Elon Musk Visited Capitol Hill Last Week, And There's One Group of People He Left Off His Agenda
House Democrats who’ve spent the last few years having social media barons at their beck and call got something different last week — the back of Elon Musk’s hand.
The mega-billionaire owner of Twitter paid a visit to the leaders of the new House Republican majority — including the chairmen of two committees that are likely to play a key role in the GOP’s investigations of President Joe Biden’s White House.
But the unannounced trip was just as notable for what it didn’t contain as for what it did.
According to an obviously irritated report in Politico — the Democratic Party newsletter that masquerades as a Capitol Hill news outlet — Musk engaged in a “whirlwind tour” of the House, with a stop to visit Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, and a meeting that included Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, and Rep. James Comer, Republican of Kentucky.
“One thing it didn’t include: Congressional Democrats,” Politico sniffed.
One reason for that is obvious. As a self-described “free speech absolutist,” Musk’s efforts to purchase Twitter last year outraged liberals who had come to regard the platform as their personal playground where dissenting opinions could be crushed.
(Musk’s continuing release of damning information in the “Twitter Files” about the corruption of Twitter’s previous management team just proves they had good reason to feel that way.)
That turned Musk from a cool figure of adoration on the left — electric cars! SpaceX! — into a target overnight. As Fox News’ Tucker Carlson put it, Musk is now an “existential threat” to progressives and the progressive agenda.
For his part, Musk made it clear before the November elections that he was voting GOP.
For Washington watchers, the Republicans who met with Musk last week were an interesting lineup.
Jordan is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He’s vowed to use the committee’s subpoena powers to investigate Justice Department and FBI election interference going back to 2016 — a prospect that should rattle all Democrats in Washington (and throughout the country).
He’s already announced an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents from his time as vice president.
Comer, as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has made it clear he plans to investigate the Biden family’s business operations, including how those operations benefited Joe Biden.
The fact that Musk, the owner of the political world’s most influential social media platform, met with such obvious antagonists of the Biden administration can’t help but worry Democrats who are used to rubbing elbows with the like-minded liberal lords of Silicon Valley.
Also at that meeting with Jordan and Comer, according to Politico, were Rep. Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana, the House majority leader and McCarthy’s No. 2 man, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee.
According to Politico, Jordan said the meeting centered on the First Amendment (something Democrats probably don’t talk much about except when trying to destroy it) and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the controversial law that protects social media platforms from being sued over their content.
Politico tried to take a tut-tutting tone with Musk while hinting at repercussions in the future:
“Musk’s partisan trek through Congress stands in sharp contrast with many of his tech CEO brethren. Other D.C. regulars like Apple CEO Tim Cook purposely make their visits bipartisan, and while Musk is making inroads with the current party in power in the House, there are risks to taking sides so brazenly. For one, Democrats still control the Senate, and, of course, the political winds in Washington can turn on a dime, leaving allies on the outs and previously spurned lawmakers in positions of power.” [Emphasis added.]
It might as well have just said outright: “This is a dangerous game, Elon. And you could be getting shafted the next time around. Remember: Elections have consequences.” (There might be a racehorse’s head in his bed before too long.)
Musk actually published a Twitter post saying he had met with McCarthy and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, but Politico reported that Jeffries’ staff claimed that the meeting was accidental.
Naturally, Politico had to get Democratic comments about what it was portraying as Musk’s shortsighted snub.
“I think it’s seriously a mistake and I think it would be a good thing to have him come in and explain himself,” Democratic Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky told the outlet.
The piece also included a quote from California Rep. Adam Schiff, the serial liar who’s now eyeing the Senate seat currently held by the doddering Dianne Feinstein.
“I am deeply concerned with how he’s running that company into the ground,” Schiff told Politico. “It seems like a vanity project that is going wrong with an explosion of hate speech on that platform.”
Schiff then drove off, Politico pointed out, in his Tesla.
It’s a good bet Schiff purchased that Tesla before Musk’s name became mud to D.C. Democrats, back when he was an icon of progress and technology.
As the owner of Twitter and a de facto political player, Musk is giving Democrats a whole new perspective on the high-tech world where they’re so used to having submissively sympathetic allies.
It looks a whole lot like the back of his hand. And they’re going to do everything they can to bite it.
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