Top Tech Reporter Explains Why Musk Is Unfit For Government Position
Elon Musk, seated, and Kara Swisher
Tech reporter Kara Swisher on Wednesday refuted CNN conservative strategist Scott Jennings’ effusive praise of billionaire Elon Musk, arguing you “can separate” the billionaire X owner’s “heinous behavior” from his entrepreneurship — “if you have half a brain.”
Musk on Tuesday watched election returns with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago as the country overwhelmingly elected the former president to another four years in the White House. As the Washington Post reported Wednesday, Musk has future political ambitions, and has “repeatedly discussed with Trump the idea of joining a new commission to slash federal spending by as much as $2 trillion" when the he takes office next year.
Jennings on Wednesday implored his fellow panelists to “be nice” to Musk, arguing voters “want unconventional” — and Musk will bring just that to the Trump Administration.
Swisher, who’s interviewed Musk over 30 times, had less praise for the billionaire.
“I'm looking at a lot of things,” Swisher said. “The instability and the decisions that he makes are sometimes haphazard and strange, often.”
The tech reporter said Musk “is allowed to blow up rockets because he can do it and take those risks and the shareholders go along with him,” but argued “it’s a different thing when it comes to the federal government.”
“People's lives depend on it,” Swisher said. “I know you think its funny and I don't think that it's funny at all.”
The reporter went on to argue that if Trump and Musk treat the federal government like a startup, “the least among us suffer — and that’s just the way it is.”
“[Musk] has a history of doing that, lack of safety at certain of his facilities, and he has a history of firing people,” Swisher said. “And a history of not paying people. And he has a history of being haphazard and firing someone who talks back against him. And for someone who is for free speech, he clamps down on speech a lot it when he doesn't like it. So if you want that too, that's great and hah, hah if you want to do it that way.”
Swisher suggested Musk could merge X with Trump’s social media company Truth Social.
“That could be interesting and incredibly corrupt and he'll use it as a propaganda organ which is precisely why he bought it,” she said. “This was a great investment by Elon Musk in Donald J. Trump.”
Jennings argued that Musk “wasn’t elected” and merely “supports Donald Trump, and now he's going to have influence because his side won.”
“Honestly, I hear all of this carping about Elon Musk and it sounds like sour grapes from the side of the ball that shunned this guy and now they're paying for it,” he said, later arguing “you can't begrudge this man, his opportunity to participate in the political system in the way that he sees fit.”
“Nobody begrudges his ability to speak,” Swisher shot back. “What they begrudge is the flood of misinformation and all kinds of things that happen on that platform — which is uncontrolled and it's not about free speech, because he decides when and where to do it.”
Swisher noted Trump and Elon “may not be able to coexist in the same place” as they’re both “very petulant” and like attention.
"He and Trump will clash at some point, much in the same way that he clashed with the Biden Administration,” Swisher predicted.
The tech reporter added that while Trump gets credit for his space exploration and electric cars, “what he doesn't get credit for [is] his heinous behavior and bringing people down — and that troubles me.”
“And you can separate it from the entrepreneurship if you have half a brain,” the reporter added.
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
