Billionaire Elon Musk reportedly had little interest in meeting with Democrats during a visit to Washington D.C.
On Tuesday, Politico reported Musk’s “unannounced, whirlwind tour of Capitol Hill last week had a number of high-profile stops: A happy birthday visit to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a sit-down with GOP firebrand Rep. Jim Jordan, among others. He even met with White House officials to talk electric cars.”
However, as the outlet noted, it did not involve Democrats.
According to the report, all of the meetings Musk had scheduled were with Republican lawmakers.
📸: @SpeakerMcCarthy meeting with @ElonMusk in Washington D.C. this week. pic.twitter.com/4c7jAIn2RD
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) January 28, 2023
House minority leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries‘ (D-N.Y.) said an encounter he had with Musk was unscheduled.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said to Politico of Musk only meeting with Republicans, “I think it’s seriously a mistake and I think it would be a good thing to have him come in and explain himself.”
A former Twitter communications officer who also worked on the Hill explained to the publication, “It just shows the Elon approach to Washington. When you think of all these things that tech execs did to avoid the appearance of impropriety and then Musk blasts through this and is like, ‘I don’t care.'”
The officer added, “That’s the type of stuff that is just a complete change. It’s just a huge departure from congressional norms.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said during the meeting with Musk they discussed the significance of the First Amendment, alleged censorship of conservatives and possible reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) was also asked about Musk’s visit and his leadership of Twitter.
“I am deeply concerned with how he’s running that company into the ground,” Schiff said, per Politico’s report.
He continued, “It seems like a vanity project that is going wrong with an explosion of hate speech on that platform.”
