Elon Musk and Election Disinformation

October 2024: Musk Said Mail Ballots Were A “Recipe For Fraud.” According to the Associated Press, “Tech mogul Elon Musk, speaking at a town hall Saturday night in Pennsylvania to support Republican Donald Trump, played down the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and exhorted supporters to cast votes early in the presidential swing state while describing mail ballots as a ‘recipe for fraud.’” [Associated Press, 10/27/24]

CNN: Election Officials In Pivotal Battleground States Including Pennsylvania, Michigan, And Arizona Have Tried And “Largely Failed” To Correct Musk’s Misinformation About The 2024 Election. According to CNN, “Elon Musk’s misinformation megaphone has created a ‘huge problem’ for election officials in key battleground states who told CNN they’re struggling to combat the wave of falsehoods coming from the tech billionaire and spreading wildly on his X platform. Election officials in pivotal battleground states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona have all tried – and largely failed – to fact-check Musk in real time. At least one has tried passing along personal notes asking he stop spreading baseless claims likely to mislead voters. ‘I’ve had my friends hand-deliver stuff to him,’ said Stephen Richer, a top election official in Arizona’s Maricopa County, a Republican who has faced violent threats for saying the 2020 election was secure. ‘We’ve pulled out more stops than most people have available to try to put accurate information in front of (Musk),’ Richer added. ‘It has been unsuccessful.'” [CNN, 10/31/24]

October 2024: Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner Sued Elon Musk And His Super PAC To Block Their Million-Dollar Giveaway To Registered Voters, Calling It An “Unlawful Lottery.” According to NBC News, “Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is suing Elon Musk and his super PAC to block their million-dollar giveaway to registered voters, seeking to halt the lottery-style stunt that election experts, and the Justice Department, have warned might violate federal law. Krasner is seeking an injunction: He argued in a filing Monday that the effort is an illegal, unregulated lottery, sidestepping the question of whether it violates laws against buying votes. ‘America PAC and Musk are lulling Philadelphia citizens — and others in the Commonwealth (and other swing states in the upcoming election) — to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million. That is a lottery,’ the suit alleges. ‘And it is indisputably an unlawful lottery. Under unambiguous Pennsylvania law, all lotteries in Pennsylvania must be regulated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.’ ” [NBC News, 10/28/24]

The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section Warned America PAC That The Sweepstakes Could Violate Federal Law. According to CNN, “The Justice Department warned Elon Musk’s America PAC in recent days that his $1 million sweepstakes to registered voters in swing states may violate federal law, people briefed on the matter told CNN. […] Federal law bars paying people to register to vote. The language of the petition currently promises $1 million prizes to people chosen at random for signing a petition in support of First and Second Amendment freedoms. But to sign the petition, you must be registered to vote in specific states. A letter from the Justice Department’s public integrity section, which investigates potential election-related law violations, went to Musk’s political action committee, according to people briefed on the matter.” [CNN, 10/23/24]

NYT: Musk Pledged To Make Twitter “Politically Neutral” When He Bought It, But The “Platform’s Algorithmically Curated Feeds And Trending Topics Have Become Overtly Political,” Matching Musk’s Biases. According to The New York Times, “Two weeks after making a stunning $44 billion bid to buy Twitter in April 2022, Elon Musk began to lay out a vision for his ownership of the social network. The company’s management had become biased in favor of left-wing values, Mr. Musk argued, and he would stamp out political partisanship. ‘For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral,’ tweeted Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man. More than two years later, the network, now known as X, is anything but. Ahead of next week’s presidential election, the platform’s algorithmically curated feeds and trending topics have become overtly political, echoing the biases of Mr. Musk, the platform’s most-followed account and one of former President Donald J. Trump’s most notable supporters. Mr. Musk’s posts are a stream of grievances, conspiracy theories and partisan misinformation.” [New York Times, 10/31/24]

NYT: Musk “Met With Fellow Billionaires And Businessmen To Strategize On How To Elect Mr. Trump, Despite Criticizing Similar Elite Gatherings Last Year As Akin To ‘an Unelected World Government.’” According to The New York Times, “He’s met with fellow billionaires and businessmen to strategize on how to elect Mr. Trump, despite criticizing similar elite gatherings last year as akin to ‘an unelected world government.’ He has poured nearly $120 million into a fierce effort to support Mr. Trump, after criticizing other social media billionaires for getting involved in elections. And his platform has suppressed news stories from outlets he sees as biased against Mr. Trump, despite his stated commitment to free speech.” [New York Times, 10/31/24]

Musk Criticized Mark Zuckerberg Spending $400 Million In The 2020 Election, Falsely Claiming It Was “In Support Of Democrats,” But Then Started His Own PAC To Support Trump. According to The New York Times, “Last year, in a wide-ranging interview with the then Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Mr. Musk spoke out about a series of donations that Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, had made during the 2020 election. ‘My understanding is that Zuckerberg spent $400 million in the last election, nominally in a get-out-the-vote campaign, but really fundamentally in support of Democrats,’ Mr. Musk said during the interview, echoing a misleading right-wing talking point. The money — derided by critics including Mr. Trump as ‘Zuckerbucks’ — went to two nonprofit organizations that disbursed aid to more than 2,500 election departments dealing with budget shortfalls as they adopted new voting practices during the coronavirus pandemic. The money did not support Democratic candidates. Since his statement, Mr. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, started his own political action committee, the America PAC, into which he has poured nearly $120 million. Much of that has gone toward funding a canvassing operation to support Mr. Trump’s campaign in battleground states as well as cash giveaways and a $1 million lottery for potential voters that has come under criticism.” [New York Times, 10/31/24]

September 2024: Twitter Suspended The Account Of Journalist Ken Klippenstein And Blocked Access To His Article With Reportedly Hacked Material About JD Vance. According to The New York Times, “Last month, after the independent journalist Ken Klippenstein published an article with reportedly hacked material about the Republican vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, X moved to stop the circulation of Mr. Klippenstein’s article and suspended his account. It was reversed only after a user on X asked Mr. Musk why the reporter had been suspended. ‘I’ve asked X to unsuspend him, even though I think he is an awful human being,’ Mr. Musk said in private messages seen by The Times. ‘Important to stay true to free speech principles.’ Mr. Klippenstein’s account was reinstated shortly thereafter, though links to his article, which was published on Substack, remain blocked on X.” [New York Times, 10/31/24]

October 2024: Musk Directed His Followers To Report Election Irregularities To An “Election Integrity Community” Administration Created By His Trump-Supporting Super PAC. According to CNN, “This week Musk directed his followers to report election irregularities to an ‘Election Integrity Community’ on X. The feed is administered by Musk’s America PAC, which is bolstering Trump’s campaign. The feed included some election claims that had already been debunked by state officials.” [CNN, 10/31/24]

• The Guardian: The “Community” Was “Rife With Unfounded Claims Passed Off As Evidence Of Voter Fraud.” According to The Guardian, “While Elon Musk faces his own election integrity questions offline, the X owner has deputized his followers to spot and report any ‘potential instances of voter fraud and irregularities’. The community he spawned is rife with unfounded claims passed off as evidence of voter fraud. […] Meanwhile, online, he has started a dedicated community space on X, formerly Twitter, where he’s asked users to share any issues they see while voting. Users posting on the self-contained feed, the ‘election integrity community’, quickly began pointing out what they deemed as evidence of fraud and election interference. Tweets showing everything from ballots that arrived ripped, an ABC news system test, a postal worker doing his job and dropping off mail-in ballots were all presented as evidence that the upcoming presidential election had been compromised. Some users posted videos of individuals they deemed suspicious, despite providing little or no proof of suspicious activity and asked others in the community to help identify them.” [The Guardian, 10/31/24]
• A Video Shared In The “Community” Showed An Acting Postmaster Bringing Ballots Into A Polling Place In Pennsylvania But Questioned Whether He Was A Postal Worker. According to The Guardian, “Among the tweets are attempts at doxxing and identifying people who users falsely accuse of ballot box stuffing or preventing Trump supporters from voting. In one case, a post with 14,000 shares and 31,000 likes includes a video of a postal worker bringing ballots into a polling location in Northampton county, Pennsylvania. The same video had been shared throughout X and other forums and retweeted by rightwing influencers like Alex Jones. The user asks for help identifying the man. ‘He says he’s with the post office but idk if I buy that,’ the post reads. ‘He wouldn’t talk to us and was acting very suspect.’ The man in question was the acting postmaster and a 25-year-veteran of the US Postal Service, the Northampton county executive Lamont McClure confirmed to NBC News. McClure told NBC News that the postal worker was already being harassed over the video.” [The Guardian, 10/31/24]

Musk-Funded Super PAC Pushed A Fake Pro-Harris Initiative Called “Project 2028” That Claimed Harris Will Be Opening The Country’s Border. According to The Guardian, “Among the narratives being pushed in the community is one that has become a pet conspiracy theory of Musk’s. The SpaceX CEO has loudly and often made the false claim that the Biden administration was ‘importing voters’ in the form of ‘unvetted illegal immigrants’. In the last few days, a Musk-funded super Pac has been pushing a fake pro-Kamala Harris initiative called Project 2028. The initiative has posted fake pro-Harris ads and sent texts to voters that include claims that Harris will be opening the country’s borders and is pushing for undocumented immigrants to be able to vote. Non-citizens are not allowed to vote in the US, and there is no available evidence they are voting in droves as claimed. Users in the community are sharing videos they say provides evidence that Democrats are ‘bussing’ undocumented immigrants to cast votes in their favor.” [The Guardian, 10/31/24]